thymosin and Hepatitis--Chronic

Topics: Adjuvants, Immunologic; Adult; Alanine Transaminase; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Hepatitis D; Hepatitis, Chronic; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Pilot Projects; RNA, Viral; Thymalfasin; Thymosin

Topics: Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; Hepatitis C; Hepatitis, Chronic; Humans; Interferon-alpha; Thymalfasin; Thymosin

Monotherapy for chronic hepatitis C using interferon (IFN) results in a very small proportion of patients exhibiting a sustained response. Clinical trials assessing the benefit of combination drug therapy may provide evidence of improved treatment response over that seen with single drug treatment.. To assess the response in patients with chronic hepatitis C to one year of combination treatment: thymosin alpha 1 (T alpha 1), 1 mg twice weekly, and lymphoblastoid (L)-IFN, 3 MU thrice weekly.. Fifteen patients with serum HCV RNA positive chronic hepatitis C were studied. Eleven patients were treatment naive and four had failed previous standard IFN therapy. Thirteen patients were HCV RNA serotype 1b. All patients were given combination T alpha 1 and L-IFN therapy for one year with a six month follow up period.. Six months after initiation of treatment seven patients (47%) were sera HCV RNA negative and at completion of the one year treatment 11 (73%), including two who had failed previous standard IFN treatment, had negative serum HCV RNA. Six months after treatment, six patients (40%), including five with HCV type 1b, showed a sustained response characterized by a negative serum HCV RNA.. The results of this open label trial suggest that there may be a potential benefit to combining an immune modulator (T alpha 1) with an antiviral (IFN) in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Verification of the observations in this study require completion of a randomised controlled study.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Genotype; Hepacivirus; Hepatitis C; Hepatitis, Chronic; Humans; Interferon-alpha; Male; Middle Aged; Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Viral; Thymalfasin; Thymosin

In the present paper we analysed the presence of prothymosin alpha (ProT) in human liver. In normal liver, ProT immunostaining was found in the nuclei of bile duct cells, but not in the hepatocytes. In contrast an intense immunoreactivity was observed in regenerative hepatocytes of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and in hepatocellular carcinomas. In all cases the immunostaining was restricted to the nuclei, but the nucleoli were always negative. Similar results were obtained for proliferating cell nuclear antigen. These findings confirm that ProT is related to cell proliferation and provides a new immunohistochemical proliferation marker for routinely processed samples.

Topics: Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Cell Division; Hepatitis, Chronic; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Liver; Liver Cirrhosis; Liver Neoplasms; Nuclear Proteins; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; Protein Precursors; Thymosin

A study was made of the immune system of patients with chronic HB-viral infection who showed the signs of secondary immundeficiency. The high frequency of the impairment of immunocompetent cells seen in chronic hepatitis B was established as was the appearance of different-temperature autolymphocytotoxins in response to the infection of mono-nuclears in all the disease stages. The treatment with thymalin proved effective in patients with the lack of cold autolymphocytotoxins or in those with low activity of the latter ones. The combined treatment (decaris plus prednisolone) turned out effective in children with a pronounced autoimmune component of the process (the presence of cold autolymphocytotoxins). It has been shown that the discovered interrelations between the different components of the immune system are conductive to the determination of the pathological process type and the choice of adequate therapy.

Topics: Adjuvants, Immunologic; Child; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis, Chronic; Humans; Leukocyte Count; Lymphopenia; Rosette Formation; T-Lymphocytes; Thymalfasin; Thymosin

Mitogen-induced suppressor T lymphocyte function was evaluated in patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH). The in vitro effect of the biological response modifier, thymosin fraction 5, on the suppressive activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) was also assessed. Suppressor cell activity was significantly decreased in patients with CAH when compared to controls (P less than 0.001). In the absence of the inducing mitogen, thymosin-treated PBM from both patients and controls promoted enhancement of tritiated thymidine uptake by cocultured allogeneic lymphocytes. When thymosin-treated mononuclear cells were mitogen-activated; patients, but not the controls, showed a marked increase in suppressor activity (P less than 0.001). These results indicate that the polypeptides contained in thymosin fraction 5 can promote a helper effect in patients and controls. Furthermore, PBM from patients with CAH contain a subset of lymphocytes that can express a suppressive function following thymosin treatment. We conclude that thymosin fraction 5 can promote an in vitro restoration of suppressor T cell function in patients with CAH.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Concanavalin A; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Female; Hepatitis, Chronic; Humans; Liver Cirrhosis; Liver Function Tests; Male; Middle Aged; Mitogens; Monocytes; Prednisone; T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory; Thymosin; Thymus Hormones