C. Zavaglia et al., A randomized, controlled study of thymosin-alpha(1) therapy in patients with anti-HBe, HBV-DNA-positive chronic hepatitis B, DIG DIS SCI, 45(4), 2000, pp. 690-696
No consistently effective therapy is yet available for the treatment of chr
onic HBsAg, anti-HBe. HBV-DNA-positive hepatitis. A multicenter trial has s
hown that the response rates are not significantly different when patients
with anti-HBe-positive hepatitis are treated with six-month course of thymo
sin-alpha(1) or of interferon-alpha. However, since among these patients, i
nterferon's real efficacy is still debated, with sustained biochemical resp
onse achieved in only a few of the treated patients, we conducted this cont
rolled study to investigate the safety and efficacy of thymosin-alpha(1) as
compared with no treatment. Forty-four chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) car
riers, who were anti-HBe- and HBV-DNA-positive. were randomized, with strat
ification for the presence of cirrhosis at baseline liver biopsy, to receiv
e either thymosin-alpha(1) at a dose of 900 mu g/m(2) twice a week for six
months or no treatment. At entry, both groups of patients were comparable f
or sex, age, liver histology, ALT, IgM anti-HBc, and HBV-DNA levels. Forty-
two patients were followed-up for 20 months (median; range 12-32 months) af
ter completion of therapy: one dropped out, and one developed hepatocellula
r carcinoma at six months. Thymosin-alpha(1), treatment had no side effects
. Six months after the end of the therapy, HBV-DNA was negative and ALT had
normalized in 14% of treated cases and in 4.5% of control group, while IgM
anti-HBc was negative (<0.200) in 14% of the treated patients and in 4.5%
of the controls. Among the treated patients, the: median ALT levels stayed
significantly lower compared to the pretreatment values during the treatmen
t period and six months of follow-up. During the first year, there were six
hares of hepatitis in the control group and five among the treated patient
s (P = NS), yielding a per year average of 0.3 and 0.23 flares per patient,
respectively. Among the treated patients, median IgM anti-HBe levels were
low with respect to baseline values 4-10 months after treatment started. No
ne became HBsAg negative. In conclusion, these results indicate that, in an
ti-HBe, HBV-DNA-positive chronic hepatitis B, thymosin-alpha(1) therapy alo
ne does not increase the response rate, but may contribute to reduce the im
mune-mediated liver cell necrosis as indirectly assessed by ALT and IgM ant
i-HBc levels.