Association Between Kir Genes And Efficacy Of Treatment Of Hbeag-Positive Chronic Hepatitis B Patients With Entecavir

Background: Entecavir (ETV) is commonly used to treat chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in China. However, certain percentages of e-Antigen (HBeAg) positive CHB patients do not respond to ETV therapy. Objective: To investigate whether the killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genes were associated with seroconversion in HBeAg positive CHB responder patients treated with ETV. Methods: Polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) method was performed to genotype KIR genes in 200 healthy controls and 198 HBeAg-positive CHB patients which 59 were defined as the complete response group (CRG) to the treatment with ETV and 139 were defined as null or partial response group (NPRG). Results: The frequencies of KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS3 were significantly higher (P = 0.030, OR = 1.57,95% CI = 2.36-1.05 and P = 0.018, OR = 1.773,95% CI = 2.77-1.13, respectively), while, the frequencies of KIR2DL3, KIR2DS1 and KIR3DS1 were significantly lower (P = 0.038, OR = 0.525, 95% CI = 0.96-0.29, and P = 0.031, OR = 0.640, 95% CI = 0.95-0.43, and P = 0.035, OR = 0.641, 95% CI = 0.96-0.43, respectively) in HBeAg-positive CHB patients than those in healthy controls. The frequency of KIR2DS3 gene was significantly higher in NPRG than that in CRG (P = 0.018, OR = 0.402, 95% CI = 0.83-0.20). The frequencies of KIR2DL3 and KIR3DS1 genes were significantly higher in CRG than those in NPRG (P = 0.019, OR = 3.625, 95% CI = 10.83-1.21 and P = 0.041, OR = 1.949, 95% CI = 3.65-1.04, respectively). Conclusion: Patients with KIR2DS3 might have negative responses to anti-HBV therapy with ETV and patients with KIR2DL3 and KIR3DS1 might have advantage in the therapy with ETV.