Treatment with natural IFN of hepatitis C patients with or without antibodies to recombinant IFN.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate if a retreatment with natural human interferon alpha could lead to a recovery of the therapeutic responsiveness in non-responder patients with chronic hepatitis C who did (9 cases) or did not (14 cases) develop anti-interferon neutralizing antibodies while on treatment with recombinant interferon alpha2a. During retreatment, no patient developed detectable levels of neutralizing antibodies to natural interferon. At the end of retreatment, 6/9 positive patients showed a complete response to natural interferon therapy, while only 1/14 negative patients had a partial response. These data suggest that a second course of treatment with the natural preparation may be useful in patients who failed to respond to an earlier course of recombinant interferon, particularly the anti-interferon positive patients who showed hepatitis reactivation after an initial response concomitantly with antibody appearance. Conversely, a second course of natural interferon therapy might be useless in cases in which the lack of response is not associated to antibody development.
Milella
M
M
Department of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, University of Bari, Italy.
Antonelli
G
G
Santantonio
T
T
Giannelli
G
G
Currenti
M
M
Monno
L
L
Turriziani
O
O
Pastore
G
G
Dianzani
F
F
D000906:Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000276:immunology; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D013997:Time Factors
D000906:Antibodies; D000998:Antiviral Agents; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D011994:Recombinant Proteins