PILOT-STUDY ON THE EFFICACY OF INTRAVENOUS NATURAL INTERFERON-BETA THERAPY IN ITALIAN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C AND RELATION TO THEHCV GENOTYPE

Eight Italian patients with chronic hepatitis C were treated intraveno usly with natural beta-interferon (beta-IFN) to assess primary biochem ical and virological response and also to investigate the relation to the genotype of infecting HCV. Each patient received 6 MU of beta-IFN daily for 6 days a week for a period of 2 months. Five patients (62.5% ) showed complete normalization of alanineaminotransferase (ALT) and 6 cases (including all 5 with normal ALT) became HCV-RNA negative. ALT normalization occurred within 7-40 days of therapy. Seven patients wer e infected by HCV-1b and 4 (58%) of them became HCV-RNA negative with normal ALT at the end of therapy while one patient, infected by HCV-2a , became HCV-RNA negative but maintained elevated ALT values. Six mont hs after cessation of beta-IFN all 8 patients were HCV-RNA positive in serum but 3 of them had normal ALT, including one case in whom normal ization had occurred after therapy. These results indicate that HCV ac tivity, including that of HCV-1b can be efficiently suppressed by intr avenous beta-IFN therapy in Caucasian patients with chronic hepatitis C, as previously described in similar cases in Japan. The rate of sust ained biochemical and virologic response was, however, lower in our pa tients compared to what has been described previously, suggesting that further studies are needed to define the optimum regimen to achieve e radication of HCV infection.