Significance of allelic variants of interleukin-28B gene in chronic hepatitis C

Abstract

Chronic hepatitis C remains one of the most urgent problems of today's medicine. The review unravels the current view of the role of a single nucleotide polymorphism of the interleukin-28B (IL-28B) gene in different aspects of hepatitis C virus infection. Major attention is paid to the discussion of the value of the allelic variants of IL-28B during standard double and current triple antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C. Furthermore, the paper covers the biological role of interferon-λ, a product of IL-28A, B, and IL-29 gene expression, other associations of the allelic variants of the IL-28B gene with different clinical signs, as well as the possibilities of practical use of this genetic marker in chronic hepatitis C today and futures prospects.

Keywords

• chronic hepatitis c
• interleukin-28b
• antiviral therapy
• telaprevir
• boceprevir
• prognostic markers