tom,
It's very hard to tell much without a controlled trial. It's certainly not unreasonable that consensus interferon (infergen) might help. Infergen seems better than regular alpha-interferon for HCV but daily doses do not appear to be well tolerated so it seems unlikely to have a big market in HCV.
Here's one abstract on other interferons in SARS:
Lancet. 2003 Jul 26;362(9380):293-4. Related Articles, Links
Treatment of SARS with human interferons.
Cinatl J, Morgenstern B, Bauer G, Chandra P, Rabenau H, Doerr HW.
Institute of Medical Virology, Frankfurt University Medical School, Paul-Ehrlich Strasse 40, D-60596, Frankfurt, Germany. cinatl@em.uni-frankfurt.de <cinatl@em.uni-frankfurt.de>
Effective antiviral agents are needed to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection. We assessed the antiviral potential of recombinant interferons against two clinical isolates of SARS-CoV--FFM-1, from Frankfurt patients, and Hong Kong--replicated in Vero and Caco2 cells. Interferon beta was five to ten times more effective in Caco2 cells. Interferon alpha effectively inhibited SARS-CoV replication, but with a selectivity index 50-90 times lower than that for interferon beta. Interferon gamma was slightly better than interferon alpha in Vero cell cultures, but was completely ineffective in Caco2 cell cultures. Interferon beta could be useful alone or in combination with other antiviral drugs for the treatment of SARS.
(Note that consensus interferon is a type of alpha-interferon not beta-interferon).
Note also that the devastating effects of SARS seem at this point to be driven by the immune system, so in vitro experiments may not mean that much - the key is more likely how a drug effects the immune response to SARS-CoV.
Peter |
