Association between adult-onset Still's disease and interleukin-18 gene polymorphisms.

Recently, we reported that serum concentration of IL-18 is strikingly high in patients with adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD). The aim of the present study was to screen for genetic polymorphisms in the human IL-18 (hIL-18) gene and to determine the association of polymorphisms with susceptibility to AOSD. We investigated the 6.7 kb region upstream of exon 2 of hIL-18 gene, in which a promoter activity had been reported. Sixteen AOSD patients, 144 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and 92 healthy control individuals were studied. We found seven single nucleotide polymorphisms and a single 9 bp insertion which were frequently present in the AOSD patients. Three haplotypes including a unique combination of these polymorphisms were also determined. Of them, haplotype S01 contained all eight of these polymorphisms. The frequency of individuals carrying a diplotype configuration, ie a combination of two haplotypes, of S01/S01 was significantly higher in the AOSD patients than in the healthy controls (P=0.00059, Fischer's exact probability test, odds ratio [OR]=7.81, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]=2.48-24.65) and the RA patients (P=0.015, Fischer's exact probability test, OR=4.0, 95% CI=1.39-11.54). We therefore conclude that possession of the diplotype configuration of S01/S01 is a major genetic risk factor for susceptibility to AOSD.

Analysis of biochemical and virological efficacy of human lymphoblastoid interferon (IFN) in patients with compensated type C liver cirrhosis: comparative study between increase in individual IFN dose and prolonging of treatment period, using a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

A controlled trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of interferon (IFN) between two groups of patients with type C liver. Thirty-five patients were randomly assigned to group A (17 patients) or group B (18 patients). The former received 3 megaunits (MU) of human lymphoblastoid IFN six days per week for two weeks, followed by three days per week for 50 weeks; the latter group received 6 MU six days per week for two weeks followed by three days per week for 24 weeks. The percentages of biological sustained responders (B-SR) and virological sustained responders (V-SR) were 29.4 and 23.5%, respectively, in group B, and 17.6% for both in group A. The therapeutic effects were not different between two groups. HCV genotype 2 accounted for significantly higher percentage of B-SR and V-SR (both 57.1%, respectively). These findings indicate that IFN is effective in type C cirrhosis with genotype 2.