Polymorphisms in ADAR1 gene affect response to interferon alpha based therapy for chronic hepatitis B in Han Chinese

Host genetic polymorphisms in interferon pathway genes are reported to be associated with response to interferon therapy. Five hundred and forty-eight α interferon treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients were enrolled in the retrospective nested case-control study. All patients received α interferon based treatment and were examined for therapy efficacy. We genotyped 115 polymorphisms from 16 interferon pathway genes using the MassArray system. We identified rs4845384 in ADAR1 gene is strongly associated with the outcome of interferon therapy allele dose-depended (P = 0.0005), with decreased odds ratios of 0.69 and 0.27 for GA and AA genotypes, respectively (95% confidence interval, 0.47-0.99 for GA; 0.11-0.64 for AA). Our study suggested that rs4845384 in ADAR1 associates with treatment-induced clearance of chronic hepatitis B.

► This retrospective nested case-control study include 548 HBeAgpositive CHB patients. ► We test if SNPs in IFN pathway genes are associated with therapy efficacy of IFNα. ► SNP rs4845384 in ADAR1 gene is strongly associated with therapy efficacy.