ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Panminerva Medica 2000 September;42(3):187-92

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Association of alpha-interferon and acetyl cysteine in patients with chronic C hepatitis

Neri S., Ierna D., Antoci S., Campanile E., D’Amico R. A., Noto R.

From the Institute of Internal and Emergency Medicine University of Catania, Italy

Background. Numerous experi­men­tal find­ings ­have under­lined the rela­tion­ships ­between liv­er dam­age and pro­duc­tion of oxy­gen-­derived ­free rad­i­cals dur­ing inflam­ma­tion. In chron­ic hep­a­titis C liv­er dis­ease ­this dam­age may be attrib­ut­ed to ­altered ­oxide-reduc­tive bal­ance and glu­tath­i­one (GSH) deple­tion. Moreover, it may be ­linked to chron­ic inflam­ma­tion pro­voked by the rep­li­ca­tive activ­ity of the hep­a­titis C ­virus and its rela­tion­ships ­with ­immune ­system ­cells. Our aim was to ­assess the ­effects of com­bined IFN+NAC treat­ment to com­pare the ­effects of inter­fer­on α - n1 asso­ciat­ed ­with N-ace­tyl cys­teine treat­ment ­with the ­results ­observed ­using inter­fer­on ther­a­py ­alone.
Methods. Experimental ­design: pros­pec­tive ran­dom­ised ­study.
Setting: ambu­la­to­ry and hos­pit­al­ised ­care. Patients: 77 select­ed ­patients affect­ed by chron­ic C hep­a­titis. Interventions: our ­patients ­were inves­ti­gat­ed by labor­a­to­ry ­tests (ALT val­ues, ­RIBA ­test, HCV-RNA, ­oxide-reduc­tive bal­ance), liv­er biop­sy and liv­er US. The recruit­ed sub­jects ­were treat­ed ­with inter­fer­on and N-ace­tyl cys­teine or ­with inter­fer­on ­alone.
Results. Our find­ings con­firmed the pres­ence of oxi­da­tive ­stress in ­patients ­with chron­ic hep­a­titis C and ­showed ear­li­er ­relapse in ­patients treat­ed ­with inter­fer­on ­alone. The dif­fer­ence ­between the ­results in ­patients treat­ed ­with inter­fer­on and N-ace­tyl cys­teine and ­those on inter­fer­on ­alone was sig­nif­i­cant.
Conclusions. The ­good ­results and ­absence of ­side ­effects in ­patients treat­ed ­with inter­fer­on + N-ace­tyl cys­teine rec­om­mend wid­er use of ­this asso­ci­a­tion.