title: Effect of treatment with interferon-gamma alone in visceral leishmaniasis.
abstract: Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) enhances the therapeutic response to pentavalent antimony in patients with visceral leishmaniasis. To determine the effect of cytokine immunotherapy alone, 9 patients with kala-azar were treated with IFN-gamma before receiving antimony. After 20 days of IFN-gamma therapy, 4 patients showed no parasitologic response; in the remaining 5 patients, however, splenic aspirate parasite scores declined from 4.2 +/- 0.2 to 1.2 +/- 0.5 (mean +/- SE). These results indicate that treatment with IFN-gamma alone can induce visceral antileishmanial activity. However, the limited efficacy in this uncontrolled pilot trial suggests that the therapeutic role of IFN-gamma in kala-azar is that of an adjunct to conventional antimony treatment.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sundar
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Murray
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects
chemical_list: D007371:Interferon-gamma