a study on genetic association of interleukin-16 single nucleotide polymorphism (rs1131445) with chronic hepatitis b virus infection in iranian patients

Background: interleukin-16 (il-16) is an immunomodulatory cytokine, which plays an important role in some inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as hepatitis b, which is a major health concern worldwide.objectives: in this study, we aimed to investigate the plausible association between il-16 polymorphism and chronic hbv susceptibility in an iranian population.patients and methods: in a case-control study, we analyzed rs1131445 polymorphism in the microrna binding site of the il-16 gene in 262 patients with chronic hepatitis b and 269 healthy controls, using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (pcr-rflp) method and dna sequencing technology to confirm our results.results: altogether, in this investigation, a significant association was observed between the il-16 tc genotype compared with the tt genotype (or = 0.696, 95% ci: 0.485 - 0.997, p = 0.048), after adjustments for confounders including age and gender.conclusions: these findings show that immunogenetic factors, such as single nucleotide polymorphism in il-16, could be a risk factor for susceptibility to chronic hbv infection. however, further investigations are needed to verify these results.