The association of CCL3 and CCL4 polymorphisms with HCV clearance in Chinese Han population.

AIM:To explore the association of CCL3 (rs1063340) and CCL4 (rs1049807) polymorphisms with hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance and sustained virologic response (SVR). METHODS:Two populations were enrolled in the current study; one was a general population including 1585 untreated individuals, with HCV infection and the other was a treatment population comprising 353 HCV-infected patients treated with pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin (pegIFN-α/RBV). Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped, and the relationship between HCV clearance and treatment outcome was analysed. RESULTS:The general population comprised 995 persistent HCV cases (both HCV RNA and anti-HCV were positive) and 590 spontaneous clearance cases (HCV RNA was negative, but anti-HCV was positive). An association between the SNPs and HCV clearance was not found in our study. The treatment population consisted of 235 patients who achieved SVR and 118 non-responders. Variants of both SNPs (rs1063340-C and rs1049807-G) were associated with a reduction in SVR following IFN treatment (dominant model: P = 0.026 for rs1063340 and P = 0.048 for rs1049807). In addition, the ancestral alleles of rs1063340 and rs1049807 increased the likelihood of virus clearance by 62% compared to both the derived and minor alleles of the two SNPs (P = 0.040).The interaction analysis showed that the level of glucose interacted with the association of rs1063340 and SVR. CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggested that genetic variants at the CCL3 and CCL4 loci may be marker SNPs for risk of HCV treatment outcome.