IL12 Gene Polymorphism in Association with Hepatocellular Carcinoma in HCV-infected Egyptian Patients

ABSTRACT

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma has been recorded the commonest cancer in Egypt. This increasing incidence may be attributed to the high prevalence of hepatitis C virus with its complications, so this study aimed to investigate the association between the potentially functional polymorphisms of IL12A and IL12B genes as a risk factor of development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) on top of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in an Egyptian population.

Materials and methods: We genotyped two loci of IL12 which were rs568408 (3’UTR G>A) for IL12A and rs3212227 (3’UTR A>C) for IL12B in 78 patients with HCC on top of chronic HCV infection. In addition, 64 cancer-free chronic HCV patients were studied, besides 92 healthy subjects who were included as control.

Results: Study of rs568408 (G>A) gene polymorphism showed that the A allele is higher while the G allele is lower in HCC cases than cancer-free chronic HCV patients (p = 0.006*). The A-containing genotypes AG and (AG+AA) were higher while the GG was lower (p = 0.009* and p = 0.005*), respectively. The study of the rs3212227 (A>C) polymorphism showed neither statistically significant differences between the C and A allele (p = 0.2) nor between CC, AC, or AC+CC in HCC cases and cancer-free chronic HCV patients (p = 0.7, p = 0.2, and p = 0.29), respectively.

Conclusion: Our findings showed that IL12A rs568408 (G>A) polymorphism may contribute to the risk of HCC on top of chronic HCV infection, whereas that of IL12B rs3212227 (A>C) do not.

KEYWORDS:

• Hepatitis C virus
• hepatocellular carcinoma
• interleukin-12
• single-nucleotide polymorphisms

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.