title: Comparison of the efficacy of thymosin alpha-1 and interferon alpha in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B: a meta-analysis.
abstract: Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious problem because of its worldwide distribution and possible adverse sequelae, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Thymosin alpha-1 (Talpha1) is an immune modifier that has been shown to be effective for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in some trials. But the trials comparing Talpha1 vs. interferon alpha (IFNalpha) treatment in CHB have been small and the results have been inconsistent. So we conducted a meta-analysis to compare the efficacy of Talpha1 and IFNalpha in the treatment of CHB. Generally, four randomized controlled trials including 199 CHB patients who received Talpha1 or IFNalpha treatment were identified through MEDLINE and EMBASE online search. Virological (for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive patients, loss of HBV DNA and HBeAg; for HBeAg negative patients, loss of HBV DNA), biochemical (normalization of transaminases) and complete responses (fulfill criteria of biochemical and virological response simultaneously) were analyzed using the intention-to-treat method. The odds ratio (OR) was used to measure the magnitude of the efficacy. The ORs (95% confidence interval) of the virological response, biochemical response and complete response of Talpha1 over IFNalpha at the end of 6 months treatment were 0.62 (0.35, 1.10), 0.60 (0.34, 1.05) and 0.54 (0.30, 0.97), respectively. The ORs (95% confidence interval) of the virological response, biochemical response and complete response of Talpha1 over IFNalpha at the end of follow-up (6 months post-treatment) were 3.71 (2.05, 6.71), 3.12 (1.74, 5.62) and 2.69 (1.47, 4.91), respectively. These data showed that compared with IFNalpha, the benefit of Talpha1 was not immediately significant at the end of therapy, but virological, biochemical and complete response had a tendency to increase or accumulate gradually after the therapy. For three of the four trials that studied HBeAg-negative patients, the results are mostly applicable to HBeAg-negative CHB.
authors: Department of Liver Disease, the Second Hospital of Nanjing, affiliated with Medical School of South-East University, Nanjing 210003, Jiangsu Province, China. henanyyf@hotmail.com
authors: Yong-Feng
authors: YF
authors: Yang
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Zhao
authors: Yan-Dan
authors: YD
authors: Zhong
authors: Yi-Jun
authors: YJ
authors: Yang
authors: Ling
authors: L
authors: Shen
authors: Ning
authors: N
authors: Zhang
authors: Ping
authors: P
authors: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens / Q000097:blood; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D000077596:Thymalfasin; D013947:Thymosin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D004279:DNA, Viral; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D013947:Thymosin; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D000077596:Thymalfasin