Association between human leucocyte antigen-DO polymorphisms and interferon/ribavirin treatment response in hepatitis C virus type 1 infection in Chinese population: a prospective study

The human leucocyte antigen-DO (HLA-DO) gene located in the HLA non-classical class-II region may play a role in treatment response to hepatitis C virus (HCV). This study was conducted to explore the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HLA-DO in responding to HCV therapy.

All patients were recruited between January 2011 and September 2016 from the Jurong People's Hospital, Jiangsu Province, China.

A total of 346 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients who finished the 48-week pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin (PEG IFN-α/RBV) treatment were enrolled in this study. All patients were former remunerated blood donors. The inclusion criteria for patients were as follows: (1) treatment-naive and treated with PEG IFN-α/RBV, (2) HCV RNA was present in serum for over 6 months before treatment, (3) negative for hepatitis B (HBV) or HIV infection and (4) lacked any other hepatic diseases.All participants in this study were Chinese Han population and infected with HCV genotype 1b and treated with subcutaneous PEG IFN-α at a dose of 180 µg once a week with the addition of 800-1000 mg/d RBV according to weight orally for 48 weeks.

The SNPs HLA-DOA rs1044429 and HLA-DOB rs2284191 and rs2856997 of 18 SNPs were correlated with HCV treatment response in the Chinese Han population. The dominant model indicated that patients carrying favourable genotypes at rs1044429 AA and rs2284191 AA were more likely to achieve sustained virological response (SVR) (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.25 to 3.19; OR 2.71, 95% CI 1.58 to 4.63, respectively), while patients carrying unfavourable genotypes at rs2856997 GG were less likely to achieve SVR (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.78).

Genetic variations at rs1044429, rs2284191 and rs2856997 were independent predictors of HCV treatment response in the Chinese Han population.