Clinical Efficacy of and Switch from T Helper 2 to T Helper 1 Cytokine Profile After Interferon α 2a Monotherapy for Human Echinococcosis

Innovative chemotherapeutical treatment options for alveolar and cystic echinococcosis

“…One patient with AE and chronic hepatitis C was treated effectively with IFN-a-2a, suggesting that this cytokine limited parasite growth and reversed the cytokine profile to Th1 (Harraga et al 1999). Thus, IFNa-2a seems to be the most promising candidate for, for instance, further clinical investigation, because it is already widely used for treating chronic viral infections.…”

Major Carbohydrate Antigen ofEchinococcus multilocularisInduces an Immunoglobulin G Response Independent of αβ+CD4+T Cells

“…Despite the public health importance of AE in areas such as Central Europe, Alaska, China, and others, knowledge of the parasite's survival strategy, parasite-host interactions, and immune control of E. multilocularis infection is still not satisfactory with respect to molecular parasite components, in contrast to the already well-explained imbalanced host immune response (2,15,17,24,30,45).…”

Cystic and Alveolar Echinococcosis: Fraternal Twins both in Search of Optimal Treatment

“…Amphotericin B as salvage treatment for AE patients with intolerance or resistance to benzimidazoles effectively halted parasite progression in a small series of patients, but its IV administration precludes its use for the treatment of a chronic disease (Reuter et al 2003). Because of the exquisite sensitivity of Echinococcus larvae to the immune response of the host, efficacy of immune therapy may be anticipated; the only proof of concept was given a decade ago for interferon-alpha, with nearly complete prevention of E. multilocularis infection in experimental mice, and impressive regression of hepatic lesions in a patient with AE (Harraga et al 1999;Godot et al 2003) however, no clinical trials have been implemented to confirm these preliminary successes.…”