Interferon-gamma As Adjunctive Immunotherapy for Invasive Fungal Infections: a Case Series

Overview

Journal BMC Infect Dis

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Infectious Diseases

Date 2014 Mar 28

PMID 24669841

Citations 108

Authors

Corine E Delsing

Mark S Gresnigt

Jenneke Leentjens

Frank Preijers

Florence Allantaz Frager

Matthijs Kox

Guillaume Monneret

Fabienne Venet

Chantal P Bleeker-Rovers

Frank L van de Veerdonk

Peter Pickkers

Alexandre Pachot

Bart Jan Kullberg

Mihai G Netea

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Invasive fungal infections are very severe infections associated with high mortality rates, despite the availability of new classes of antifungal agents. Based on pathophysiological mechanisms and limited pre-clinical and clinical data, adjunctive immune-stimulatory therapy with interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) may represent a promising candidate to improve outcome of invasive fungal infections by enhancing host defence mechanisms.

Methods: In this open-label, prospective case series, we describe eight patients with invasive Candida and/or Aspergillus infections who were treated with recombinant IFN-γ (rIFN-γ, 100 μg s.c., thrice a week) for 2 weeks in addition to standard antifungal therapy.

Results: Recombinant IFN-γ treatment in patients with invasive Candida and/or Aspergillus infections partially restored immune function, as characterized by an increased HLA-DR expression in those patients with a baseline expression below 50%, and an enhanced capacity of leukocytes from treated patients to produce proinflammatory cytokines involved in antifungal defence.

Conclusions: The present study provides evidence that adjunctive immunotherapy with IFN-γ can restore immune function in fungal sepsis patients, warranting future clinical studies to assess its potential clinical benefit.

Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov--NCT01270490.

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