Antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects of Viusid in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Table 4 Patients’ baseline cytokine values and outcome at 6 mo

Variable	Viusid (n = 30)				Placebo (n = 30)				P value1
	Before treatment	After treatment	Change	P value	Before treatment	After treatment	Change	P value
IL-1α (pg/mL)	3.26 ± 0.7	2.61 ± 0.3	-0.60 ± 0.8	0.04	3.09 ± 0.5	6.62 ± 2.3	3.53 ± 2.4	0.04	0.04
IL-1β (pg/mL)	3.7 ± 0.1	2.9 ± 0.1	-0.8 ± 0.1	< 0.001	4 ± 0.1	3 ± 0.1	-1 ± 0.2	< 0.001	0.24
IL-2 (pg/mL)	17.9 ± 2.3	11.3 ± 0.2	-6.5 ± 2.2	< 0.01	19.9 ± 4.7	12.1 ± 0.8	-7.8 ± 3.9	0.04	0.39
IL-6 (pg/mL)	2.5 ± 0.2	2.1 ± 0.2	-0.4 ± 0.3	0.14	2.1 ± 0.3	2 ± 0.2	-0.1 ± 0.3	0.71	0.24
IL-10 (pg/mL)	2.6 ± 0.6	8.3 ± 4.1	5.7 ± 4	0.04	2.8 ± 4.1	4.1 ± 0.1	1.3 ± 0.2	0.09	0.01
IL-12 (pg/mL)	7.5 ± 1.4	5.1 ± 0.9	-2.4 ± 1.1	0.04	7.6 ± 1.2	6.2 ± 1.5	-1.4 ± 1.4	0.34	0.29
IFN-γ (pg/mL)	1.92 ± 0.2	2.89 ± 0.4	0.97 ± 0.5	< 0.001	1.80 ± 0.1	1.68 ± 0.1	-0.11 ± 0.2	0.70	< 0.0001
TNF-α (pg/mL)	6.6 ± 0.2	7.1 ± 0.4	0.45 ± 0.4	0.26	6.9 ± 0.5	16.2 ± 3.4	9.3 ± 3.1	< 0.01	0.001
TNF-β (pg/mL)	8.5 ± 0.4	5.4 ± 0.1	-3.1 ± 0.5	< 0.001	9.1 ± 0.6	6.3 ± 1.2	-2.8 ± 1.2	0.03	0.21
Cathepsin L (ng/mL)	1.7 ± 0.1	2.9 ± 0.2	1.2 ± 0.2	< 0.001	1.7 ± 0.1	3.1 ± 0.2	1.4 ± 0.2	< 0.001	0.16
GM-CSF (pg/mL)	4.4 ± 0.1	4.6 ± 0.1	0.2 ± 0.2	0.24	4.3 ± 0.1	4.6 ± 0.1	0.3 ± 0.2	0.11	0.60

¹P values are for the comparison between groups (change from baseline). Plus-minus values are mean ± SE of mean; Continuous parameters were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test and the Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used for treatment group comparisons.