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Behavior of soluble HLA-A, -B, -C and HLA-G molecules in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection undergoing pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin treatment: potential role as markers of response to antiviral therapy

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Abstract

The serum levels of soluble HLA class I antigens (sHLA-A, -B, -C and sHLA-G) were determined in 40 HCV genotype 1-infected patients before (T 0), after 3, 6, and 12 months (T 3, T 6, and T 12) of pegylated-IFN-α plus ribavirin therapy and 6 months (T 18) after the end of treatment. Twenty patients were sustained virological responders (SVR), and 20 were non-responders (NR). sHLA-A, -B, -C levels at T 0 were significantly higher in both SVR (mean 10.48 μg/ml) and NR (mean 11.87 μg/ml) patients as compared to healthy controls (mean 0.34 μg/ml, p < 0.0001) and HIV-infected subjects (mean 1.22 μg/ml, p < 0.0001). sHLA-G levels at T 0 were significantly higher in SVR (mean 24.78 ng/ml) and NR (mean 24.93 ng/ml) patients as compared to healthy controls (mean 10.34 ng/ml, p = 0.015 and p = 0.014, respectively) but were lower as compared to HIV-infected subjects (mean 48.00 ng/ml, p < 0.0001). The levels of sHLA-A, -B, -C and sHLA-G significantly decreased in SVR from T 0 to T 18 (mean 1.64 and 1.43 ng/ml, respectively, p < 0.0001) and correlated with HCV-RNA, AST, ALT, γGT, and ALP levels. The determination of soluble HLA class I levels could be proposed as a surrogate marker to discriminate SVR and NR HCV-infected patients during PEG-IFN-α plus ribavirin therapy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Immunology Unit, University of Genoa, Viale Benedetto XV, n. 6, 16132, Genoa, Italy

    Giuseppe Murdaca, Paola Contini, Paola Cagnati & Francesco Puppo

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology Unit, University of Genoa, 16132, Genoa, Italy

    Simona Marenco, Giulia Pieri & Antonino Picciotto

  3. Department of Health Sciences, Biostatistic Unit, University of Genoa, 16132, Genoa, Italy

    Francesca Lantieri

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  1. Giuseppe Murdaca
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  2. Paola Contini
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Correspondence to Francesco Puppo.

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Murdaca, G., Contini, P., Cagnati, P. et al. Behavior of soluble HLA-A, -B, -C and HLA-G molecules in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection undergoing pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin treatment: potential role as markers of response to antiviral therapy. Clin Exp Med 17, 93–100 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-015-0399-5

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