Abstract: SHI Li-jun*, ZENG Kang, LI Li-hao, WU Hai-juan, ZOU Xun-hui, HUANG Xiao-xiong. *Huizhou Institute for Skin Disease Prevention and Control, Huizhou 516001, Guangdong, China 【Abstract】 Objective To investigate the changes to eotaxin, tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α） and interferon-γ （IFN-γ） in plasma from patients with chronic urticaria treated with the combination of polysaccharide nucleic acid fraction of bacillus Calmette-Guerin （BCG-PSN） and cetirizine. Methods Totally, 123 patients with chronic urticaria were enrolled into this study, and classified into two groups: the combination therapy group （n = 60） treated with intramuscular BCG-PSN 2 ml every other day and oral cetirizine 10 mg once daily, and the monotherapy group （n = 63） treated with oral cetirizine 10 mg once daily alone. The treatment lasted 54 days. Clinical efficacy was evaluated. Venous blood samples were collected from the patients before and after the treatment, as well as from 56 healthy controls. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to quantify the plasma levels of eotaxin, TNF-α and IFN-γ. Results At the end of the treatment, the total response rate was significantly higher in the combination therapy group than in the monotherapy group （88.3% vs. 63.4%, P < 0.05）. Before the treatment, no significant differences were observed in the plasma levels of eotaxin, TNF-α or IFN-γ between the two treatment groups, whereas the patients showed higher plasma levels of eotaxin and TNF-α but lower plasma level of IFN-γ compared with the healthy controls （all P < 0.5）. Both the combination therapy and monotherapy resulted in a statistical decrease in plasma eotaxin and TNF-α but an increase in plasma IFN-γ （all P > 0.05）, and the absolute values of changes in the three parameters were significantly higher in the combination therapy group than in the monotherapy group （eotaxin: （13.27 ± 4.11） μg/L vs. （8.12 ± 2.58） μg/L, t = 8.3654, P < 0.05; TNF-α: （12.38 ± 3.95） ng/L vs. （10.32 ± 3.41） ng/L, t = 3.1005, P < 0.05; IFN-γ: （17.06 ± 5.24） μg/L vs. （12.54 ± 4.07） μg/L, t = 5.3573, P < 0.05）. Further more, the differences between the patients and healthy controls in the three parameters disappeared at the end of the treatment （all P > 0.05）. Conclusion BCG-PSN combined with cetirizine seems superior to cetirizine alone for the treatment of chronic urticaria.

Key words: BCG-PSN, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha