Background: After hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, 55% to 85% of patients become chronic carriers. HCV-RNA could be detected in the sera of these patients though the viral load varies. Various factors may be involved in determining the viral load.
Objectives: In this study, we want to investigate the relationship between human leukocyte antigen phenotypes and hepatitis C viral load.
Study design: One hundred and sixty HCV-RNA positive subjects were investigated in this study.
Results: We have analyzed 160 HCV-RNA positive subjects and found that lower HCV viral load is significantly associated with HBsAg-positivity (P = 0.017) but not age, gender, or mixed infection (infection with different HCV genotypes). One hundred and fifty-four HBsAg-negative subjects were further analyzed to explore the relationship between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) phenotypes and HCV viral load. Subjects with certain HLA alleles (A*34, B*56, DRB1*1502) have significantly lower viral load than those without these alleles (P = 0.0074, 0.0039 and 0.016, respectively) while those with HLA-B*4001 have significantly higher viral load (P = 0.0026). Furthermore, lower viral load was significantly associated with HLA-DRB1 heterozygosity in subjects with HLA-B heterozygosity (P = 0.048).
Conclusions: Our data suggests a role for host immunogenetic factors in determining viral load during HCV infection.