Introduction: Our aim was to investigate the possibility of a significant relationship between chemokines and chemokine receptor genes polymorphisms and the spontaneous clearance or the persistence of HCV infection.
Methods: A total of 96 hemodialysis (HD) patients infected with HCV were classified into two groups: G1 included 73 patients with persistently positive HCV-RNA and G2 included 23 HD patients who have spontaneously eliminated the virus. The control group consisted of 170 healthy blood donors. All subjects were genotyped for CCR5 ?32, CCR5 (-59029) A/G, CCR2 (64Ile) and MCP-1(-2518) A/G gene polymorphisms.
Results: Our results showed a statistically significant increased frequencies of the CCR2 (64Ile) and the (-59029) CCR5 A alleles in patients infected with HCV (22.1% and 35.9%) compared to G1 (24.3% and 40.6%) and compared to controls (14.4% and 20%). We also observed a lower frequency of the MCP-1 G allele and a greater frequency of the CCR5?32 variant in G2 (15.2% and 6.5%) compared to G1 (22.6% and 1.4%) that was not statistically significant. However, adjustment for known covariates (age, gender and HCV genotypes) didn't confirm the results of univariate analysis.
Conclusion: In conclusion, our study suggests a possible role for some of the studied chemokines polymorphisms in the spontaneous clearance or persistence of HCV infection in Tunisian population. These results should be further investigated by a prospective cohort studies and large population-based studies.