Levamisole treatment of acute viral hepatitis and HBsAG-positive chronic active hepatitis.

Abstract

A fundamental role is attributed to the pathological immune response in the development of chronic hepatitis B. By virtue of its non-specific immune modulatory effect, levamisole is capable of improving impaired T-cell function. Hence, studies with treated and control groups were performed in determine the effect of levamisole in acute viral hepatitis and chronic active hepatitis B. In acute hepatitis B, levamisole promoted the normalization of GPT, the elimination of HBsAg; this improvement was preceded by higher GPT values and increased titres of IgG, IgA, and of anti-HBcore. In chronic active hepatitis in the first few months of treatment a moderate increase of the GPT and HBsAg levels occurred, followed later by a decrease of these values. At the same time the phytohaemagglutinin reactivity of lymphocytes increased, and so did the ratio of circulating active T-cells.