Polymorphisms in EGFR and IL28B are associated with spontaneous clearance in an HCV-infected iranian population

Although most hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected individuals develop chronic infection, about 25% of them are able to clear the virus spontaneously without any therapeutic intervention. The aim of the present study was to identify genes associated with spontaneous HCV clearance in a population of Iranian patients. We genotyped 110 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 59 selected—candidate—genes in a cohort of 107 HCV-infected participants who spontaneously cleared the infection and 176 participants whose infection persisted. Three out of the 110 SNPs were found to be associated with HCV outcome ( P -values<0.03). rs11506105 in EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor gene), and rs11881222 and rs12979860 in IL28B (interferon-λ3 gene). Multivariate logistic regression of the three markers showed that the A/A genotypes in both rs11506105 ( EFGR ) and rs11881222 ( IL28B ), and the C/C genotype in rs12979860 ( IL28B ) are associated with HCV clearance (recessive model: odds ratio (OR)=2.06, 95% confidence interval (95% CI)=1.09–3.88, P =0.025; OR=2.09, 95% CI=1.23–3.60, P =0.007; and OR=1.95, 95% CI=1.15–3.35, P =0.014 for rs11506105, rs12979860 and rs11881222, respectively). In conclusion, EGFR and IL28B SNPs are strong independent predictive markers of spontaneous viral clearance.