Comparison of ISG15, IL28B and USP18 mRNA levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of chronic hepatitis B virus infected patients and healthy individuals

Despite the presence of an efficient vaccine for hepatitis B virus (HBV), it remains a public health challenge, worldwide. The effort to uncovering immune genes attributed to infection outcome is in undergone. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the expression level of Interferon-stimulated Gene 15 (ISG15), Interleukin28B (IL28B) and Ubiquitin specific peptidase 18 (USP18) genes in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) of patients with chronic active and inactive hepatitis B in comparison with healthy control individuals. This Cross-sectional study was conducted on hepatitis B infected patients that were admitted to Clinic of Liver diseases, Shiraz, between January 2016-2017. Gene expression assay was performed on PBMCs of blood samples by the help of Real-time PCR method. The relative expression of each gene was calculated regarding 2-?Ct formula. Interleukin 28B gene expression showed no statistically significant difference between three studied groups. The expression level of ISG15 gene was significantly higher in the healthy control group compared to active (P= 0.0068) and inactive chronic subjects(P<0.0001). Similarly, USP18 expression level in the control group was also significantly higher compared to the active (P= 0.0228) and inactive chronic patients (P=0. 0226). The results of this study showed that the expression level of ISG15 and USP18 but not IL28B were higher in healthy individuals than those infected with HBV. This difference expression may highlight the role of ISG15 and USP18 in immune-related mechanism HBV infection.