The potency of interferon-alpha 2 and interferon-gamma in a combination therapy of dendritic keratitis. A controlled clinical study.
Forty-five patients with virologically confirmed dendritic keratitis were treated in a randomized, double-blind controlled study with a basic therapy of trifluorothymidine (TFT) eye drops. In addition they received different human recombinant interferon (rHu IFN) eye drops. The following results were obtained for average healing times: TFT plus one drop daily of rHu IFN-alpha 2 arg (30 million iu/ml): 3.3 days, TFT plus rHu IFN-gamma (30 million iu/ml): 3.9 days, TFT plus a mixture of alpha plus gamma (0.3 million iu/ml each): 6.1 days, TFT plus a mixture of alpha plus gamma (1.5 million iu/ml each): 3.3 days. High-titer gamma interferon did not significantly differ from high-titer alpha interferon in the combination therapy of dendritic keratitis. A mixture of alpha plus gamma at a moderate titer (1.5 million iu/ml each) was as effective as a high-titer mono-preparation. Adding a low-titer interferon mixture gave no better therapeutic results than antiviral monotherapy. Thus it seems possible to save about 90% of interferon commonly used in the combination therapy of dendritic keratitis by applying a mixture of different suitable interferons instead of interferon monospecies.
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000382:microbiology; D003315:Cornea / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007635:Keratitis, Dendritic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000187:drug effects
D007370:Interferon Type I; D007371:Interferon-gamma