A viral kinetic study using pegylated interferon alfa-2b and/or lamivudine in pa

June 20, 2005

Hepatology. 2005 Jun 16;42(1):77-85 [Epub ahead of print]

A viral kinetic study using pegylated interferon alfa-2b and/or lamivudine

in patients with chronic hepatitis B/HBeAg negative.

Sypsa VA, Mimidis K, Tassopoulos NC, Chrysagis D, Vassiliadis T, Moulakakis

A, Raptopoulou M, Haida C, Hatzakis A.

Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece.

We studied viral dynamic parameters in 44 chronic hepatitis B/hepatitis B e

antigen (HBeAg)(-) patients treated with pegylated interferon alfa-2b

(PEG-IFN) 100 or 200 mug weekly or lamivudine 100 mg daily or the

combination of PEG-IFN 100 or 200 mug with lamivudine. Patients receiving

PEG-IFN monotherapy exhibited viral load oscillations between weekly

injections, which were resolved by the addition of lamivudine. The median

pharmacological delay was estimated at 4.1, 5.8, and 1.8 hours in PEG-IFN

monotherapy, PEG-IFN 100/200 mug + lamivudine, and lamivudine monotherapy,

respectively (P = .44). The median half-life of free virus was 12.7 hours

(range, 2.4-69.2 hours). The mean antiviral effectiveness of PEG-IFN 100/200

mug monotherapy was lower than that of lamivudine (82.6% vs. 96.4%; P =

..005). The mean effectiveness of PEG-IFN 100 mug + lamivudine and PEG-IFN

200 mug + lamivudine was 92.8% and 94.4%, respectively. The half-life of

infected cells ranged from 2.7 to 75 days. The median half-life of infected

cells in patients receiving the combination regimens of PEG-IFN and

lamivudine was similar to that of lamivudine patients (5.0 days vs. 6.0

days, P = .77). In conclusion, the addition of pegylated interferon alfa-2b

in lamivudine treatment was found to neither enhance the potency of blocking

HBV production nor the decay rates of infected cells. Supplementary material

for this article can be found on the HEPATOLOGY website

(HEPATOLOGY 2005;42:77-85.).

PMID: 15962284 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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