Objectives

The interferon (IFN) is known to bridge innate and adaptive immune responses, and to play a critical role particularly against hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Defects in IFN signals may result, therefore, in attenuated responses against HBV. Accordingly, polymorphisms in genes coding for immune response effectors may affect the clinical outcome of HBV infection. We analyzed the putative association between IFNL4 rs12979860 polymorphism and the outcome of HBV infection in Moroccan patients.

Methods

In this study, 237 chronic HBV (CHB) patients and 129 spontaneously resolved HBV (SRB) individuals were enrolled and genotyped using a predesigned Taqman allelic discrimination assay.

Results

Our data show a significant increase of HBV DNA loads in patients with IFNL4 rs12979860 CC genotype compared to patients with CT and TT genotypes (p = 0.0008). However, there was no consistent association between IFNL4 rs12979860 polymorphism and the outcome of HBV infection.

Conclusions

Although IFNL4 rs12979860 polymorphism seems to modulate circulating HBV DNA levels, it is disconnected from chronic disease progression. This observation suggests that the role of rs12979860 in liver disease is restricted to viral control and inactive in the deleterious immune pathology that affects liver tissue. Taken together, our data suggest that rs12979860 CC genotypes could be useful as a predictor of success or failure of IFN-based therapy in chronic HBV-infected patients.

中文翻译：

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IFNL4 rs12979860多态性影响摩洛哥患者的HBV DNA病毒载量但不影响HBV感染的结果

目标

众所周知，干扰素 (IFN) 可桥接先天性和适应性免疫反应，并在对抗乙型肝炎病毒 (HBV) 感染方面发挥关键作用。因此，干扰素信号的缺陷可能导致对 HBV 的反应减弱。因此，编码免疫反应效应子的基因的多态性可能会影响 HBV 感染的临床结果。我们分析了摩洛哥患者中IFNL4 rs12979860 多态性与 HBV 感染结果之间的假定关联。

方法

在这项研究中，招募了 237 名慢性 HBV (CHB) 患者和 129 名自发消退的 HBV (SRB) 个体，并使用预先设计的 Taqman 等位基因鉴别试验进行基因分型。

结果

我们的数据显示，与 CT 和 TT 基因型患者相比，IFNL4 rs12979860 CC 基因型患者的 HBV DNA 载量显着增加（p = 0.0008）。然而，IFNL4 rs12979860 多态性与 HBV 感染的结果之间没有一致的关联。

结论

尽管IFNL4 rs12979860 多态性似乎可以调节循环 HBV DNA 水平，但它与慢性疾病进展无关。这一观察结果表明 rs12979860 在肝病中的作用仅限于病毒控制，并且在影响肝组织的有害免疫病理中没有活性。总之，我们的数据表明 rs12979860 CC 基因型可用作慢性 HBV 感染患者基于 IFN 的治疗成功或失败的预测指标。