Background/aims: The mechanisms of humoral immunological response in chronic hepatitis C are not fully understood. It would be interesting to correlate HLA II alleles with the therapeutic response to interferon alfa2b treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Such correlation has not yet been described. The purpose of the study was to correlate the presence of HLA alleles in chronic hepatitis C patients with results of interferon-alfa2b therapy.
Methods: We assessed HCV-RNA presence in serum by RT-PCR and HLA-DR B*1/alleles by PCR-SSP for locus I and II in 54 patients with chronic hepatitis C. All patients were treated with interferon alfa2b for six month. Results of the therapy were evaluated 18 months after the end of treatment.
Results: Based on the treatment results (TR--therapeutic response) patients were retrospectively qualified into three groups: sustained responders (SR)--18.6% (10/54), relapsers (R)--48.1% (26/54), non responders (NR)--33.3% (18/54). Allele DRB*1 07 and allele DRB1* 13 were more frequent among patients in NR and TR group, respectively. Observed differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: In the group of 54 adults with chronic hepatitis C no correlation between the presence of HLA-DRB1* alleles and response to interferon alfa2b therapy was found.