Messenger RNA expression of human toll like receptors 3, 7 and 9 in Peripheral blood of patients with Hepatitis B infection

Despite the availability of effective vaccine and antiviral therapy, hepatitis B remains a serious public health problem worldwide. In spite of tremendous work done in the past, some questions pertaining to hepatitis B biology is yet to be understood. For instance the molecular mechanism whereby host fails to eliminate the virus leading to persistent infection is clearly not known. As many works have been directed towards understanding adaptive immune response, the area of innate immunity is poorly explored. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the role of toll-like receptors, an important component of innate immunity, in patients with hepatitis B infection. The mRNA expression of TLRs were studied in a total of 51 hepatitis B patients (45 chronic and 6 hepatocellular carcinoma) and 45 healthy individuals hailing from Arunachal Pradesh of northeastern part of India by quantitative PCR in LC 480 (Roche) system utilizing SYBR green and in house designed primers. Expression of TLR3, TLR7 and TLR9 was increased by 1.09 and 1.11 fold respectively with significant increase in TLR9 mRNA (p=0.017) in chronic and HCC patients compared to healthy control. No significant association was found with TLR9 expression and serum HBV DNA load (r=0.0033, p=0.98).Significant association of TLR9 in hepatitis B patients show that TLR9 does play a key role in persistent HBV infection and hepatoceelular carcinoma.