ABSTRACT
Patients with chronic hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection may suffer from some autoimmune disorders. The pathogenesis of autoimmunity in those patients remains unclear but may reflect the host's genetic predispositions. Human leukocyte antigen [HLA] may play a predominant role in this aspect. The aims of this study were to assess the production of autoantibodies in chronic HCV patients and to investigate for the presence of a possible link between the HLA-DRB1 alleles and production of autoantibodies in chronic HCV patients
Methods: This study included 60 HCV infected patients who were previously diagnosed as having chronic HCV infection. These patients were investigated for the presence of autoantibodies [ANA by ELISA, ASMA by indirect immunofluorescent technique, anti-ds-DNA by latex agglutination method, and LKM-1 by ELISA]. Also, they were investigated for HLA-DRB1 by PCR technique and reverse dot-blot hybridization. The studied individuals were divided according to the presence or absence of autoantibodies into two main groups: group I [HCV infected patients with autoimmunity], group II [Pathological control group, HCV infected patients without autoimmunity]. The results of this study showed that the most prevalent HLA-DRB1 broad types in group I were HLA-DRB1 *03, *04 and *16. Moreover, these three types were significantly higher in group I compared to group II [P < 0.05]. The most prevalent HLA-DRB1 broad types in group II were HLA-DRB1 *7 and *8 and the prevalence of each was higher in group II compared to group I and the difference was highly significant [P < 0.01]. The frequencies of the alleles 030101, 030501, 040702, 160101 and 160102 were significantly higher in group I than group II, while the alleles 0812 and 110103 were significantly lower in group I than in group II. In conclusion, the results of this study suggested that some HLA-DRB1 broad types and alleles may predispose to or protect from HCV-induced autoimmunity in Egyptian patients who suffer from chronic HCV infection. These findings may allow better selection of management strategies for these patients after detection of HLA-DRB1 types which may be helpful to predict those who are susceptible to HCV-induced autoimmunity