Treatment of six patients with chronic active HCV hepatitis, with low dose natural human interferon alpha administered orally.

Following the widely accepted therapeutic standard of treatment of HCV infection with parenteral interferon alpha, and encouraged by the author's won good experience with orally administered natural human interferon alpha in low doses (leuHuIFN alpha (ldou)), applied to chronic active HBV hepatitis patients, this form of interferon was given to six randomly selected HCV infected patients (2 women, 4 men) aged 34-62 years. The diagnosis was made based on a clinical and histological evaluation and confirmed by anti-HCV antibodies detection. In 2 out of 6 patients, leuHuIFN alpha (ldou) was employed immediately after steroid discontinuation. Patients were instructed to take one lozenge daily, in the morning, on an empty stomach, and keep it in the mouth until fully dissolved. Observation period varies from 19 to 69 weeks. In 3 patients the therapy concluded, after 19, 61 and 62 weeks, respectively. One patient after 4 weeks of treatment reported increasingly troublesome small joints pain and swelling, which forced leuHuIFN alpha (ldou) discontinuation after 19 weeks. In no patient transaminases normalization was seen during treatment; biochemical and clinical remission after the drug discontinuation was observed in only one patient, in whom the treatment was interrupted due to articular adverse symptoms. With HCV RNA levels assessment being unavailable at the moment, the treatment impact on the virus replication remains difficult to evaluate objectively. The treatment was well tolerated. All patients stressed significant increase of drive and appetite as well as improvement of the exercise tolerance.