Study of the association between major histocompatibility complex class IIgenes and the response to interferon alpha in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the influence of HLA class II genes on the response to interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) in patients with chronic hepatitis C, Methods: The distribution of HLA DRB1 and DQB1 alleles was assessed in 170 caucasoid patients treated with IFN-a fur chronic hepa titis C. 50 patients had a long term sustained response to treatment wherea s 120 patients were nonresponders, Results: Female sex, non-1 HCV genotype particularly genotype 2 and pretreatment low serum HCV RNA level were assoc iated with long-term sustained response to IFN-a. A trend cowards a higher prevalence of DRB1*07 allele in non responders than in patients with sustai ned response (45% vs. 28%, odds ratio 2.1; P < 0.05) on the one hand and of DQB1*06 allele in HCV genotype 1 patients with sustained response than in HCV genotype 1 nonresponders (75% vs 27.3%, odds ration 7.9; P < 0.02) on t he other hand, were observed. However, none of these two differences remain ed significant after Bonferroni's correction. Conclusion: Accordingly, we c onclude that the response to IFN-alpha therapy is more tightly related to v irus factors than to host's HLA class II genes. (C) American Society for Hi stocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 1999. Published Ly Elsevier Science In .