Background: Chronic liver disease, which can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is mostly caused by hepatitis C. Objective: We aimed to clarify the association between HLADPB1 expression and chronic HCV infection in Egyptian patients.
Patients and methods: 85 adult participants were enrolled in this study. They were divided into three groups: Group 1 included 20 cirrhotic patients with HCV, group 2 included 20 chronic HCV patients and group 3 included 45 healthy controls. HLADPB1SNPrs3116996 and HLADPB1 SNPRs2071025 polymorphism were assessed.
Results: There was significant higher frequency of HLADPB1SNPrs3116996 genotype TA in cirrhotic HCV patients in comparison with chronic HCV patients and healthy controls (40%, 15% and 4.4 % respectively; p=0.002). Also, cirrhotic HCV group had significantly higher frequency of A allele when compared to chronic HCV group and healthy controls (20.0%, 7.5% and 2.2% respectively; p0.001). HLADPB1 (SNPRs2071025) genotypes AG in patients with cirrhotic HCV, chronic HCV patients and healthy control were 45%, 25% and 8.9% respectively with significant P-value (0.001). In addition, there was significantly higher allele G frequency among the cirrhotic HCV patients (22.5%) followed by chronic HCV patients (17.5%) compared to controls (4.4%) with significant p-value (0.002).
Conclusion: HLADPB1SNPrs3116996 genotype TA and HLADPB1 SNPRs2071025 genotype AG carry risk of liver cirrhosis development in patients with chronic HCV infection and deterioration of clinical and biochemical parameters.