Alpha but not beta interferon is useful in chronic active hepatitis due to hepatitis C virus

Villa, Erica; Trande, P.; Grottola, Antonella; Buttafoco, Paola; Rebecchi, Anna Maria; Stroffolini, Tommaso; Callea, Francesco; Merighi, Annalisa; Camellini, Lorenzo; Zoboli, P; Cosenza, Rossella; Miglioli, L.; Loria, Paola; Iori, Rossella; Carulli, Nicola; Manenti, F.

doi:10.1007/bf02088244

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Typing of HCV RNA was performed according to Okamoto et al [15] with minor modifications, as previously described [20]. Genotypes were classified as type 1, II, IlI, and IV, according to the size of the amplified product.…”

Section: Hcv Rna Genoo'pingsupporting

confidence: 45%

“…With some exceptions, mainly in eastern countries [22], type II associated disease is reported to be more severe [4,16,17]. The clinical aggressiveness of genotype II is also evident after transplantation, where the recurrence of infection with this genotype is the rule, and the clinical course is characterized by rapid development of end-stage liver disease in a large proportion of patients [5,20]. Furthermore, while interferons ([FNs) have been shown to be effective in the treatment of anti-HCV-positive chronically active hepatitis, a substantial proportion of patients remain unresponsive to this type of treatment.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 43%

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Selection of more pathogenic hepatitis C virus genotype II during long-term follow-up of interferon-treated patients

et al. 1995

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The behavior of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with regards to type and number of HCV genotypes (tested with genotype-specific nested polymerase chain reaction) was evaluated in 60 patients with anti-HCV-positive chronic active hepatitis without cirrhosis [17 untreated and 43 subjects undergoing single or repeat courses of interferon (IFN) therapy] during a mean follow-up period of 76 +/- 18 months. In untreated patients (2 genotype I, 6 genotype II, 9 mixed infections) 4 out of 9 mixed infections selected for genotype II at the end of follow-up. Of the 43 treated patients 10 were long-term responders with histological remission, 6 were short-term responders, and 22 did not respond. Fifteen of the latter patients received another course of IFN therapy, and only 3 patients responded. Eight of the 10 responders had infection with a single genotype (4 gt I, 3 gt II, 3 gt III). After IFN therapy, all but 2 patients cleared the HCV infection. The responders to the second IFN course (1 gt I, 1 gt II, 1 gt III) remained viremic. Of the short-term responders, 2/6 patients had genotype II and 4 had a mixed infection (3 gt II +/- I and 1 gt II +/- III); gt III became prevalent in the latter in all but one patient. Of the nonresponders 18/24 had more than one genotype, 5 were genotype II at baseline and one had genotype I. At the end of the follow-up period 15/18 with mixed infection had selected for gt II (P < 0.01 vs. untreated patient).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Section: Hcv Rna Genoo'pingsupporting

confidence: 45%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 43%

Selection of more pathogenic hepatitis C virus genotype II during long-term follow-up of interferon-treated patients

et al. 1995

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“…IFNβ has been proposed as a possible therapy for chronic hepatitis. Studies examining the use of IFNβ in hepatitis originated in Japan [57] but, in recent years, studies have also been performed in Europe [25,29,30,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38]40,[44][45][46]53] . According to the available data, the treatment of chronic hepatitis C with IFNβ is associated with a good safety and tolerability profile.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 43%

“…Several studies comparing the safety of IFNβ and IFNα have been performed [29,30,[38][39][40][41][42] . Frosi et al [38] compared IFNα and IFNβ in 20 naïve patients treated for 6 months and did not observe any significant differences between the two treatment groups in terms of the frequency of adverse events.…”

Section: Clinical Studies Comparing the Safety Of Ifnβ To Ifnαmentioning

confidence: 43%

“…Kiyosawa et al [28] found that in naïve patients treated with i v IFNβ, dose modifications due to leukocyte counts below 1×10 9 /L were required in only 4.2% of patients (1 of 12 patients). In a study by Villa et al [29] 5.3% of patients (1 of 19) did not complete the trial. Reasons for discontinuation were not specified.…”

Section: Discontinuation and Dose Modification During Ifnβ Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 45%

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Safety of interferon β treatment for chronic HCV hepatitis

Festi¹,

Sandri²,

Mazzella³

et al. 2004

WJG

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Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. In fact, chronic hepatitis C is considered as one of the primary causes of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and is the most common reason for liver transplantation. The primary objectives for the treatment of HCV-related chronic hepatitis is to eradicate infection and prevent progression of the disease. The treatment has evolved from the use of α-interferon (IFNα) alone to the combination of IFNα plus ribavirin, with a significant improvement in the overall efficacy, and to the newer PEG-IFNs which have further increased the virological response, used either alone or in combination with ribavirin. Despite these positive results, in terms of efficacy, concerns are related to the safety and adverse events. Many patients must reduce the dose of PEG-IFN or ribavirin, others must stop the treatment and a variable percentage of subjects are not suitable owing to intolerance toward drugs. IFNβ represents a potential therapeutic alternative for the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis and in some countries it plays an important role in therapeutic protocols. Aim of the present paper was to review available data on the safety of IFNβ treatment in HCV-related chronic hepatitis.The rates of treatment discontinuation and/or dose modification due to the appearance of severe side effects during IFNβ are generally low and in several clinical studies no requirements for treatment discontinuation and/or dose modifications have been reported. The most frequent side effects experienced during IFNβ treatment are flu-like syndromes, fever, fatigue and injection-site reactions. No differences in terms of side-effect frequency and severity between responders and non-responders have been reported. A more recent study, performed to compare IFNβ alone or in combination with ribavirin, confirmed the good safety profile of both treatments. Similar trends of adverse event frequency have been observed in subpopulations such as patients with genotype-1b HCV hepatitis unresponsive to IFNα treatment or with HCV-related cirrhosis and patients with acute viral hepatitis. If further studies will confirm the efficacy of combined IFNβ and ribavirin treatment, this regimen could represent a safe and alternative therapeutic option in selected patients.Festi D, Sandri L, Mazzella G, Roda E, Sacco T, Staniscia T, Capodicasa S, Vestito A, Colecchia A. Safety of interferon β treatment for chronic HCV hepatitis.

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