Interferon alpha observational studies

Several reports of persistent psychosis following the administration of interferon-alpha (Tamam et al., 2003 Thome and Knopf, 2003 Teho et al., 2006) or high doses of IL-2 (Denicoff et al., 1987) demonstrate that cytokines could conceivably mediate some aspects of cognitive impairment observed in schizophrenic patients. These studies are interesting in light of the fact that evidence for abnormal levels of cytokines in schizophrenic patients is accumulating (Malek-Ahmadi, 1996 Prolo and Licinio, 1999). However, further studies are needed to show a causative relationship between cytokine levels in patients and the precipitation of psychotic episodes. 

Observational studies The combination of thymosin alpha-1 + dacarbazine + interferon alpha has been studied in a multicenter randomized study in 488 patients with metastatic melanomas [203 ]. There were several durable responses in patients who were given thymosin alpha-1 the median duration of response was 1.9-23 months, which was sufficient to reject the null-hypothesis that the expected response rate in the treatment groups would be the same. There was also a trend towards improved progression-free survival in patients given thymosin alpha-1. Based on these results, it was concluded that thymosin alpha-1 could potentiate the efficacy of dacarbazine. The addition of thymosin alpha-1 to dacarbazine and interferon-alfa did not lead to any additional adverse reactions. 

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