Pretreatment serum interleukin-12 levels in predicting sustained virological response among hepatitis C patients following Pegylated Interferon-α2β plus Ribavirin treatment.
BACKGROUND
Dendritic cells activated by hepatitis C virus (HCV) produce high amounts of interleukin (IL)-12, considered to be associated with HCV clearance. The aim of this study was to investigate the IL-12 levels in HCV-infected patients, before and after the application of combination therapy with Pegylated Interferon-α2β plus Ribavirin.


METHODS
Laboratory data of IL-12 levels and other clinical characteristics were selected from 26 HCV-infected patients. Comparisons of IL-12 serum levels before and after treatment or between responders and non-responders (including relapsers) were performed using non-parametric tests. The study moreover investigated the probable relationship of IL-12 concentrations with viral load, HCV genotypes, liver function tests (LFTs), histological activity and the response to combination treatment.


RESULTS
The baseline IL-12 levels were found significantly higher in patients who achieved sustained virological response (SVR), compared to patients who did not respond to the combination treatment (P=0.029). The IL-12 levels at the end of treatment were not statistically different from the IL-12 baseline levels, in both responders and non-responders. Baseline serum levels of IL-12 higher than 3 pg/mL (cut-off) were found to positively predict patients who successfully responded to treatment. No statistical correlation was found between the baseline serum IL-12 levels and viral load, HCV genotypes, histological activity or LFTs among the HCV patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Pretreatment IL-12 levels seem to predict which patients will achieve SVR to treatment. Patients with increased IL-12 serum levels were more likely to achieve SVR.
Hygeia Hospital of Athens (Antony Perperas), Athens, Greece.
Antony
A
Perperas
Liver Unit, Iaso General Hospital of Athens (Demetris Karagiannakis, George Anagnostopoulos), Athens, Greece.
Demetris
D
Karagiannakis
Liver Unit, Iaso General Hospital of Athens (Demetris Karagiannakis, George Anagnostopoulos), Athens, Greece.
George
G
Anagnostopoulos
Department of Immunology and Histocompatibility, Evangelismos General Hospital of Athens (Alexandra Tsirogiannis, Chryssa Papasteriades), Athens, Greece.
Alexandra
A
Tsirogiannis
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopion University of Athens (Dimosthenis Panagiotakos), Athens, Greece.
Dimosthenis
D
Panagiotakos
Department of Histopathology, Hygeia Hospital of Athens (Savvas Papadopoulos), Athens, Greece.
Savvas
S
Papadopoulos
1 Department of Internal Medicine, National Health Dept, Sismanoglion General Hospital of Athens (Manolis Tsagkaris), Athens, Greece.
Manolis
M
Tsagkaris
Department of Immunology and Histocompatibility, Evangelismos General Hospital of Athens (Alexandra Tsirogiannis, Chryssa Papasteriades), Athens, Greece.
Chryssa
C
Papasteriades
2 Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Athens University, School of Medicine, Hippokration General Hospital of Athens (Spilios Manolakopoulos), Athens, Greece.
Spilios
S
Manolakopoulos
Cytokine; Pegylated interferon α2β; T-helper cells; dendritic cells; hepatitis C; interleukin-12