Antigen-presentation genes play a vital role in the pathogenesis of HCV
infection. However, the relationship of variants of these genes with spontaneous outcomes of HCV
infection has not been fully investigated. To explore novel loci in the Chinese population, 34 tagging-SNPs in 9 candidate genes were genotyped for their associations with the outcomes of HCV
infection. The distributions of different genotypes and haplotypes were compared among 773 HCV-negative controls, 246 subjects with HCV natural clearance, and 218 HCV persistent carriers recruited from
hemodialysis patients and intravenous drug users. Our study implicated that TAP2, HLA-DOA, HLA-DOB, and
tapasin loci were novel candidate regions for susceptibility to HCV
infection and viral clearance in the Chinese population. Logistic regression analyses showed that TAP2 rs1800454 A (OR = 1.48, P = 0.002) and HLA-DOB rs2071469 G (OR = 1.23, P = 0.048) were significantly associated with increased susceptibility to establishment of HCV
infection. However, high-risk behavior exposure and age were stronger predictors of HCV
infection. Mutation of
tapasin rs9277972 T (OR = 1.57, P =0.043) increased the risk of HCV chronicity, and HLA-DOA rs3128935 C (OR = 0.62, P = 0.019) increased the chance of viral resolution. With regards to the effect of rs3128925, interactions were found with high-risk behavior (P = 0.013) and age (P = 0.035). The risk effect of rs3128925 T for persistent HCV
infection was higher in injecting drug users (vs. dialysis patients) and in subjects ≥ 40 years old (vs. < 40 years old).