Correlation between both genetic polymorphism and serum level of toll-like receptor 4 with viral load and genotype of hepatitis C virus in Iraqi patients

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a hepatotrophic, blood borne virus that develops a chronic HCV infection in up to 85% of cases. The aim of this study is to reveal the correlation between HCV viral load and genotyping of specific single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) within Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) gene. Methods: Patients' information was obtained from the teaching medical city hospital in Baghdad from the period between October 2018 and April 2019. The current study includes 200 blood samples (128 males and 72 females), their ages range from 4 to 80 years old, and diagnosed by rapid test and real time PCR. Results: Serological tests showed that the number of HCV-positive infections was 89, while 111 were negative. The RNA extracted from the 89 positive samples showed positive results in only 39 samples, and the viral load was higher in males (5,759,097.9 IU) than females (1,384,109.8 IU).The results of TLR-4 serum level (ng/ml) showed that according to gender in 52 of males were much higher (0.9415 ng/ml) than in 37 of females (0.7655 ng/ml), and the serum level of TLR-4 (ng/ml) has a significantly changed in HCV positive group when comparing with HCV negative, and healthy groups. Furthermore, the findings of the current study have showed that a non-significant negative association between viral load and TLR-4 serum levels. The outcomes of the genotype showed seven types (1a, 1b, 2, 3a, 4,5a and 6). Conclusion: When compared to both the HCV negative and healthy groups, TLR-4 serum level was significantly higher in the HCV positive patients' group. The results of the genotype showed seven types. This study considered as one the first studies that detect the polymorphism rs16906079 of TLR-4 in patients with HCV infection.