rs368234815 Minor Allele Carriers in Chronic Hepatitis C

Genetic polymorphisms in the region of the interferon-λ genes (IFNL) associate with clear-ance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. One of these polymorphisms, IFNL4 rs368234815, determines loss or gain of function of the IFNL4 gene by frameshift variation. The very same and a second one, IFNL3 rs4803217, are supposed to impact the expression of IFNL3: while IFNL4 rs368234815 is suggested to modulate IFNL3 transcription, IFNL3 rs4803217 is thought to alter IFNL3mRNA stability. The latter process is believed to be partially driven by an HCV-induced ectopic expression of myosin heavy chain genes 7B and 7 and their co-expressed microRNAsmir499 and mir208B. These ideas are evidenced by functional investi-gations on peripheral blood mononuclear and hepatoma cells in culture. Our study aimed at exploring IFNL3 gene expression in clinical samples, i.e., in ex vivo derived liver tissue from patients with chronic hepatitis C (n = 57) and various other diseases (n = 56). By applying an assay designed to specifically quantify IFNL3 and discriminating paralogous IFNL2 tran-scripts, IFNL3mRNA expression was not found to differ significantly between chronic hepati-tis C and control samples. Among patients with chronic HCV infection, moreover, IFNL