Interferon-Mediated Regression of Fibrosis During Antiviral Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C in Different Variants of IL28B Gene Polymorphism

Abstract

The article considers the relationship between the degree of reduction of HCV-induced liver fibrosis by the end of antiviral therapy (AVT) for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and the main variants of IL28b gene polymorphism. Materials and Methods. Retrospectively we analyzed the outcomes of treatment of 324 patients who received standard antiviral therapy (a combination of pegylated interferons PegIFN-alpha2b or PegIFN-alpha2a and ribavirin) for CHC genotype 1b. The total duration of treatment was 12 months. We evaluated three types of virologic response: rapid (RVR, 4th week of AVT), early (EVR, 12th week of AVT) and sustained (SVR, 24th week after the AVT). Results and Discussion. All types of detected changes of fibrosis stages by the end of antiviral treatment in comparison with baseline values were distributed into the following groups : 1 — a significant reduction of fibrosis (25 % of treated patients), 2 — moderate decrease in fibrosis (64 % patients), 3 — unchanged degree of fibrosis (7.6 %), increased fibrosis (3.4 %). A comparison of fibrosis dynamics during antiviral therapy was carried out in the two groups of patients: without (N = 110) and with (N = 214) T-allele of the gene IL28b. The most significant decrease in the degree of fibrosis detected among patients with favorable CC gene IL28b variant, because exactly in this group of patients the frequency of SVR was highest. Among those who have reached sustained aviremia, the lowest degree of reduction of fibrosis was found in T-allele carriers of the gene IL28b. Conclusions. The findings suggest that not all patients with CHC who achieved sustained virologic response escape the risks associated with the effects of viral persistence of HCV.

Keywords

• chronic hepatitis C
• fibrosis
• gene IL28b
• virologic response