Pegylated interferon alpha-2a (40 kDa) in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B.
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a serious and life-threatening disease afflicting 350 million of the world's population. So far, current monotherapy with conventional interferon-alpha, lamivudine, and adefovir dipivoxil remains unsatisfactory. In addition, the use of conventional interferon-alpha needs to be administered subcutaneously daily or thrice weekly and is associated with frequent adverse events. Although nucleoside-nucleotide analogs such as lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil are well tolerated and can normalize serum alanine aminotransaminase rapidly, 1-year therapy with either lamivudine or adefovir dipivoxil results in low hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion rates. In HBeAg negative patients, most of the patients would relapse after lamivudine has been discontinued. Pegylated interferon alpha-2a, an immunomodulatory agent, is a new drug that has just completed phase III clinical trials for the treatment of both HBeAg positive and HBeAg negative chronic HBV infection. The advantage of pegylated interferon alpha-2a in achieving sustained virological response over nucleoside-nucleotide analogs is particularly obvious in the HBeAg negative group. In both of these phase III studies, sustained off-treatment response is superior to the use of lamivudine. These recent data put pegylated interferon alpha-2a as the first choice of anti-HBV therapy, especially in young and motivated patients with chronic HBV infection.
Lai
Lawrence
L
Department of Medicine, Caritas Medical Centre, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Hui
Chee-Kin
CK
Leung
Nancy
N
Lau
George K
GK
D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers; D007370:Interferon Type I; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C047910:interferon alpha 2, Ala(30,32,33)-; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols
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