Association of Genetic Polymorphisms With Hepatitis C Virus-related Liver Cirrhosis in Japan.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important health problem in the direct-acting antivirals-era. HCV causes life-threatening diseases, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Our aim was to examine whether certain single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with the prevalence of HCV infections progressing to cirrhosis in the Japanese population by a genome-wide association study-based approach.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We used DNA extracted from blood specimens of Japanese subjects with the establishment of the BioBank Japan project.

RESULTS

We observed statistically significant differences in the frequency of 4 SNPs (rs1989972, rs2293766, rs1877033 and rs4805439) between anti-HCV-positive cirrhotic patients and controls.

CONCLUSION

Four SNPs are associated with susceptibility to cirrhosis among HCV-infected Japanese subjects, while further studies with cohorts other than those sourced from BioBank Japan, must be conducted.