The clinical significance of interferon inducible protein-10 in patients having chronic hepatitis C with genotype I

Lee, Young Sun; Kim, Ji Hoon; Lee, Hyun Jung; Yoon, Eileen L; Kim, Tae Hyung; Koh, Jin Sung; Kim, Sunwon; Lim, Sang Ah; Lee, Joon Young; Lee, Beom Jae; Yoen, Jong Eun; Park, Jong Jae; Kim, Jae Seon; Bak, Young Tae; Byun, Kwan Soo

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
Recent studies have shown that serum interferon gamma-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) concentration decreased after pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy, and was associated with a sustained virologic response (SVR). The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of the pretreatment IP-10 level and change in serum IP-10 level between 1 month before and after treatment and its association with various virologic responses in patients having chronic hepatitis C (CHC) with genotype 1 undergoing pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy.
METHODS
Thirty-six patients having CHC with genotype I undergoing pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy who had available stored sera 1 month before and after treatment were enrolled retrospectively. Serum IP-10 levels were measured by ELISA. Serum HCV RNA was measured by RT-PCR (detection limit<50 IU/mL).
RESULTS
The mean age of patients (n=36; 21 men) was 53.5 years, and the mean of pretreatment HCV RNA levels was 5.7 log10 IU/mL. The serum IP-10 level at 1 month after treatment significantly decreased from 432.2 to 306.5 pg/mL (p=0.033). The rate of rapid virologic response (RVR), early virologic response (EVR), end-of-treatment response (ETR), and SVR were 58%, 83%, 74%, and 57%, respectively. No significant difference in pretreatment IP-10 levels was observed between the patients with (RVR, EVR, ETR, and SVR) and without various virologic responses (p>0.05). The change in serum IP-10 between 1 month before and after treatment had no clinical meaning based on various virologic responses (p>0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
The level of pretreatment IP-10 and change in IP-10 level between 1 month before and after treatment were not predictive factors of a SVR. Additional large-scale studies to determine the SVR-predicting role of serum IP-10 levels in patients with CHC are needed.