No association between IFNL3 (IL28B) genotype and response to peginterferon alfa-2a in HBeAg-positive or -negative chronic hepatitis B

Lai Wei, Heiner Wedemeyer, Yun Fan Liaw, Henry Lik Yuen Chan, Teerha Piratvisuth, Patrick Marcellin, Jidong Jia, Deming Tan, Wan Cheng Chow, Maurizia R. Brunetto, Moisés Diago, Selim Gurel, Viacheslav Morozov, Hua He, Yonghong Zhu, Cynthia Wat, Bernadette Surujbally, Alexander J. Thompson*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background & aims It has yet to be firmly established whether host IFNL3 (IL28B) genotype influences interferon responsiveness in patients with chronic hepatitis B. We investigated associations between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IFNL3 region and response to peginterferon alfa-2a in 701 patients enrolled in three large, randomized, international studies. Methods Responses were defined as hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss and/or hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion plus hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA <2000 IU/ml in HBeAg-positive patients, and HBsAg loss and/or HBV DNA <2000 IU/ml in HBeAg-negative patients (24 weeks after end of treatment). Associations between treatment response and the number of copies of the poor-response allele at three SNPs (rs8099917, rs12980275, rs12979860) were explored with logistic regression models in Asian and white patients. Results The HBeAg-positive and -negative populations comprised 465 (92% Asian, 50% HBV genotype C) and 236 (79% Asian, 41% HBV genotype C) patients, respectively, and had respective response rates of 26% and 47%. The IFNL3 genotype was strongly associated with ethnicity. There was no association between IFNL3 genotype and treatment response in HBeAg-positive or -negative patients. Independent predictors of treatment response were: sex, HBV DNA level and alanine aminotransferase level in HBeAg-positive Asian patients; age in HBeAg-negative Asian patients; and HBV DNA in HBeAg-negative white patients. Conclusions This is the largest analysis to date of associations between IFNL3 genotype and peginterferon response in patients with chronic hepatitis B. The data suggest that IFNL3 polymorphism is not a major determinant of the response to peginterferon alfa-2a in either HBeAg-positive or HBeAg-negative patients.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0199198
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume13
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 07 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Wei et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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