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Updated: May 1, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancements and Challenges in Hepatitis B Virus Detection
Published on: December 15, 2023
Review article: genetic factors that modify the outcome of viral hepatitis
A F Stättermayer1, T Scherzer, S Beinhardt
1Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Background:
Genetic factors can play an important role for treatment response and disease progression in chronic viral hepatitis.
Aim:
To review the influence of host genetic factors on the clinical course as well as on treatment response in patients with viral hepatitis.
Methods:
Review of the literature.
Results:
A landmark genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified polymorphisms in the IL28B gene on chromosome 19 (19q13.13) associated with response to therapy with pegylated interferon-α (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) and spontaneous viral clearance in acute hepatitis C. Furthermore, IL28B genotype is associated with changes of lipid metabolism and insulin resistance. A further GWAS demonstrated that ITPA genetic variants protect HCV genotype 1 patients from RBV-induced anaemia. Another polymorphism in the patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3 (PNPLA3) is associated with hepatic steatosis. Difficult-to-treat hepatitis C patients homozygous for GG had an up to five-fold lower chance of viral clearance on PEG/RBV than non-GG patients. In chronic hepatitis B patients treated with PEG-IFN several retrospective analyses of IL28B rs12980275 and rs12979860 genotypes yielded conflicting results which can be explained by the heterogeneity between the study populations. Some variants of the HLA-DP locus (HLA-DPA1 A allele and HLA-DPB1) protect against progression of chronic hepatitis B infection.
Conclusions:
The determination of IL28B polymorphisms may be useful to individualise treatment options when using PEG/RBV based therapies for chronic hepatitis C infection. In contrast, so far identified genetic factors play only a minor role in chronic hepatitis B infection.
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