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Amantadine for chronic hepatitis C: pilot study in 14 patients
C Andant1, J Lamoril, J C Deybach
1Hepatogastro-enterology Unit, H pital Louis Mourier, Colombes, France.
Background:
Amantadine, a widely available antiviral drug, has been previously reported to be effective in patients with chronic hepatitis C who failed to respond to interferon-alpha therapy. Nevertheless, its efficacy has not been fully studied, particularly in naive patients.
Objective And Design:
We conducted a pilot study to determine the efficacy and the safety of amantadine as initial therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
Methods And Participants:
Fourteen consecutive patients (mean age, 40 years; M/F ratio, 9/5) with chronic hepatitis C, elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and without cirrhosis were treated with a 6-month course of amantadine, 100 mg orally twice daily. Main outcome measures were ALT concentrations and serum hepatitis C virus-RNA (HCV-RNA) levels at the end of therapy.
Results:
All adverse events were mild or moderate and were not treatment limiting. At the end of treatment, all patients had detectable serum HCV-RNA and only one patient had a normal ALT level. The serum HCV-RNA median level and the ALT median level were not significantly different at the end of treatment as compared to baseline levels.
Conclusions:
Our results show that amantadine alone cannot be recommended as an alternative therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.