title: Association between polymorphism of tumor necrosis factor-alpha promoter and response to lamivudine treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis B.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  TNF-alpha promoter polymorphism is known to play an important role in the immunopathogenesis of infection of hepatitis B virus.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We investigated whether polymorphisms of TNF-alpha promoter at position -308 or -238 had associations with the response to lamivudine treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 89 healthy subjects (control group) and 225 patients with chronic hepatitis B treated with lamivudine were included in this study. Polymorphisms of TNF-alpha promoter at position -308 and -238 were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction. Recruited patients were classified according to the outcome of lamivudine treatment into the responder (103 patients) or non-responder (122 patients) group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The numbers of A allelic polymorphism of TNF-alpha promoter at position -238 were four (2.2%) in the control, five (2.4%) in the responder and 19 (7.8%) in the non-responder group. The A allele was noted significantly more frequently in the responder than non-responder group (P = 0.012). At position -308, a significant difference was observed between the control group (14; 7.9%) and total chronic hepatitis B patients (15; 3.3%) (P = 0.015).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that the non-response to lamivudine treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis B might be related to the A allelic polymorphism of TNF-alpha promoter at position -238.
authors.affiliation: Brain Korea 21 Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yong Kwang
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jung Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Do Young
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hye Young
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Ja Kyung
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Chun Kyon
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jun Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Sang Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Kwan Sik
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kwang Hyub
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005838:Genotype; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D019259:Lamivudine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011336:Probability; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects*; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017211:Treatment Failure; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D019259:Lamivudine