OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between the distribution of mononucleotide polymorphism of five regulation regions of alpha-IFN among HLA-DRB1*11 gene episodes and the therapeutic effects of alpha-IFN treatment in chronic hepatitis B patients.

METHODSOne hundred seven chronic hepatitis patients from Nanjing Second Hospital who were treated by alpha-IFN for 12 months and then followed at least six months without the treatment were randomly selected for this regressive analysis. They were grouped into a continuous responsive group and a non-continuous responsive group. Hepatitis B virus X interacting protein gene locus was searched in NCBI. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) gene locus was detected based on a pooling sequencing method. Primer and TaqMan-MGB probes referring to different mononucleotide loci were designed respectively to detect SNP in five regulation regions of alpha-IFN. Then gene sequencing differences between the two groups were analyzed.

RESULTSAmong the 107 cases there were 30 cases (28.0%) in the continuous responsive group and 77 cases (71.9%) in the non-continuous responsive group. CT occupation rate in five regulation regions of IFN reached 18.0% in the continuous responsive group and 23.8% in the non-continuous responsive group. AG occupation rate reached 10.8% in the former group and 15.8% in the latter group. The differences in CT and AG between the two groups were significant.

CONCLUSIONSThe distribution of mononucleotide polymorphism of five regulation regions of alpha-IFN among HLA-DRB1*11 gene episodes affects the IFN anti-virus treatment. Detecting the gene distribution of mononucleotide in five regulation regions of alpha-IFN helps in predicting the therapeutic effects of alpha-IFN.