Alpha Interferon May Benefit CFS Patients

A subgroup of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome characterized by a decrease in the levels of natural killer cells may benefit from therapy with alpha interferon, according to researchers from the University of California at Irvine, USA.

Patients with CFS suffer from a variety of symptoms including severe tiredness, fevers, headaches, sore throats, decreased concentration and depression. The cause of the illness is unknown, but it is postulated that CFS is in fact a group of disorders, with common symptoms, characterized by immune system dysfunction. The UCI researchers have stratified CFS sufferers into four groups, one of which is deficient in NK cells.

In the study, which was presented at the 34th Intersciences Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 30 patients with CFS were treated with interferon alfa-2a (Roche/Genentech) or placebo in a double-blind crossover fashion for 12 weeks. In 27 of these patients, one or more parameters of immune function (NK cell function, lymphocyte proliferation on mitogens and soluble antigens and CD4/CD8 counts) was less than 50% that of a normal individual.