Immunotherapy in infectious disease, autoimmunity and cancer

The clinical and immunologic effects of transfer factor and of levamisole were evaluated in over 200 patients with a variety of diseases. With transfer factor, the most encouraging results were observed in patients with the Wiscott-Aldrich syndrome, chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, coccidioidomycosis, Behcet's disease and malignant melanoma. With levamisole, the most promising results were observed in patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis, rheumatoid arthritis and herpes simplex infections, especially ocular herpes. Immunologically, transfer factor usually caused conversion of skin test reactivity and conversion of in vitro tests of cellular immunity as well, whereas levamisole caused increases in skin test reactivity without a parallel change in in vitro para meters, suggesting that the two agents may have different mechanisms of action. In a limited number of patients with multiple sclerosis, reactivity to three viral antigens was found to be lower than that in normal subjects, as measured by lymphocyte stimulation. Following levamisole therapy, this reactivity increased to normal levels, but the patients did not show clinical benefit.