Interleukin IL-28B (IL-28B) gene expression analysis from HCV monoinfected and HCV/HIV-1 coinfected at 4 week anti-HCV treatment

• Grant number: 10/19291-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2011
• End date: May 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Shirley Cavalcante Vasconcelos
• Grantee: Shirley Cavalcante Vasconcelos
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Dagmar Kiesslich ; João Renato Rebello Pinho ; Ricardo Sobhie Diaz ; Sabri Saeed Mohammed Ahmed Al-Sanabani

Abstract

Currently, the best treatment for chronic infection with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is accomplished through the administration of pegylated interferon-alfa (PEG-IFN-±) combined with ribavirin (RBV). In the last ten years, researchs showed that epidemiological, viral and mainly host factors, have a big influence on cure or progression of viral infections, with or no treatment. With HCV-infected people aren't different. This fact has been observed in HCV-infected individuals who are cured with no use drugs. Recent researches have been shown that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 19, mainly near the IL28B gene, encoding interferon-l-3 (IFN-l-3) are associated with sustained virologic response (SVR) or virologic failure in patients chronically HCV-infected. The SNP rs12979860 is located 3 kilobases (kb) upstream of the IL28B gene and is related with spontaneous cure with no anti-HCV treatment and SVR after 48 weeks receiving PEG-IFN-± combined with RBV. It was also noted that this SNP is more common in the European population than African, explaining the higher rates of SVR among Europeans and Africans, suggesting that European descendent have a higher chance of cure or SVR than African descendent. The main aim of this study is to compare the levels of IL28B gene expression among HCV-monoinfected and HIV/HCV-coinfected individuals, which have the rs12979860, that don't have this SNP and healthy people. (AU)