Vol.4 No.4 – 2 : Estimation of Serum Interlukin-18 and Hs-CRP in Chronic Hepatitis C Infected Patients at Assuit Governorate, Egypt

By : A.M. El-Adly ¹*, A.A. Shalaby², M. H. Hussein¹, N.F. Abo Dahab ¹, U.M. Abdul-Raouf ¹

¹ Botany & Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, 71524 Assiut, Egypt

²Medical Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, 71524 Assiut, Egypt

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global health problem. Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the world. Interlukin-18 (IL-18) as a critical multipotent inducer of innate and acquired immune responses. This study aimed to estimate IL-18 and hs-CRP levels in patients at different stages of chronic HCV infection and to evaluate IL-18 as non-invasive marker of the severity of liver damage in chronic hepatitis C patients, and to investigate the characteristics of hs-CRP and its correlation to chronic HCV infection. This study included 50 chronic HCV patients and 20 healthy. They were subjected to history taking, liver function tests, real-time PCR test and other laboratory tests. Serum IL-18 levels were assayed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Our study was conducted on 70 subjects with their ages ranging between 9-70 years. 50 HCV chronically infected patients, they were 42 (84.0%) males and 8 (16.0%) female. Twenty apparent healthy individuals without HCV infection used as control, they were 18 (90%) males and 2 (10%) females. Serum IL-18 and Hs-CRP levels were higher in chronic HCV patients compared to healthy. Responders to interferon treatment had higher interleukin-18 levels than non-responders. However, Serum Hs-CRP were higher in non-responders than Responders to interferon treatment. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma had higher interleukin-18 and Hs-CRP levels than those without heaptocellular carcinoma. Serum IL-18 could be a significant predictor for severity of HCV infection and monitoring of therapy response in chronic HCV patients with other tests.

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