Interferon alone or combined with ribavirin for acute prolonged infection with hepatitis C virus in chimpanzees.
Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) persisted for longer than 29 weeks in 2 chimpanzees after they had been inoculated with it experimentally. One of them (C-210) received short-term subcutaneous interferon-α (IFN-α) 6 million units (MU) daily for 7 days at week 29. He cleared HCV RNA from the serum and remained negative for it during 25 weeks after the withdrawal of IFN. The other (C-224) did not respond to 2 courses of a short-term IFN monotherapy at weeks 20 and 23. Twelve weeks thereafter, he received IFN-α 3 MU daily for 2 weeks and then 3 times a week for 14 weeks combined with oral ribavirin 600 mg daily during 16 weeks. HCV RNA disappeared from the serum and stayed negative until the last follow-up 24 weeks after the completion of combination therapy.
Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho Co., Ltd., Kumamoto, Japan.
Tetsushi
T
Tomoguri
Keiko
K
Katayama
Junko
J
Tanaka
Hisao
H
Yugi
Masaaki
M
Mizui
Yuzo
Y
Miyakawa
Hiroshi
H
Yoshizawa
D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D018419:Primate Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D012254:Ribavirin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D044967:Serum / Q000821:virology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D016898:Interferon-alpha; D012367:RNA, Viral; D012254:Ribavirin