ABSTRACT
The effects of IFN treatment were retrospectively evaluated for 18 drug-addict patients with symptomatic HIV infection and chronic hepatitis C. Most of the patients were receiving concomitant treatment with zidovudine. Seven out of the 18 patients (39%) stopped IFN after less than three months, most of them for non-compliance. Among the 11 patients who completed a 6-12 month period of IFN treatment, 3 (27%) normalized and maintained normal ALT levels during therapy: for 2 of them the response was sustained after IFN discontinuation. The response to IFN therapy was neither correlated to the CD4+ levels nor to the clinical stage of the HIV infection. Instead, the response seemed to be influenced by pre-therapy ALT levels and liver histology. Tolerance to IFN treatment was good. These data show that IFN may be indicated in the therapy of chronic HCV infection for HIV-positive patients.
ABSTRACT
The relationship between the behavior of hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication markers and the response to treatment with recombinant alpha-2b interferon (IFN) was investigated in 11 patients with chronic hepatitis. At the end of 6 months of treatment, 4 patients showed a complete response to IFN: 2 more patients had seroconversion to HBeAb after 8 and 9 months of follow-up, respectively. The response to IFN was partial in the remaining patients. Pre-treatment levels of HBV DNA in patients showing complete response were lower than pre-treatment levels in patients with partial response: in addition, serum HBV DNA clearance during the treatment was associated with sustained remission more frequently than changes in the HBeAg/HBeAb system.
Subject(s)
Biomarkers/blood , Hepatitis B virus/physiology , Hepatitis B/drug therapy , Hepatitis, Chronic/drug therapy , Interferon-alpha/therapeutic use , Virus Replication/drug effects , Adolescent , Adult , Alanine Transaminase/drug effects , Alanine Transaminase/metabolism , Child , DNA, Viral/blood , Female , Hepatitis Antibodies/analysis , Hepatitis Antibodies/immunology , Hepatitis B/blood , Hepatitis B e Antigens/analysis , Hepatitis B e Antigens/immunology , Hepatitis B virus/immunology , Hepatitis, Chronic/blood , Humans , Interferon alpha-2 , Male , Middle Aged , Recombinant Proteins , Virus Replication/physiologyABSTRACT
Twenty-four patients with HCV and NonBNonC chronic hepatitis--4 with HIV coinfection--were treated with r-IFN alpha for at least six months. In this period 62.5% of patients show a normalization of ALT but not a sustained remission. Non-responders have histologically more severe and long-lasting chronic hepatitis.
