Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the main cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide. The risk to develop HCC increases with the severity of liver inflammation and fibrosis. Long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a soluble pattern-recognition receptor produced by phagocytes and nonimmune cells at sites of inflammation or injury. The aim of the present study was to determine the association of PTX3 polymorphisms and its plasma levels with HCC occurrence among patients with HCV. Samples from 524 patients with chronic hepatitis C were evaluated in this study. Two polymorphisms (rs1840680 and rs2305619) in the PTX3 gene were determined by real-time PCR. PTX3 plasma levels were measured by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Our data show a significant association between PTX3 polymorphisms and HCC occurrence in univariate and multivariate analysis (P = 0.024). Patients with HCC had higher PTX3 plasma levels compared to individuals with mild or severe fibrosis (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.002, respectively). In addition, PTX3 rs2305619 polymorphism and plasma levels were correlated with Child-Pugh scores B and C in HCC individuals. PTX3 seems to be a risk factor for HCC occurrence in chronic hepatitis C. This is the first study that evaluates PTX3 in the context of hepatitis C.

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The risk to develop HCC increases with the severity of liver inflammation and hepatic fibrosis. It is believed that a balance between the releases of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines will determine the clinical course of HCV and the risk to develop HCC. The inteleukin-10 (IL-10) and the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) play key roles in the Th1 and Th2 balance during the inflammatory response against HCV. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between polymorphisms in TNF-α -308 G>A (rs1800629), IL-10 -1082 G>A (rs1800896) and -819/-592 (rs1800871/rs1800872) with HCC risk in individuals with HCV. The present study evaluated 388 chronic HCV patients. Polymorphisms were determined by real-time PCR. Diplotypes associated with low IL-10 production and the TNF-α GG genotype were significantly associated with HCC occurrence after multivariate logistic regression analysis (P = 0.027 and P = 0.029, respectively). Additionally, the IL-10 -819 (-592) TT (AA) genotype was significantly associated with multiple nodules and HCC severity according to BCLC staging (P = 0.044 and P = 0.025, respectively). Patients carrying low production haplotypes of IL-10 and the TNF-α GG genotype have higher risk to develop HCC. J. Med. Virol. 88:1587-1595, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We studied the association of the mannose-binding lectin-2 (MBL2) polymorphism with anti-thyroid antibodies (ATA) in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected Brazilian patients (n = 162) and 124 healthy volunteers screened for ATA. Our results showed that patients with ATA had higher frequency of genotype 00 than controls. MBL may play a role as disease modifier in HCV infection.