Genetic variant
rs12979860 a variant in the IFNL4 gene
rs12979860 is a single-letter difference in the IFNL4 gene, on chromosome 19. ClinVar, the public archive of variant interpretations, lists it as drug response: linked to how the body handles certain medicines. It has been reported in connection with peginterferon alfa-2a, peginterferon alfa-2b, ribavirin and and telaprevir response - Efficacy, among others. Carrying it does not, on its own, mean you have or will develop any condition.
What is this?
Your DNA is a long sequence of four letters. At a few million positions, people commonly differ by a single letter; each of those positions is called a SNP (“snip”), and rs12979860 is the catalogue number of one of them, in the IFNL4 gene. Which letters you carry there — one copy from each parent — is your genotype.
rs12979860 is a SNP near the IL28B gene, encoding interferon-lambda-3 (IFN-lambda-3). Several studie...
From SNPedia
Why might it matter?
ClinVar records this variant as drug response, meaning linked to how the body handles certain medicines. A classification describes the variant, not you: what it means for one person depends on their genotype, their family history and often on other genes and circumstances.
Conditions it has been reported with
- peginterferon alfa-2a, peginterferon alfa-2b, ribavirin
- and telaprevir response - Efficacy
- and ribavirin response - Efficacy, boceprevir
- peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin response - Efficacy, peginterferon alfa-2a, peginterferon alfa-2b, ribavirin
- peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin response - Efficacy
Listed in ClinVar submissions for this variant. Being listed is a report of an association, not a statement that the variant causes the condition in any given person.
Do I have this variant?
If you have taken a consumer DNA test (23andMe, AncestryDNA and similar), you can download its raw data file and check. Create a free account, upload the file, and this page will show the letters you carry at rs12979860, if your test read this position.
Connect this with your blood results
A gene is a fixed instruction; a blood test shows what your body is doing now. CheckMyBloods reads the two side by side, so a variant can be set against the markers it could plausibly affect.
Blood markers do not diagnose a genetic condition, and a variant does not explain a blood result on its own. Together, with symptoms and family history, they give a clinician context.
What should I do next?
- Find out whether you carry it. Reading about a variant says nothing about you until you know your genotype.
- Put it in context. Add your blood results, so the variant can be read against what your body is doing.
- Ask questions. Dr. Hemsworth, our AI assistant, can explain this variant and your results in plain English.
- Take anything that worries you to a professional. A GP or genetic counsellor can order a confirmatory test and interpret it with your history.
This page is general information drawn from public research databases. It cannot diagnose anything, and it is not a substitute for advice from a doctor or genetic counsellor who knows your history.
Technical details
- dbSNP ID
- rs12979860
- Gene
- IFNL4
- Position (GRCh38)
- chr19:39248146
- Variant type
- snv
- Consequence
- intron variant
- ClinVar classification
- drug response
Genome-wide association studies (3)
| Trait | Risk allele | OR / beta | P-value | Study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chronic hepatitis C infection | — | OR 2.2 | 2E-30 | PubMed |
| Response to hepatitis C treatment | C | OR 2 | 1E-28 | PubMed |
| Ovarian cyst | T | β 0.085 | 2E-8 | PubMed |
How common the less frequent letter is
- gnomAD ALL
- 28.2%
- 1kG AFR
- 33.1%
- 1kG ALL
- 64.4%
- 1kG AMR
- 39.9%
- 1kG EAS
- 92%
- 1kG EUR
- 69.1%
- 1kG SAS
- 23.3%
Sources
- dbSNP: rs12979860 — the reference record
- ClinVar — clinical interpretations submitted by laboratories
- SNPedia — community-written summaries
- NCBI Gene: IFNL4
- Ensembl: IFNL4
- GWAS Catalog — association studies