Heterogeneity of immune control in chronic hepatitis B virus infection: Clinical implications on immunity with interferon-α treatment and retreatment

Table 4 Summary and timeline of interferon-α retreatment for chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Ref.	Year	The regimens of INF-α retreatment
van Zonneveld et al[10]	2004	One hundred and sixty-five patients received their first IFN-α treatment. Of them, 48 non-responders received 2-3 courses of IFN-α
Manesis and Hadziyannis[11]	2001	Two hundred and sixteen patients received IFN-α therapy, of whom 51 received a second IFN-α treatment and 9 were treated with three courses of IFN-α
Niederau et al[12]	1996	One hundred and three cases were treated IFN-α. Of them, 29 received a second course of therapy, and 17 received a third course of IFN-α
Carreño et al[13]	1999	Fifty-seven patients underwent a course of IFN-α therapy. Of them, 27 received a second course of IFN-α; and 30 others who did not receive IFN-α retreatment served as controls. IFN-α retreatment was found to enhance the antiviral effects against HBV
Ballauff et al[14]	1998	After all the children received the first course of IFN-α treatment, 15 were given the second course of IFN-α (study group), while the other 19 did not receive the second course of IFN-α, serving as the control group. HBV DNA clearance and anti-HBe seroconversion occurred in 5 of 15 children (33%) in the study group and 5 of 19 children (26%) in the control group
Yin and Zhong[15]	2016	Inappropriate therapies induced HBV resistance, multi-drug resistance and failure of combination therapy with nucleoside plus nucleotide in China. An IFN-α regimen, i.e. (1) Switch from nucleoside plus nucleotide to IFN-α therapy; and (2) subsequent IFN-α retreatment, was used to treat these patients. IFN-α switching therapy leaded to safe cessation of nucleoside plus nucleotide combination therapy, and IFN-α retreatment induced sustained response of IFN-α
Sarin et al[16]	2016	Asian-Pacific clinical practice guidelines 2015 recommended IFN-α retreatment to treat chronic HBV infection
Liaw et al[17]	2012	Asian-Pacific clinical practice guidelines 2012 recommended IFN-α retreatment to treat chronic HBV infection
Liaw et al[18]	2008	Asian-Pacific clinical practice guidelines 2008 recommended IFN-α retreatment to treat chronic HBV infection
Yin et al[64]	2021	IFN-α retreatment was recommended for patients on entecavir or tenofovir monotherapy with persistent low-level viremia

IFN-α: Interferon-α; HBV: Hepatitis B virus.