Effectiveness of Immunomodulating Treatment (Thymostimulin) in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

We conducted a prospective randomized study to assess the effect of thymostimulin in patients with long-standing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) during a 1-year follow-up. A total of 38 patients in the intervention group and 40 in the control group received standard treatment for COPD. Patients in the intervention group were also given thymostimulin intramuscularly (1 mg/kg/day for the 1st week followed by once a week for 6 months). At the end of the study period, patients treated with thymostimulin showed a statistically significant lower number of exacerbations and hospital admissions as compared with controls. However, there were no changes in the number of patients with severe or moderate impairment of respiratory function throughout the study period. No significant differences were found by Multi-test or in serum concentrations of immunoglobulins and T-cell subsets before and after thymostimulin treatment. We conclude that treatment with thymostimulin is effective in the prevention of COPD exacerbations acting on the cellular immune response involved in bronchopulmonary defense.

Clinical use of immunomodulatory agents

“…In human medicine, immunomodulatory preparations have progressed from crude microbial, viral, plant and thymic extracts, to synthetic viral complexes and chemically defined drugs (recombinant cytokines) (Johnson 1994;Banos et al 1997). The crude extract preparations induce nonspecific immunomodulatory activity via macrophage activition.…”