Trial reportScientific reports2021
Role of interferon therapy in severe COVID-19: the COVIFERON randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04343768 (An Investigation Into Beneficial Effects of Interferon Beta 1a, Compared to Interferon Beta 1b And The Base Therapeutic Regiment in Moderate to Severe COVID-19), which is not on this map. Cited by 78 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
An Investigation Into Beneficial Effects of Interferon Beta 1a, Compared to Interferon Beta 1b And The Base Therapeutic Regiment in Moderate to Severe COVID-19: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Efficacy of interferon alpha for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Pooled it
- Efficacy of antiviral therapies for COVID-19: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Pooled it
- The impact of therapeutics on mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19: systematic review and meta-analyses informing the European Respiratory Society living guideline.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2021Guideline
- Efficacy of Interferon-β in Moderate-to-Severe Hospitalised Cases of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical drug investigation · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Efficacy of COVID-19 Treatments: A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Frontiers in public health · 2021Pooled it
- An investigation into the beneficial effects of high-dose interferon beta 1-a, compared to low-dose interferon beta 1-a in severe COVID-19: The COVIFERON II randomized controlled trial.International immunopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Pathogenic Characterization and Host Immune Response toAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- QuantiFERONMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 S protein disrupts the formation of ISGF3 complex through conserved S2 subunit to antagonize type I interferon response.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Nutraceuticals and pharmacological to balance the transitional microbiome to extend immunity during COVID-19 and other viral infections.Journal of translational medicine · 2024Review
- In silico screening and evaluation of antiviral peptides as inhibitors against ORF9b protein of SARS-CoV-2.3 Biotech · 2024Review
- Longitudinal single cell atlas identifies complex temporal relationship between type I interferon response and COVID-19 severity.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Efficacy of COVID-19 Treatments in Intensive Care Unit: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Critical care research and practice · 2024Review
- COVID-19-Omics Report: From Individual Omics Approaches to Precision Medicine.Reports (MDPI) · 2023Review
- Interferon β-1a ring prophylaxis to reduce household transmission of SARS-CoV-2: a cluster randomised clinical trial.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Immunovirological and environmental screening reveals actionable risk factors for fatal COVID-19 during post-vaccination nursing home outbreaks.Nature aging · 2023Article
- Potential of Interleukin (IL)-12 Group as Antivirals: Severe Viral Disease Prevention and Management.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Lack of efficacy of Interferon β-1a in COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate pneumonia.European journal of internal medicine · 2023Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Type 1 Interferons (IFNs) have been associated with positive effects on Coronaviruses. Previous studies point towards the superior potency of IFNβ compared to IFNα against viral infections. We conducted a three-armed, individually-randomized, open-label, controlled trial of IFNβ1a and IFNβ1b, comparing them against each other and a control group. Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to IFNβ1a (subcutaneous injections of 12,000 IU on days 1, 3, 6), IFNβ1b (subcutaneous injections of 8,000,000 IU on days 1, 3, 6), or the control group. All three arms orally received Lopinavir/Ritonavir (400 mg/100 mg twice a day for ten days) and a single dose of Hydroxychloroquine 400 mg on the first day. Our utilized primary outcome measure was Time To Clinical Improvement (TTCI) defined as the time from enrollment to discharge or a decline of two steps on the clinical seven-step ordinal scale, whichsoever came first. A total of 60 severely ill patients with positive RT-PCR and Chest CT scans underwent randomization (20 patients to each arm). In the Intention-To-Treat population, IFNβ1a was associated with a significant difference against the control group, in the TTCI; (HR; 2.36, 95% CI 1.10-5.17, P-value = 0.031) while the IFNβ1b indicated no significant difference compared with the control; HR; 1.42, (95% CI 0.63-3.16, P-value = 0.395). The median TTCI for both of the intervention groups was five days vs. seven days for the control group. The mortality was numerically lower in both of the intervention groups (20% in the IFNβ1a group and 30% in the IFNβ1b group vs. 45% in the control group). There were no significant differences between the three arms regarding the adverse events. In patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, as compared with the base therapeutic regiment, the benefit of a significant reduction in TTCI was observed in the IFNβ1a arm. This finding needs further confirmation in larger studies.Trial Registration Number: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04343768. (Submitted: 08/04/2020; First Online: 13/04/2020) (Registration Number: NCT04343768).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.