Six hemophilic patients with asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection were treated with a natural human interferon-α (IFNα, HLBI-PO, Sumitomo Pharmaceutical, Osaka, Japan). Patients were given 40-200 I. U. orally once a day in powdered atherocollagen held in the mouth to promote mucosal absorption.
The efficacy, safety and usefulness of this therapy have been evaluated for the past one year. Although a remarkable (2.5-3.5 times) but only a transient increase of CD4 cell counts was shown in 2 out of 6 patients, no significant change of peripheral lymphocyte counts, CD4 cell counts and CD 8 cell counts was shown at the end of this study. In 2 cases (Case 2 and 5) value of HIV-1 antigen (p-24) assayed by ELISA turned weakly positive from negative condition and in 2 cases (Case 5 and 6) the virus was isolated from the blood 16 weeks and 46 weeks after the starting of IFNα therapy, respectively.
In a few cases subjective and/or objective symptoms were clearly improved. No adverse reactions were found. During this clinical study, each patient has remained as an asymptomatic carrier of HIV infection (CDC Group II) with relatively decreased cellular immunity.
From these obserevations it would be concluded that in the hemophiliacs with HIV infection the oral IFNα therapy seems to be not so effective from the virological and immunological points of view. In order to totally evaluate the usefulness of oral IFNα further and more investigations are required.
