Interferon-α2b Treatment for COVID-19
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
The global pandemic of COVID-19 cases caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2 is ongoing, with no approved antiviral intervention. We describe here the effects of treatment with interferon (IFN)-α2b in a cohort of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wuhan, China. In this uncontrolled, exploratory study, 77 adults hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 were treated with either nebulized IFN-α2b (5 mU b.i.d.), arbidol (200 mg t.i.d.) or a combination of IFN-α2b plus arbidol. Serial SARS-CoV-2 testing along with hematological measurements, including cell counts, blood biochemistry and serum cytokine levels, and temperature and blood oxygen saturation levels, were recorded for each patient during their hospital stay. Treatment with IFN-α2b with or without arbidol significantly reduced the duration of detectable virus in the upper respiratory tract and in parallel reduced duration of elevated blood levels for the inflammatory markers IL-6 and CRP. These findings suggest that IFN-α2b should be further investigated as a therapy in COVID-19 cases.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The timing of type I interferon induction is critical: early interferon appears protective, while later it may be less useful for viral control or may drive immunopathology.
“The timing of induction of type I interferon (or type III interferon in mucosal tissue) is crucial as the presence of type I interferon early in infection appears to be protective, whereas its relevance for viral control at later time points may be reduced or may even contribute to immunopathology57,71,72.”
From Immunological mechanisms of vaccine-induced protection against COVID-19 in humans (2021) · cites this paper as [72]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Chen, N., Zhou, M., Dong, X., Qu, J., Gong, F., Han, Y., Qiu, Y., Wang, J., Liu, Y., Wei, Y., et al. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30211-7 · Cited by 21,415 · see citing works
Lu, R., Zhao, X., Li, J., Niu, P., Yang, B., Wu, H., Wang, W., Song, H., Huang, B., Zhu, N., et al. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30251-8 · Cited by 11,907 · see citing works
A Trial of Lopinavir–Ritonavir in Adults Hospitalized with Severe Covid-19
Cao, B., Wang, Y., Wen, D., Liu, W., Wang, J., Fan, G., Ruan, L., Song, B., Cai, Y., Wei, M., et al. (2020) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa2001282 · Cited by 5,187 · see citing works
Gao, J., Tian, Z., & Yang, X. (2020) · BioScience Trends · doi:10.5582/bst.2020.01047 · Cited by 2,592 · see citing works
Role of lopinavir/ritonavir in the treatment of SARS: initial virological and clinical findings
Chu, C. (2004) · Thorax · doi:10.1136/thorax.2003.012658 · Cited by 1,637 · see citing works
Acute Lung Injury: A Clinical and Molecular Review
Butt, Y. M., Kurdowska, A., & Allen, T. C. (2016) · Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine · doi:10.5858/arpa.2015-0519-ra · Cited by 898 · see citing works
de Wit, E., Feldmann, F., Cronin, J., Jordan, R., Okumura, A., Thomas, T., Scott, D. P., Cihlář, T., & Feldmann, H. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1922083117 · Cited by 888 · see citing works
Arbidol as a broad-spectrum antiviral: An update
Blaising, J., Polyak, S. J., & Pécheur, E. (2014) · Antiviral Research · doi:10.1016/j.antiviral.2014.04.006 · Cited by 487 · see citing works
Interferon Alfacon-1 Plus Corticosteroids in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Loutfy, M. R., Blatt, L. M., Siminovitch, K. A., Ward, S. E., Wolff, B., Lho, H., Pham, D. H., Deif, H., LaMere, E. A., Chang, M., et al. (2003) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.290.24.3222 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
Self-citationLian, N., Xie, H. B., Lin, S., et al. (2020) · Clinical Microbiology and Infection · doi:10.1016/j.cmi.2020.04.026 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Global virus outbreaks: Interferons as 1st responders
Wang, B. X., & Fish, E. N. (2019) · Seminars in Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.smim.2019.101300 · Cited by 149 · see citing works
Self-citationHuang, X., Xu, Y., Yang, Q., Chen, J., Zhang, T., Li, Z., Guo, C., Chen, H., Wu, H., & Li, N. (2015) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep08528 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Type I and Type III Interferons – Induction, Signaling, Evasion, and Application to Combat COVID-19
Park, A., & Iwasaki, A. (2020) · Cell Host & Microbe · doi:10.1016/j.chom.2020.05.008 · Cited by 909 · see citing works
COVID-19 and the human innate immune system
Schultze, J. L., & Aschenbrenner, A. C. (2021) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.029 · Cited by 714 · see citing works
Immunological mechanisms of vaccine-induced protection against COVID-19 in humans
Sadarangani, M., Marchant, A., & Kollmann, T. R. (2021) · Nature Reviews Immunology · doi:10.1038/s41577-021-00578-z · Cited by 560 · see citing works
Self-citationSARS-CoV-2 Disrupts Splicing, Translation, and Protein Trafficking to Suppress Host Defenses
Banerjee, A. K., Blanco, M. R., Bruce, E. A., Honson, D. D., Chen, L. M., Chow, A., Bhat, P., Ollikainen, N., Quinodoz, S. A., Loney, C., et al. (2020) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.004 · Cited by 583 · see citing works
Bajaj, V., Gadi, N., Spihlman, A. P., Wu, S. C., Choi, C. H., & Moulton, V. R. (2021) · Frontiers in Physiology · doi:10.3389/fphys.2020.571416 · Cited by 476 · see citing works
Interplay between SARS-CoV-2 and the type I interferon response
Sa Ribero, M., Jouvenet, N., Dreux, M., & Nisole, S. (2020) · PLOS Pathogens · doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1008737 · Cited by 443 · see citing works
Onabajo, O. O., Banday, A. R., Stanifer, M. L., Yan, W., Obajemu, A., Santer, D. M., Florez-Vargas, O., Piontkivska, H., Vargas, J. M., Ring, T. J., et al. (2020) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41588-020-00731-9 · Cited by 261 · see citing works
Chumakov, K., Avidan, M. S., Benn, C. S., Bertozzi, S. M., Blatt, L., Chang, A. Y., Jamison, D. T., Khader, S. A., Kottilil, S., Netea, M. G., et al. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2101718118 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Cegolon, L., Javanbakht, M., & Mastrangelo, G. (2020) · International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health · doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113605 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zhou, Q., Chen, V., Shannon, C. P., Wei, X.-S., Xiang, X., Wang, X., Wang, Z.-H., Tebbutt, S. J., Kollmann, T. R., & Fish, E. N.
- Affiliations
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- The Kids Research Institute Australia (AU)
- University Health Network (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Fish, Eleanor N.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Frontiers in Immunology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2020-05-15
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 1061-1061
- ISSN
- 1664-3224 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7242746
- OpenAlex
- W3025395896
- Cited by
- 417
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 158 · 2020: 118 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 12.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- corrigendum (2020-10-27)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Immunology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- cIRcle (University of British Columbia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Open Collections
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › interferon and immune responses
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, interferon alfa-2b, arbidol, antiviral therapy, viral load, upper respiratory tract, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, inflammatory markers, hospitalized patients, cytokine levels
- MeSH terms
- Interferon alpha-2, COVID-19, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Antiviral Agents, China, Drug Therapy, Combination, Female, Humans, Indoles, Male, Middle Aged, Pneumonia, Viral, Sex Factors, Sulfides, Cohort Studies, Biomarkers, Comorbidity, Cytokines, Interferon-alpha, Coronavirus Infections, Pandemics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
