Clinical and pathogenetic aspects of the side effects of chronic viral hepatitis C alpha-interferon antiviral therapy

Aim. To investigate the relation of prooxidant and antioxidant systems with adverse effects of antiviral alpha interferon treatment in chronic hepatitis C. Methods. The study included 67 patients with chronic hepatitis C aged 19 to 45 years [males - 28 (41.8%), females - 39 (58.2%)] who were receiving antiviral treatment. Prooxidant (diene ketones and diene conjugates, malon dialdehyde) and antioxidant (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione and glutathione-dependent enzymes) systems indicators were measured. According to the severity of side effects, patients were distributed to two groups. The first group consisted of 19 (28.4%) patients with transient passing adverse effects, usually manifesting as short-term flu-like syndrome after the medication injection, lasting no longer than 2-3 weeks of treatment. The second group consisted of 48 patients (71.6%) with prolonged side effects, registered throughout the whole treatment period. Results: Flu-like syndrome with intense myalgia and asthenic syndrome were the most frequent side effects (89.5 and 83.3% of cases, respectively). Dyspepsia, psychopathy and arthralgia were less common (79.2, 72.9 and 68.7%, respectively). Over than a half of the patients lost weight (7-9 kg compared to baseline weight), and also had alopecia and autoimmune thyroiditis. Most of the patients could not tolerate the treatment, 33 (49.2%) patients aborted the treatment. In patients with long-term side effects, low baseline levels of glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione transferase were revealed (p 0.05). Patients with long-term side effects of antiviral treatment preserved high levels (p 0.05) of diene ketones and diene conjugates and statistically significant (p 0.05) suppression of antioxidant system at the 10-12 weeks of treatment. Conclusion. Examined patients with chronic hepatitis C had diverse activity of antioxidant system. Long-term side effects were seen in patients with low levels of parameters of antioxidant protection at the baseline.