Study: Interferons Treatment Speeds COVID-19 Virus Removal by 7 Days

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Researchers are increasingly turning to already approved drugs as COVID-19 proves a formidable foe. Scientists are working diligently on vaccines and new drugs, but this science takes time, especially when dealing with a novel disease.

For the first time, an international team of researchers has proposed treatment with interferons, a type of antiviral drug that has been used clinically for years. In a limited, non-randomized study published in Frontiers in Immunology, the research team showed interferons significantly accelerated viral clearance and also reduced levels of inflammatory proteins in moderately ill COVID-19 patients.

Interferons, a group of signaling proteins released by the body in response to all viruses, are considered humans’ first line of defense against viruses. Interferons target different stages of a virus's life cycle, inhibiting them from multiplying. They also boost immune response by activating different immune cells to help clear an infection.

The research team considered interferon therapy for COVID-19 patients after they first demonstrated its therapeutic benefit during the SARS outbreak of 2002.

"Rather than developing a virus-specific antiviral for each new virus outbreak, I would argue that we should consider interferons as the 'first responders' in terms of treatment," said Eleanor Fish, emerita scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and study author. "Interferons have been approved for clinical use for many years, so the strategy would be to 'repurpose' them for severe acute virus infections."

The current study evaluated 77 patients with moderate COVID-19 symptoms admitted to hospitals in Wuhan, China between January 16 and February 20, 2020. The results suggest interferon (IFN)- α2b accelerates viral clearance by 7.6 days compared with other drugs.

Patients treated with arbidol (ARB), a broad-spectrum, indole-based antiviral compound, achieved viral clearance in a mean of 28 days. Meanwhile, patients treated with IFN alone cleared the virus in 21 days, and patients treated with IFN combined with ARB cleared the virus the fastest—20 days from onset of symptoms. The research team also found that IFN reduced blood levels of interleukin(IL)-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP)—two inflammatory proteins found in COVID-19 patients.

“On average, patients in the ARB-only group had higher IL-6 levels than the patients treated with IFN alone or a combination of IFN + ARB by 33.5 pg/mL,” the authors write in their paper. “[Additionally], over the time period day 0–20 (from onset of symptoms), on average, patients in the ARB-only group had higher CRP levels than the patients treated with IFN alone or a combination of IFN + ARB by 25.7 mg/L.”

Fish and her colleagues designed the study to be exploratory only, with the objective of determining—as quickly as possible—if a full trial should be undertaken. Based on the results, the answer is a resounding yes.

The next step is a controlled clinical trial with a larger group of infected patients, taking into account age, sex and comorbidities, who are randomized to receive treatment or placebo.

“Irrespective of [the study’s] significant limitations, to our knowledge, the findings are the first to suggest therapeutic efficacy in COVID-19 disease of IFN-α2b, an available antiviral intervention. Furthermore, beyond clinical benefit to the individual patient, treatment with IFN-α2b may also benefit public health measures aimed at slowing the tide of this pandemic, in that duration of viral shedding appears shortened,” the authors conclude in their paper.

Photo: Eleanor Fish working in her lab at University Health Network, Toronto. Credit: University Health Network