ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY, Dec. 1979, p. 781-787 0066-4804/79/12-0781/07$02.00/0

Vol. 16, No. 6

Effects of Interferon and Adenine Arabinoside Treatment of Hepatitis B Virus Infection on Cellular Immune Responses BARRY HAFKIN, RICHARD B. POLLARD, MOTI L. TIKU, WILLLAM S. ROBINSON, AND THOMAS C. MERIGAN* Division of Infectious Diseases, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305

Received for publication 14 September 1979

Fifteen patients with chronic hepatitis B were treated with adenine arabinoside (Ara-A) or human leukocyte interferon (HLI). Cellular immune response to hepatitis B virus surface antigen and antigens prepared from herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and cytomegalovirus was measured by a lymphocyte blast transfornation assay and an assay for interferon production. Measurements were made before, during, and after antiviral treatment. Unlike patients convalescing from acute hepatitis B, only 2 of 15 patients with chronic hepatitis B had significant blast transformation to hepatitis B surface antigen. One such response occurred during the pretreatment period of HLI therapy, and the other was in a patient undergoing low-dose (iO5 U of HLI per kg per day. Antiviral therapy with