Association of HLA alleles with response (especially biochemical response) to interferon therapy in Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C.

The response of chronic hepatitis C to interferon (IFN) treatment is classified as complete response (CR), biochemical response (BR), or no response (NR). Several studies have found no difference in prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma by IFN therapy between patients with CR and those with BR. We investigated whether specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles were associated with response to IFN, especially BR, in 138 patients with chronic hepatitis C. Comparing patients with and without CR, male, a low viral titer, genotype 2a or 2b, HLA-B55, and HLA-DRB1-0803 were more common in the group with CR. Multivariate analysis showed that age (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.95 by every year [95% confidence interval [CI] 0.90 - 0.99], p = 0.028), genotype 2a or 2b (5.21 [95% CI 1.63 - 16.6], p = 0.005), and low viral titer (8.58 (2.66 - 27.7), p < 0.001) were associated with CR. Comparing patients with BR and NR, the pretreatment alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was lower in the BR group (p < 0.001). Both...