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TBX21 polymorphisms are associated with virus persistence in hepatitis C virus infection patients from a high-risk Chinese population

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Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease and the varied outcomes of the infection depend on both viral and host factors. We have demonstrated that the HCV alternate reading frame protein (F protein) is related to Th1/Th2 bias which is involved in virus persistence in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that genetic variants of TBX21 (T cell specific T-box transcription factor) were associated with the outcomes of HCV infection and F protein generation. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs17250932, rs2074190, rs4794067) in the TBX21 gene were genotyped in a case–control study in a cohort of a high-risk group, including 354 healthy controls and 747 CHC patients (190 anti-F protein antibody seronegative patients and 557 anti-F protein antibody seropositive patients). Results showed that the rs4794067 C allele in the TBX21 promoter was significantly more common in CHC patients (OR = 1.335, 95 % CI = 1.058–1.684, P = 0.015), exceptionally in anti-F protein seropositive patients (OR = 1.547, 95 % CI = 1.140–2.101, P = 0.005), compared with healthy controls. And the risk effect was also significantly high in patients with HCV 1b genotype and mild fibrosis (P = 0.021, P = 0.010, respectively). Compared with the most frequent haplotype TAT, haplotype analysis showed that the distribution of TAC was significantly different between the chronic HCV carrier group and the healthy group, and so was the anti-F antibody seronegativity group and the anti-F antibody seronegativity group (all P < 0.001). Our results suggested that TBX21 variants may be involved in the etiology of this disease.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81172724 and 30972628), the National Major Scientific and Technological Projects (grant no. 2011ZX10004-902) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (grant no. BK2011840).

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, No. 293, Zhongshan East Road, Nanjing, 210002, China

      D. Y. Zhu, X. Z. Deng & J. P. Pei

    2. Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China

      L. F. Jiang

    3. Huadong Research Institute for Medicine and Biotechnics, No. 293, Zhongshan East Road, Nanjing, 210002, China

      X. Z. Deng, B. J. Li, C. J. Wang, J. H. Zhang, Q. Zhang & X. D. Xu

    4. School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, China

      W. Xiao & M. Yue

    5. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Nanjing Second Hospital, Nanjing, China

      Z. X. Zhou

    6. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Yixing People’s Hospital, Yixing, China

      W. L. Ding

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    1. D. Y. Zhu
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    Correspondence to X. Z. Deng, B. J. Li or C. J. Wang.

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    D. Y. Zhu and L. F. Jiang contributed equally to this work.

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    Zhu, D.Y., Jiang, L.F., Deng, X.Z. et al. TBX21 polymorphisms are associated with virus persistence in hepatitis C virus infection patients from a high-risk Chinese population. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 34, 1309–1318 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2337-6

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2337-6

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