Efficacy of thymosin α1 in chronic HBV infection patients with low viral load in immune-clearance or low-replication phase / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo study the efficacy of thymosin α1 in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with low viral load. MethodSeventy-six patients with low-viral load chronic HBV infection admitted to our hospital from June 2011 to June 2013 were randomly assigned to treatment group, and forty-one patients were assigned to control group. The treatment group received subcutaneous injection of 1.6 mg thymosin α1 twice a week, and the treatment stopped at 3 months if the patients were negative for serum HBV DNA; otherwise, the treatment was extended to 6 months. The control group did not receive any treatment. The serum HBV DNA clearance rates at months 3 and 6 of treatment were measured in both groups. Comparison of continuous data between two groups was made by t test, and comparison of categorical data was made by χ2 test. ResultsThe treatment group showed significantly higher HBV DNA clearance rates than the control group at months 3 and 6 of treatment (χ2=10.61, P＜0.01; χ2=13.09, P＜0.01). At month 6 in the treatment group, the HBV DNA clearance rate in patients who had HBV DNA ＜104 copies/ml and were positive for HBeAg showed no significant difference from that in those who were negative for HBeAg (χ2=0.02, P＞0.05), but was significantly higher than that in patients with HBV DNA ≥104 copies/ml (χ2=7.52, P＜0.01). ConclusionThymosin α1 significantly promotes HBV DNA clearance in patients with low-viral load chronic HBV infection. The clearance rate is negatively correlated with the DNA load, but shows no correlation with the HBeAg status.