Background: Proinflammatory cytokines play a critical role in antiviral immune responses. Large-scale genome studies have found correlations between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the interleukin (IL) 18 promoter and spontaneous control of hepatitis C virus (HCV), suggesting a role in clearance.

Methods: Plasma IL-18, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and HCV RNA levels were assessed longitudinally in subjects with known dates of HCV acquisition and analyzed according to IL-18 SNPs and outcome, either spontaneous clearance (SC) (n = 13) or persistent infection (PI) (n = 25).

Results: No significant change in plasma proinflammatory cytokine expression was observed with the exception of IL-18, which increased in every subject with initial detection of HCV RNA. In every SC subject, IL-18 returned to the preinfection baseline concomitant with HCV control. In PI subjects, IL-18 declined following the acute phase of infection but remained above the preinfection baseline throughout chronic infection and did not correlate with HCV RNA or ALT levels.

Conclusions: Plasma IL-18 was an early and the most reliably detected host response to HCV infection measured in blood. Reduced IL-18 production with transition to chronic infection without correlation with HCV RNA or ALT levels suggests modulation of the innate response with persistent infection.

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乐备实（上海优宁维生物科技股份有限公司旗下全资子公司），是国内专注于提供高质量蛋白检测以及组学分析服务的实验服务专家，自2018年成立以来，乐备实不断寻求突破，公司的服务技术平台已扩展到单细胞测序、空间多组学、流式检测、超敏电化学发光、Luminex多因子检测、抗体芯片、PCR Array、ELISA、Elispot、PLA蛋白互作、多色免疫组化、DSP空间多组学等30多个，建立起了一套涵盖基因、蛋白、细胞以及组织水平实验的完整检测体系。

 
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