Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Vitamin D and IL28B Genotyping as Predictors for Antiviral Therapy: A Retrospective Study in Egyptian HCV Genotype 4a

Nadia Abdelaaty Abdelkader¹, Soha Saoud Abdelmoniem², Dina Sabry³ , Amin Mohamad Abdelbaky⁴, Maram M Mahdy⁵, Eman Zaky⁵, Wessam Elsayed Saad⁶

¹Tropical Medicine Department, Ain Shams University, Cairo; ²Tropical Medicine & Gastroenterology Department, Assiut University, Assiut; ³Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, Cairo University; ⁴Tropical Medicine Department, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute (NHTMRI); ⁵Internal Medicine Department, Ain Shams University; ⁶Clinical Pathology Deparment, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

For correspondence:- Dina Sabry Email: dinasabry@kasralainy.edu.eg

Received: 18 July 2014 Accepted: 12 September 2014 Published: 19 October 2014

Citation: Abdelkader NA, Abdelmoniem SS, Sabry D, Abdelbaky AM, Mahdy MM, Zaky E, et al. Vitamin D and IL28B Genotyping as Predictors for Antiviral Therapy: A Retrospective Study in Egyptian HCV Genotype 4a. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(10):1725-1732 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i10.23

© 2014 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the role of pre-treatment vitamin D serum level and interleukin28B (IL28B) (rs 12979860) polymorphism in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) genotype 4a patients treated with pegylated interferon α2-A and ribavirin (peg IFN+RBV) as predictors of response.

Methods: A retrospective study of clinical and pathological data and stored blood samples of 150 naïve chronic hepatitis C (CHC) genotype 4a patients, treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for 48 weeks. Follow-up to detect sustained virological response (SVR) was carried out. Based on SVR, two groups were studied; group 1 consisted of 75 responder patients to pegylated IFN + RBV therapy while group 2 comprised of 75 non-responder patients to standard hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapy. Vitamin D serum levels were assessed using Enzyme Linked Immunoassay (ELISA), quantitative reverse transcriptase- polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR for HCV RNA ), and IL28B gene polymorphism by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Polymerase Cchain Reaction (RFLP-PCR).

Results: Pretreatment vitamin D level was significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2 (p < 0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of vitamin D level for prediction of SVR at a cutoff value of 29.75 ng/ml were 100 and 96 %, respectively, with area under the curve (AUC) of 0.995 (p < 0.001). A significant difference was detected between baseline vitamin D level for early versus advanced fibrosis stage (p = 0.01) in group 1.

Conclusion: Pretreatment vitamin D serum level (at a cutoff value of 29.75 ng/ml), IL28B gene polymorphism and quantitative HCV RNA are independent trait predictors of SVR.

Keywords: Vitamin D, Interleukin 28B, Chronic hepatitis C, Sustained virological response (SVR), Antiviral, Genotyping