Abstract:
Hepatitis C Virus, a major etiologic cause of acute and chronic hepatitis, evades the
host immune system and infects millions of people, leads to severe morbidity and
mortality. It has been investigated that Human Leukocyte Antigen-C and Killer
Immunoglobulin-like Receptor association play a vital role in either progression or
clearance of HCV. These receptors specific for Major histocompatibility class I
molecules located on their target cells regulate the natural killer cell production.
Treatment outcome differs from individual to individual as the breadth of the genetic
heterogeneity of KIR and HLA is great, due to viral as well as host factors. They are
the major factors affecting the rate of treatment and found to be a key predictor for
treatment outcome. Therefore, the current study was aimed to investigate the prognostic
host factors to predict the treatment response to PEG IFN/RBV therapy in association
with KIR/HLA-C gene variants in HCV infected patients. 102 HCV patients were
included in the study and their KIR and HLA was genotyped. 30 healthy volunteers
negative for HCV were kept as controls. In this study, we found homozygous C2C2 is
associated with failure of treatment (P-value 0.0213). KIR2DL1+C2 carriers also
indicated disease progression. Our results suggest that the presence of certain activating
KIR receptors could protect the patient by enhancing the immune response against
virus. Also it was found that there was a significant correlation between the type of KIR
and HLA of individual and HCV infection (P<0.05). Finally, it can be concluded that
particular HLA-C variant in combination with specific KIRs might effect and thus
alters the treatment outcome to some extent.
