Research keeps on improving amid the fight against Covid… This Thursday February 25, 2021, as the French Health Minister announced the arrival of therapies in France – including monoclonal antibodies – interferons alpha-2b are part of these announcements. But what do we know about this therapy? A global study – released on May 15 in Frontiers in Immunology – gives a first look, highlighting the benefits of interferon alpha-2b, a therapy against hepatitis C, among others, to fight against Covid-19 and relieve many patients.
What was the study about? It has been conducted in 77 Chinese patients from the Wuhan hospital, including all age ranges, and suffering from mild infection. Three groups have been made: a first one given the interferon alpha-2b therapy, another one given arbidol (a flue medication), and a third one given a mix of both treatments.
According to results published in the magazine, mixing interferon alpha-2b and arbidol enables to heavily reduce the viral load in extra-thoracic airways (nose, nasal cavities, mouth, pharynx, and larynx), but is also said to reduce the levels of two inflammation proteins naturally made by the human body, interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein, causing the “cytokine storms”, namely an exacerbation of the inflammation that might cause tachycardia, and even respiratory distress syndromes.
Results giving hope to scientists as for a cure to the disease, but that have yet to be checked in a greater number of patients.
