A GENE variant could explain why between 10 and 20 per cent of the 300
million people worldwide who are infected with hepatitis B can鈥檛 shake off the
virus, which can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Lyna Zhang of Oxford University and her colleagues spent three years studying
families in Gambia and Italy. They found that a variation in the gene for an
immune receptor鈥攚hich binds to a signalling molecule called interleukin
10鈥攊s closely associated with long-term hepatitis B infection in both the
families. Zhang hopes that the discovery will lead to new therapies, she told
the American Society of Human Genetics meeting last week.