الفهرس 
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Abstract
Background: Polymorphisms of certain genes may have an effect on either persistence of infection or spontaneous clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV). We hypothesized that one or more variants of chemokines (CCL2 and CCL5) and chemokine receptors (CC chemokine receptor type 2 [CCR2]) genes are associated with the susceptibility to HCV infection. Methods: We recruited 486 patients with chronic HCV (CHC), 108 subjects with spontaneous virus clearance (SVC) and 482 individuals as a healthy control group. All were genotyped for single nucleotide polymorphisms: rs13900 C/T of CCL2, rs3817655 T/A of CCL5 and rs743660 G/A and rs1799864 G/A of CCR2 using allelic discrimination real-time PCR technique. Results: The carriage of the A allele of CCR2 rs743660 was significantly higher in CHC compared to SVC and to controls and in controls compared to SVC. Similarly, the A allele of CCR2 rs1799864 was significantly higher in the CHC group when compared with both SVC and controls, but the OR between controls and SVC was not significant. Carriage of C allele of CCL2 rs13900 and the T allele of CCL5 rs3817655 were significantly higher in SVC group when compared with both CHC and control groups. The results showed that both of the C allele of rs13900 C/T polymorphism and the T allele of CCL5 rs3817655 T/A polymorphism are protective alleles for development of chronic HCV while the A allele of CCR2 of both rs743660 G/A polymorphism and rs1799864 G/A polymorphism are risk allele against development of chronic HCV. Conclusions: This work represented an advance in biomedical science because it showed that variation in certain Chemokines polymorphisms were linked with the outcomes of HCV infection, these being viral clearance or persistence to chronic disease. Susceptibility to HCV infection is associated with A alleles of both (rs743660 and rs1799864 G/A) of CCR2 while spontaneous clearance of HCV is associated with the C allele of rs13900 of CCL2 and T allele of rs3817655 of CCL5.