E Назаров
Hepatitis C leads to severe liver damages and one of the indications to liver transplantation (according to WHO ~3% of worldwide population is infected by HCV infection.) The current standard of therapy of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is pegylated interferon-α (PEG-IFNα) in combined with ribavirin (RBV). The treatment achieves a sustained viral clearance in only approximately 50% of patients. Recent whole genome association studies revealed that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) around IL-28B have been associated with response to the standard therapy and could predict treatment responses at approximately 80%. According to 4 independent GWAS approaches have revealed the significant SNPs associated with response to PEG-IFNα/RBV therapy for CHC. These significant SNPs were found around IL-28B were rs12979860 and rs8099917 they showed the statistical significance in each study (M. Mizokami at al., 2011).
