ABSTRACT
Background: Interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL–12B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are confirmed to influence the natural history of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and the response to treatment. This work aimed at evaluating the impact of SNPs in IL-10 gene at positions _1082, _819, and_592 and IL-12B gene on the response to the standard of care (SOC) treatment in Egyptian patients with chronic HCV. Methods: Eighty seven patients with chronic HCV treated by SOC therapy and 20 healthy controls were tested for SNPs in IL-10 at _1082 G/A, _819 C/T and_592 C/A and in IL- 12B (30-UTR 1188-A/C) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Patients were divided according to their virologic response into 2 groups; group Ι=patients who achieved sustained virologic response (SVR) and group Π = non responder (NR) patients. Results: SNPs of IL-10 at _1082 G/A and_819 C/T showed that; GA and TT genotypes were significantly related to SVR (P=0.001 and 0.007 respectively). IL-12 genepolymorphisms showed that; CC genotype was significantly related to SVR group (P=0.01) while AA genotype was significantly related to NR (P=0.01). Conclusions: Studying SNPs of IL-10_1082 G/A, IL-10_819 C/T and IL-12B (30-UTR 1188-C/A) proved GA, TT and CC genotypes, respectively, to be good predictors for SVR. Conversely, SNPs of IL-12 C/A proved AA genotype to be good predictor for NR.