Therapeutic efficacy of the combination of entecavir and thymosin alpha 1 on patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B

Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of the combination of entecavir (ETV) and thymosin alpha 1 on patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods Totally 140 patients with HBeAg-positive CHB were random- ized into a treatment group (n=72) and a control group (n=68). The patients in the treatment group were administered with ETV 0.5 mg once daily and subcutaneously injected with thymosin alpha 1 1.6 mg per time twice a week for 48 weeks, while the patients in the control group were only administered with 0.5 mg once daily for 48 weeks. Results The treatment group displayed significantly higher HBeAg negative rate (58.33%) and higher HBeAg /anti-HBe seroconversion rate (38.89%) compared with the control group (23.53% and 11.76%, respectively), and the differences between the two groups were significant (P 0.01). The differences in both HBV DNA negative rate and ALT normalization rate were not significant between the two groups (P0.05). Conclusion The combination of ETV and thymosin alpha 1 can improve HBeAg negative rate and HBeAg/anti-HBe seroconversion rate in patients with HBeAg-positive CHB.