Autoantibodies before, during and after administration of recombinant interferon-alpha for chronic viral hepatitis

• Autor(a) principal: Lopes, Edmundo P.a. [UNIFESP]
• Data de Publicação: 1995
• Outros Autores: Silva, Antonio Eduardo Benedito [UNIFESP], Sette Junior, Hoel, Guimarães, Rubens X. [UNIFESP], Ferraz, Maria Lucia Cardoso Gomes [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0036-46651995000500012; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/397
• topic: Viral hepatitis; Autoantibodies; Interferon-alpha

This study was undertaken to investigate the presence of autoantibodies in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B and C, before, during and after interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) therapy and to study their relation to dose and type of IFN-alpha and response to treatment. Fifty patients with chronic hepatitis were divided in two groups, a control-group of 21 patients (10 type B and 11 type C) who were followed for 6 months without treatment and an IFN-group consisting of 29 patients (8 type B and 21 type C) who received IFN therapy for 6 months. Serum samples were tested for a range of antibodies at the start of the study, during therapy and at the end of the 6 month period. Antibodies tested for included: antinuclear, smooth muscle, antimitochondrial, parietal cell and thyroid microsomal. Four (8%) of the total patient group had autoantibodies at the beginning of the study (two in each group). During the follow-up period no patient in the control group developed antibodies compared with 3 (11%) patients in the treatment group. Autoantibodies developed in patients treated with higher doses of IFN and were found in those patients who tended to show a poor response to IFN-therapy. Further studies are needed to establish the relationship between poor response to IFN-alpha and development of autoantibodies.