Clearance of hepatitis C virus is not associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms in the IL-1,-6, or-10 genes

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) commonly causes a chronic infection, but a minority of patients are able to clear the virus and do not run the risk of developing HCV-induced organ damage. Genetic associations between immunoregulatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1, -6, and -10 with clinical features of HCV, including virus clearance, have been inconsistent. We determined cytokine genotypes in 606 patients who had serologic evidence of HCV exposure, 190 (1896) of whom were consistently negative for HCV RNA, indicating successful virus clearance. There was no significant difference in genotype frequencies between HCV clearance and nonclearance groups for IL-1B (-511 and +3954), IL-1A (+4845), IL-1RN (+2018), IL-6 (-174), or IL-10 (-1082). We conclude that these single nucleotide polymorphisms are unlikely to play an important, if any, role in determining the likelihood of clearing HCV infection. (C) American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 2005. Published by Elsevier Inc.