Efficacy and Safety of IFN-α2β in the Treatment of Novel Coronavirus Patients

Summary

New coronavirus infection is an important cause of public health emergencies at home and abroad, which seriously affects people's health and social stability. The outbreak of SRAR-COV in China in 2003 caused serious social impact. From January 2002 to August 7, 2003, there were a total of 8,422 cases worldwide, involving 32 countries and regions, of which 919 cases were fatal, with a fatality rate of nearly 11%. The fatality rate of elderly patients and patients with underlying diseases was even more high.There is no precise and effective treatment for coronavirus infection. In vitro, IFN-α2β has inhibitory effects on MERS-CoV and closely related coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) -CoV. A study showed the effects of interferon-α2β and ribavirin on the replication of nCoV isolates hCoV-EMC / 2012 in Vero and LLC-MK2 cells. The combined application may be useful for the management of patients with nCoV infection in the future. At present, the combination therapy of interferon α2β and ribavirin has been successfully applied in the initial treatment and prevention of SARS and MERS.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of recombinant human interferon α1β in treating patients with new coronavirus infection in Wuhan.

Timeline

Start

2020-03-01

Primary completion

2020-05-30

Completion

2020-06-30

Publications

• Background Ksiazek TG, Erdman D, Goldsmith CS, Zaki SR, Peret T, Emery S, Tong S, Urbani C, Comer JA, Lim W, Rollin PE, Dowell SF, Ling AE, Humphrey CD, Shieh WJ, Guarner J, Paddock CD, Rota P, Fields B, DeRisi J, Yang JY, Cox N, Hughes JM, LeDuc JW, Bellini WJ, Anderson LJ; SARS Working Group. A novel coronavirus associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2003 May 15;348(20):1953-66. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa030781. Epub 2003 Apr 10.
• Background Drosten C, Gunther S, Preiser W, van der Werf S, Brodt HR, Becker S, Rabenau H, Panning M, Kolesnikova L, Fouchier RA, Berger A, Burguiere AM, Cinatl J, Eickmann M, Escriou N, Grywna K, Kramme S, Manuguerra JC, Muller S, Rickerts V, Sturmer M, Vieth S, Klenk HD, Osterhaus AD, Schmitz H, Doerr HW. Identification of a novel coronavirus in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2003 May 15;348(20):1967-76. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa030747. Epub 2003 Apr 10.
• Background Fehr AR, Channappanavar R, Perlman S. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome: Emergence of a Pathogenic Human Coronavirus. Annu Rev Med. 2017 Jan 14;68:387-399. doi: 10.1146/annurev-med-051215-031152. Epub 2016 Aug 26.
• Background Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, Zhao X, Huang B, Shi W, Lu R, Niu P, Zhan F, Ma X, Wang D, Xu W, Wu G, Gao GF, Tan W; China Novel Coronavirus Investigating and Research Team. A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020 Feb 20;382(8):727-733. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. Epub 2020 Jan 24.
• Background Al-Tawfiq JA, Momattin H, Dib J, Memish ZA. Ribavirin and interferon therapy in patients infected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: an observational study. Int J Infect Dis. 2014 Mar;20:42-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2013.12.003. Epub 2014 Jan 6.
• Background Falzarano D, de Wit E, Martellaro C, Callison J, Munster VJ, Feldmann H. Inhibition of novel beta coronavirus replication by a combination of interferon-alpha2b and ribavirin. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1686. doi: 10.1038/srep01686.
• Results Falzarano D, de Wit E, Rasmussen AL, Feldmann F, Okumura A, Scott DP, Brining D, Bushmaker T, Martellaro C, Baseler L, Benecke AG, Katze MG, Munster VJ, Feldmann H. Treatment with interferon-alpha2b and ribavirin improves outcome in MERS-CoV-infected rhesus macaques. Nat Med. 2013 Oct;19(10):1313-7. doi: 10.1038/nm.3362. Epub 2013 Sep 8.
• Results Kim UJ, Won EJ, Kee SJ, Jung SI, Jang HC. Combination therapy with lopinavir/ritonavir, ribavirin and interferon-alpha for Middle East respiratory syndrome. Antivir Ther. 2016;21(5):455-9. doi: 10.3851/IMP3002. Epub 2015 Oct 22.
• Results Shalhoub S, Farahat F, Al-Jiffri A, Simhairi R, Shamma O, Siddiqi N, Mushtaq A. IFN-alpha2a or IFN-beta1a in combination with ribavirin to treat Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus pneumonia: a retrospective study. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2015 Jul;70(7):2129-32. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkv085. Epub 2015 Apr 21.
• Results Min CK, Cheon S, Ha NY, Sohn KM, Kim Y, Aigerim A, Shin HM, Choi JY, Inn KS, Kim JH, Moon JY, Choi MS, Cho NH, Kim YS. Comparative and kinetic analysis of viral shedding and immunological responses in MERS patients representing a broad spectrum of disease severity. Sci Rep. 2016 May 5;6:25359. doi: 10.1038/srep25359.

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