Association of interleukin 27 gene polymorphism and risk of hepatitis B viral infection in Egyptian population

Abstract EN

Background : According to the World Health Organization, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is considered a major global public health problem.

The genetic background may be a crucial etiologic factor in HBV infection and its complications.

Interleukin-27 (IL-27) is a newly discovered cytokine encoded by 2 genes (EBI3 and p28).

Mutations in the IL-27 gene may lead to altered cytokine production and / or activity and thus modulate individual’s susceptibility to HVB infection.

Aim of the study: This work was designed to study the association of IL-27p28 ( 964A / G, 2905T / G and 4730T / C) gene promoter single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with the risk of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) in Egyptians.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one that examines IL-27p28 promoter polymorphism in Egyptian patients.

Subjects and methods : One hundred and sixteen patients with HBV infection and 101 healthy controls were genotyped by using polymerase chain reaction / restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR / RFLP) in Egyptian population.

Results : There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of IL-27p28 gene polymorphisms between patients and controls.

Furthermore, no association was found between the distributions of the haplotypes and HBV risk.

Conclusion : Our data suggested that polymorphisms in the IL-27 gene may not contribute to HBV susceptibility.

Further studies with large sample size should be conducted to validate these results in Egyptian population.