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Gene therapy for hepatitis

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-19 11:32

Scientists say they've found a big reason why treatment for chronic hepatitis C infection works better for white patients than for African-Americans. It's a tiny variation in a gene.

People with a certain gene variant are far more likely to respond to treatment, and that variant is more common in people with European ancestry than African-Americans, researchers report.

In fact, that probably explains about half the racial disparity in treatment response, the scientists estimate in a study published online by the journal Nature.

Analysis showed the treatment wiped out the virus in about 80 percent of study participants with the favorable genetic variant, compared to only about 30 percent among those who lacked it.