Inducible nitric oxide synthase gene (NOS2A) haplotypes and the outcome of hepatitis C virus infection

Abstract

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is an important molecule involved in the host defense against infectious agents, iNOS is encoded by the NOS2A gene and well-defined haplotypes exist with respect to this gene. We examined whether these haplotypes were associated with the outcome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in 619 Caucasian patients from seven European liver centres. We observed five major haplotypes: (-277A) + (-1026G) + (-1659C): haplotype 1; (-277G) + (-1026T) + (-1659C): haplotype 2; (-277G) + (-1026G) + (-1659C): haplotype 3; (-277G) + (-1026T) + (-1659T): haplotype 4; and (-277A) + (-1026T) + (-1659C): haplotype 5. Distributions of these haplotypes are comparable with thos..