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. 2021 Mar:92:107329.
doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.107329. Epub 2020 Dec 26.

Combination therapy of IFNβ1 with lopinavir-ritonavir, increases oxygenation, survival and discharging of sever COVID-19 infected inpatients

Parvaneh Baghaei  1 , Farzaneh Dastan  2 , Majid Marjani  1 , Afshin Moniri  1 , Zahra Abtahian  1 , Somayeh Ghadimi  3 , Melika Valizadeh  3 , Jalal Heshmatnia  1 , Maryam Sadat Mirenayat  4 , Atefeh Abedini  4 , Arda Kiani  5 , Alireza Eslaminejad  5 , Seyed MohammadReza Hashemian  1 , Hamidreza Jamaati  4 , Alireza Zali  6 , Ali Akbar Velayati  1 , Payam Tabarsi  7
Affiliations

Combination therapy of IFNβ1 with lopinavir-ritonavir, increases oxygenation, survival and discharging of sever COVID-19 infected inpatients

Parvaneh Baghaei et al. Int Immunopharmacol. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Interferon Beta-1a (IFN-β1-a), an immunomodulatory mediator with antiviral effects, has shown in vivo and in vitro activities especially on coronavirus including SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 defined as the disease caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2. The virus has been illustrated inhibits the production of IFN-β1-a from inflammatory cells. We conducted a retrospective study of all adult confirmed COVID-19 hospitalized patients who received combination of three doses of 12 million international units of IFN-β1-a and Lopinavir 400 mg and Ritonavir 100 mg every 12 h (case group) for 14 days besides standard care and age- and sex- matched COVID-19 patients with receiving lopinavir/ritonavir (control group) at Masih Daneshvari Hospital as a designated hospital for COVID-19 between Feb 19 and Apr 30, 2020. Multivariate analysis was done to determine the impact of IFN-β1-a on outcome and all-cause mortality. 152 cases in IFN-β1-a group and 304 cases as control group were included. IFN-β1-a group stayed at hospital longer and required noninvasive ventilation more than control group (13 vs. 6 days, p = 0.001) and (34% vs. 24%, p = 0.04), respectively. During treatment, 57 (12.5%) patients died. The death rate in case and control groups was 11% and 13% respectively. In multivariate analysis, not receiving IFN-β1-a (HR 5.12, 95% CI: 2.77-9.45), comorbidity (HR 2.28, 95% CI: 1.13-4.60) and noninvasive ventilation (HR 2.77, 95% CI: 1.56-4.93) remained significantly associated with all-cause mortality. In this study, risk of death decreased by using IFN-β1-a in COVID-19 patients. More clinical study will be necessary to measure efficacy of IFN-β1-a in COVID-19 treatment.

Keywords: Covid-19; IFN-β1-a; Intensive care; Mortality; Outcome; Survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Survival COVID-19 patients with or without IFN-β1-a.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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