Study of the Impact of Nitazoxanide on Chronic Hepatitis Patients

Summary

The main objective of antiviral therapy of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is the sustained elimination of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The standard of care (SOC) is peginterferon alfa-2a/-2b with ribavirin for 48 weeks or 24 weeks according to HCV genotype. However, this approach is not sufficient to substantially improve the sustained virologic response (SVR) rates. Therefore, new therapies are needed to treat patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Nitazoxanide (NTZ), originally used to treat cryptosporidium parvum infection, recently was shown to have an unexpected antiviral activity in the HCV replicon system and in chronically infected patients. The aim of this work is to study impact of nitazoxanide therapy in addition to peginterferon/ribavirin combination on virologic responses in patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 4. Patients will be enrolled in this study and will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio into 2 groups: Group A: comprises 100 CHC patients who will receive the standard of care treatment, peginterferon-alf 2a plus weight-based ribavirin for 48 weeks. Group B: comprises 100 CHC patients who will receive nitazoxanide monotherapy at a dose of 500 mg twice daily for 12 weeks as a lead-in phase followed by triple therapy, nitazoxanide 500 mg twice daily plus peginterferon alfa-2a, and weight-based ribavirin for 48 weeks. Data will be collected and statistical analysis will be done comparing the groups regarding response to antiviral therapy. Final results will be discussed and compared to similar studies published in peer reviewed journals and international conferences.

Timeline

Start

2010-09

Primary completion

2014-04

Completion

2014-04

Drugs

Indications