Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection with Recombinant Consensus Interferon

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To assess the safety and efficacy of consensus interferon (IFN-Con-1), 55 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection were treated with either 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 μg IFN-Con-1 s.c. three times a week for 24 weeks, followed by 24 weeks of observation. There was a dose-response relationship with respect to the number of patients with normalized ALT concentrations or undetectable HCV RNA. At the end of the 24-week treatment period, the serum ALT had normalized in 18% of patients given the 3 μg dose and 42% of patients given the 12 μg or 15 μg doses of IFN-Con-1. At the end of the posttreatment observation period, the serum ALT was still normal in 10% of patients given the 3 μg, 6 μg, or 9 μg doses and in 50% of patients given the 15 μg dose. Also, at the end of the 24-week treatment period, 27% of patients given the 3 μg dose and 75% given the 15 μg dose had undetectable serum HCV RNA. At the end of the posttreatment observation period, the proportion of patients with undetectable HCV RNA ranged from 9% of those given the 3 μg dose to 50% of those given the 15 μg dose. Our study indicates that treatment with IFN-Con-1 appears to be safe and effective. In addition, use of 15 μg of IFN-Con-1 resulted in significantly more patients with sustained ALT normalization and absence of HCV RNA 6 months after cessation of therapy compared with treatment with lower doses of IFN-Con-1. Additional trials are underway to confirm these findings.