Th168 - Therapeutic Effectiveness of Interferon-α2b Against COVID-19 with Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Aleksandr Kamyshnyi – I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University; Olha Kobevko – Department of Infectious Disease – Chernivtsi Regional Clinical Hospital

Abstract Text: Background. The announced effectiveness of IFN-α in the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19 has been ambiguous: some work indicated a lack of positive effects, while at the same time, the effectiveness of such a treatment was confirmed in cohort studies as well as clinical trials. Our work aimed to assess the clinical effectiveness of IFN-α in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Methods.
A prospective cohort study included 130 adult patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who were randomized to the main (81 patients) and control (49 patients) groups. The main group received, in addition to standard therapy, received IFN-α2b administered in the form of a nasal spray, 2 spray doses 4 times a day, which was a total of 80,000 IU per day for 10 days.

Results: Adding IFN-α2b to the standard therapy for patients with severe COVID-19 reduces the length of the hospital stay by 3 days (p < 0.001).
In the group of patients receiving IFN-α2b, the SpO2 index before and after treatment increased from 94 (92–96, Q1–Q3) to 96 (96–98, Q1–Q3) (p < 0.001), while the percentage of patients with normal saturation increased (from 33.9% to 74.6, p < 0.05), but the level of SpO2 decreased in the low (from 52.5% to 16.9%) and very low (from 13.6% to 8.5%) categories.

Conclusions: Considering the contradictory results obtained regarding the strength of the response to type I IFNs in patients with severe COVID-19, more accurate information is required for the appropriate therapeutic use IFNs.