Chemokine receptor CXCR6 gene polymorphism and treatment response of chronic hepatitis C virus in Egyptian patients

AIM OF THE STUDY: Despite achieving a high cure rate of chronic hepatitis C nowadays, treatment failure remains a major concern and host genetic polymorphism could have a possible relation. The aim was to evaluate the role of chemokine receptor CXCR6 gene polymorphism in treatment response to direct acting antivirals (DAAs) in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We investigated the chemokine receptor CXCR6 gene single nucleotide polymorphism rs2234358 in three groups. Responder and non-responder groups (each comprising 50 naïve patients) and a control group of 50 apparently healthy individuals were studied. RESULTS: Genotype distribution revealed a significant difference (p = 0.037) between non-responders and the other 2 groups. Both control and responder groups showed allelic frequencies of 20% having the wild allele G and 80% having the variant allele T, while in the non-responder group 39% had G and 61% had the T alleles. Genotype GG was associated with significant increased risk of not responding to treatment by 4.25 times as compared with TT genotype (p = 0.019) and the G allele was associated with highly significant risk of not responding to treatment by 2.56 times compared with the T allele (p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: CXCR6 gene (rs2234358) polymorphism could have a potential role in the virological treatment response with a protective effect of the T allele. This could explain the higher treatment success rate of Egyptian HCV patients.