Pizza G, Viza D, De Vinci C, Palareti A, Cuzzocrea D, Fornarola V, Baricordi R
Immunodiagnosis and Immunotherapy Unit, 1st-Division of Urology, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy.
Biotherapy. 1996;9(1-3):67-72. doi: 10.1007/BF02628659.
Forty-four patients suffering from genital (22) and labial (22) herpes were orally treated with HSV-1/2-specific transfer factor (TF). TF was obtained by in vitro replication of a HSV-1/2-specific bovine dialysable lymphocyte extract. Treatment was administered bi-weekly the first 2 weeks, and then weekly for 6 months, most patients received 2-3 courses. The total observation period for all patients before treatment was 26,660 days, with 544 relapses, and a relapse index of 61.2, whereas the cumulative observation period during and after treatment was 16,945 days, with a total of 121 relapsing episodes and a cumulative RI of 21.4 (P < 0.0001). Results were equally significant when the 2 groups of patients (labial and genital) were considered separately. These observations confirm previous results obtained with bovine HSV-specific TF, and warrant further studies to establish HSV-specific TF as a choice of treatment for preventing herpes recurrences.
