interferon lambda 4 polymorphism predicts sustained viral response in hepatitis c virus patients irrespective of hepatitis c virus genotypes, ethnicity or treatment regimen: results from a meta-analysis

There is growing evidence that interferon lambda 4 (ifnl4) polymorphism is related to sustained virological response (svr) in hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection. we analyzed the relationship between ifnl4 (rs368234815) polymorphism and svr in dual and triple therapy in hcv genotype 1, 2, 3 and 4 infected asian, caucasian and african patients. we performed a systematic search of pubmed, medline, embase, ebsco and web of science databases up to july 2015. data of qualified studies were analyzed using the metaanalysis method in stata 12.0 software. ten studies involving 4765 patients were included in the analysis. of overall studies, svr was more frequent in tt/tt genotype compared to tt /δg+δg /δg (or = 4.439, 95% ci: 3.410 5.778). genotype stratification analyses revealed rs368234815 tt/ tt was associated with higher svr in g1, g2/3 and g4 hcv patients (org1 = 4.661, 95% ci: 3.937 5.518; org2/3 = 1.896, 95% ci: 1.265 2.841; org4 = 6.074; 95% ci: 3.129 11.788). ethnicity stratification analyses of g1 patients showed that svr was more frequent with tt/ tt genotype in asians (or= 8.245, 95% ci: 5.475 12.416), caucasians (or = 4.166, 95% ci: 3.441 5.042) and africans (svr: 37.5% vs 17.0%, p = 0.017). moreover, similar results presented in therapy stratification analyses both in patients with dualtherapy (or = 3.857; 95% ci: 3.288 4.524) or tripletherapy (or = 8.119; 95% ci: 4.942 13.340). favorable ifnl4 rs368234815 genotype is a strong predictor of svr in hcv patients, irrespective of hcv genotypes, ethnicity or treatment regimen. thus, detection for ifnl4 rs368234815 polymorphism may be beneficial to guide the clinician in the individualization of therapy and design.