BIOLOGICAL AND CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE OF NEUTRALIZING AND BINDING-ANTIBODIES TO INTERFERON-ALPHA (IFN-ALPHA) DURING THERAPY FOR CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C

It is known that IFN therapy can induce the development of anti-IFN an tibodies. In order to evaluate the biological and clinical significanc e of both neutralizing (NA) and non-neutralizing (binding) antibodies, 123 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with recombinant IFN-al pha were examined. Among them, 15 were positive for NA and 24 for bind ing antibodies. The kinetics of NA appearance show that, in general, t hey develop early during the first 3 months of treatment. Moreover, NA seem to be clinically relevant, since they may be responsible for non -responsiveness to treatment in 53% of patients who develop them. The evaluation of the clinical significance of binding antibodies is more difficult. They appear significantly earlier in non-responders than in responders, but no differences were observed in the overall percentag e of seroconversion between responders and non-responders. Thus, it is not possible at the moment to establish their possible role in induci ng non-responsiveness.