the real thing
in the depressed immunity situation of long term chronic infections they use levamisole and interferons in mainstream medicine .. interferons r expensive but levamisole is one of the cheapest meds i know of ..
Immunotherapy in chronic brucellosis. Effect of levamisole and interferon; mechanisms of action and clinical value.
Printzis S, Raptopoulou-Gigi M, Orphanou-Koumerkeridou H, Lagre F, Goulis G.
2nd Medical Department, Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Thirty two anergic patients with chronic brucellosis treated with a) interferon-alpha 2b(group 1), b) levamisole (group 2) and c) conventional therapy(group 3) were studied. The effect of treatment on T lymphocyte blast formation in the presence of PHA, specific cell mediated immunity against brucella antigens, titers of brucella antibodies and clinical symptoms were evaluated .T lymphocyte blast formation was shown to range in normal levels in all patients before treatment compared to 10 normal controls suggesting against a generalized impairment of cell mediated immunity. Titers of brucella antibodies were significantly decreased in group 1, almost significantly in group 2 and were significantly increased in group 3 at the end of treatment. A significant improvement of symptoms as well as production of leukocyte migration inhibition against brucella antigens were noted in both groups 1 and 2, in contrast to group 3. This response to treatment was however greater in group 1. These findings demonstrate that immunotherapy resulted in both clinical and immunological improvement and that interferon seems to be a more promising therapeutic approach of chronic brucellosis.
and a second one here
The effect of levamisole combined with the classical treatment in chronic brucellosis.
Irmak H, Buzgan T, Karahocagil MK, Evirgen O, Akdeniz H, Demirz AP.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Yznc Yil University Faculty of Medicine, Van, Turkey.
hasanirmaktr@yahoo.com
Levamisole is an immunopotenciator drug which is used as an antihelmintic drug as well as very effective remedy on cellular immunity compared with humoral immunity. A total 71 patients (37 men, 34 women) who referred to our department between March 1997 and December 2001, with a history of the disease for about 1 year, were diagnosed as having chronic brucellosis through those tests brucella serum agglutination test (SAT), SAT with Coombs and SAT with 2-mercaptoethanol. The patients were randomly divided into levamisole group (36 patients) and control group (35 patients). All patients were given rifampicin 600 mg/day + doxycycline 200 mg/day for 6 weeks as a standard classical combined therapy for brucellosis. In the levamisole group, oral levamisole 80 mg every other day for 6 weeks was added to the treatment. There was a statistically significant difference between two groups, in complaints of arthralgia, fatigue and sweats before and 6 months after treatment, as well as in erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein elevations and lymphomonocytosis finding. While it was provided both clinical and serological improvement in all patients in the levamisole group; 11 patients in the control group did not improve both clinically and in view of specific and nonspecific laboratory findings and a recurrence occurred in one case, in this group. In conclusion, levamisole added to classical antibiotic therapy in treatment of chronic brucellosis was found quite efficient in all patients in providing adequate clinical and laboratory response in comparison to classical antibiotic therapy alone.
PMID: 14690014 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
i think there was a study that they found cimetidine also very effective for cell mediated immunity .. these r proven therapies and doctors have to prescribe these for pwc i think ..
