Interaction analysis of FADS2 gene variants with chronic hepatitis B infection in Chinese patients

The risk of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is often affected by polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) metabolism which is strongly influenced by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the PUFA metabolic pathway. Given this, we designed this study to determine the relationship between specific polymorphisms within fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2), a key enzyme in PUFA metabolism, and CHB infection. We completed this evaluation using a case-control study comprising 230 CHB patients and 234 unrelated healthy controls in which the genetic relationships between three previously identified SNPs, isolated via mass spectrometry, and CHB infection. Our data revealed that none of these three SNPs (rs174568, rs174601, and rs2727270) were significantly associated with susceptibility to CHB infection when compared to healthy controls. However, when we stratified our cohort by sex, male subjects with the TC genotype for FADS2 exhibited a decreased risk for CHB infection (OR = 0.62, 95%CI = 0.39-0.96; OR = 0.64, 95%CI = 0.41-1.00; OR = 0.57, 95%CI = 0.36-0.90). Furthermore, age stratification revealed that both the T allele and the TC genotypes for each of the three target SNPs were less common in Chinese CHB cases in people younger than 50 years old. Correlation analysis also revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between these three SNPs and HBV-DNA replication or hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels. Thus, our data suggests that rs174568, rs174601, and rs2727270 may affect the CHB outcomes in various age or sex subgroups, suggesting that they may be useful predictive or diagnostic biomarkers of CHB infection in some populations.