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Although most people with hepatitis C virus can be cured, about 5 percent have more serious liver damage even after the virus is gone.
A saliva test could identify genetic markers that indicate which people with hepatitis C and cirrhosis will benefit from certain treatments.
Researchers say this test could help doctors predict outcomes after treating hepatitis C, and decrease the need for liver transplants.
“Our findings further the move toward precision medicine, because we can potentially use a person’s genetic makeup to identify individuals who can benefit most from hepatitis C treatment, even at a very late stage in the progression of their liver disease,” Dr. Winston Dunn, lead author, and an associate professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said in a statement.
The study was presented this weekend at Digestive Disease Week 2017.
“This information will help us minimize the need for liver transplantations,” Dunn said on a conference call.
Dunn said this test would help determine who would have more success from a liver transplant.
Dunn’s team examined part of the PNPLA3 gene, the Rs738409 single nucleotide polymorphism (RSP), a variation in a pair of the gene’s DNA.
It can show a significant risk factor for both alcoholic liver disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. There are three genotypes a person can have in the gene: CC, CG, or GG.
The researchers followed 32 people who had decompensated cirrhosis and were in that aforementioned 5 percent. These participants initially achieved a sustained virologic response and were virus-free.
Between 12 and 48 weeks later, researchers tracked their progress according to the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and the Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) rankings.
Those scores are used to determine the severity of chronic liver disease. They found that five out of 16 patients with CG or GG genotypes had worse MELD or CTP scores. One of the people with the CC genotype had worse MELD or CTP scores.
Dunn said that the findings suggest that screening for the Rs738409 CG and GG genotypes in people with hepatitis C with decompensated cirrhosis can pinpoint people who won’t recover after they are cured of the virus.
“Until now, we have not had a method to distinguish between the individuals who would recover given equal severity in baseline disease,” he said.