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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Determining Immune System Suppression versus CNS Protection for Pharmacological Interventions in Autoimmune Demyelination
Published on: September 12, 2016
Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy after treatment with interferon-alpha
Makoto Hirotani1, Hitoshi Nakano, Shigehisa Ura
1Department of Neurology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo. hirotani@med.hokudai.ac.jp
Abstract:
Interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), though widely used for the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis, may be associated with the occurrence of autoimmune disorders. In this case report, a patient with chronic hepatitis C virus infection had chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) after the initiation of IFN-alpha therapy. The neurological symptoms of this patient continued to progress even though the treatment with IFN-alpha had been withdrawn; the symptoms improved dramatically following treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin. This case may therefore provide an important clue to understand the immune mechanism of CIDP and IFN-alpha.
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