Autoantibodies before, during and after administration of recombinant interferon-alpha for chronic viral hepatitis

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate the presence of autoantibodies in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B and C, before, during and after interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) therapy and to study their relation to dose and type of IFN-alpha and response to treatment. Fifty patients with chronic hepatitis were divided in two groups, a control-group of 21 patients (10 type B and 11 type C) who were followed for 6 months without treatment and an IFN-group consisting of 29 patients (8 type B and 21 type C) who received IFN therapy for 6 months. Serum samples were tested for a range of antibodies at the start of the study, during therapy and at the end of the 6 month period. Antibodies tested for included: antinuclear, smooth muscle, antimitochondrial, parietal cell and thyroid microsomal. Four (8%) of the total patient group had autoantibodies at the beginning of the study (two in each group). During the follow-up period no patient in the control group developed antibodies compared with 3 (11%) patients in the treatment group. Autoantibodies developed in patients treated with higher doses of IFN and were found in those patients who tended to show a poor response to IFN-therapy. Further studies are needed to establish the relationship between poor response to IFN-alpha and development of autoantibodies.

HIV/AIDS coinfection with the hepatitis B and C viruses in Brazil

“…It has been suggested that the number of viral hepatitis cases in the official databases are underestimated 6,7,12 . Besides that, we understand that the undernotification of viral hepatitis, which can also be related to limited access to serologic diagnosis of HCV and HBV, may fluctuate between regions of Brazil.…”

The presence of non-organ-specific autoantibodies is associated with a negative response to combination therapy with interferon and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C

“…However, the former studies employed interferon monotherapy, whereas combination therapy (interferon-α plus ribavirin) was used in our patients only. Furthermore, in two studies [3,7], including the one with the highest number of patients (n = 144) [7], a trend towards a poorer response to therapy in patients with autoantibodies was already noted. In both studies this trend just failed the 95%-level of statistical significance.…”

“…Especially the high percentage of non-organ-specific autoantibodies (NOSA) in chronic infection has led to further investigation of the potential biological relevance of these findings. In recent studies the prevalence of different NOSA, including anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-smooth muscle antibodies (SMA), anti-mitochondrial antibodies (AMA), anti-neutophil-cytoplasmatic antibodies (ANCA), and anti-liver/kidney micosomal antibodies (LKM) were investigated before, during and after monotherapy with interferon-α for chronic hepatitis C [3,4]. However, there is little information on NOSA prevalence in patients treated with current standard therapy, i.e.…”

“…This should be investigated, as ribavirin has been demonstrated to have distinct immunomodulatory effects [5,6]. Furthermore, the former analyses of the influence of NOSA on the clearance of the hepatitis C virus upon monotherapy with interferon-α are controversial, with a few studies showing a tendency to a poorer treatment response in autoantibody-positive subjects while other investigations could not demonstrate any difference in the efficacy of therapy [3,7,8]. However, there are no studies so far that investigated the relevance of NOSA with regards to the virological and biochemical response in patients treated with interferon-α plus ribavirin.…”

Antinuclear antibody titer and treatment response to peginterferon plus ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C patients

“…Autoantibodies are commonly found in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) [3]. The prevalence of different non-organ-specific autoantibodies (NOSA), including antinuclear antibodies (ANA), antismooth-muscle antibodies, antimitochondrial antibodies, anti-neutrophil-cytoplasmic antibodies, and anti-liver/ kidney microsomal antibodies, were investigated before, during and after monotherapy with interferon-a (IFN) for CHC [4,5]. The former analyses of the influence of NOSA on the clearance of the HCV are controversial.…”