What are the benefits of interferon in treating hepatitis B?

Hepatitis B is a common disease caused by a viral infection. There are many treatment methods, the most common method is to use interferon to treat hepatitis B. Interferon is an antiviral drug that affects the activity of the virus by interfering with receptor binding, thereby achieving the effect of treating hepatitis B. However, some people say that interferon has no effect on hepatitis B and has side effects. Today, let’s take a look at the benefits of interferon.

1. Reduce recurrence

Patients with "big three positive" hepatitis have fewer relapses. Patients who receive sustained effective treatment rarely develop cirrhosis and almost never develop liver cancer. And interferon will not cause resistance. It has a limited course of treatment, usually only one year.

2. Relieve symptoms

At the end of the treatment, "big triple positive" can be converted to "small triple positive" for those who are effectively treated.

3. Make cells produce anti-toxic proteins

In a small number of patients, surface antigen turned negative, and in an even smaller number of patients, surface antibody turned positive at the same time. Interferon does have a certain effect in treating hepatitis B virus. Interferon mainly acts on cell surface receptors to make cells produce antiviral proteins, thereby inhibiting the replication of hepatitis B virus.

4. Natural killer cells

At the same time, it can also enhance the activity of natural killer cells and macrophages, thereby playing an immunomodulatory role and enhancing antiviral ability. Therefore, interferon is effective in treating hepatitis B. However, long-term use of interferon treatment may cause side effects.