Clinical efficacy of mouse nerve growth factor on the elderly patients with herpes zoster and variations of serum IgG,IgM and IgA

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of mouse nerve growth factor on the elderly patients with herpes zoster and the influence of serum IgG, IgM and IgA. Methods Using a prospective case-control study, 100 elderly patients with herpes zoster in Dermatology Department of our hospital from January 2016 to October 2018 were randomly divided into observation group(treated with mouse nerve growth factor plus conventional antiviral therapy, n=50) and control group(treated with conventional antiviral therapy, n=50). The difference of effective rate, scores of simplified McGill pain questionnaire(SF-MPQ) before and after treatment, and changes of serum IgG, IgM and IgA were observed. Results The effective rate was 96.00% in the observation group and 74.00% in the control group, with a significant difference between the two groups(P<0.05). The SF-MPQ scores of the observation group before treatment, after treatment and one month after discharge were 28.60±6.35, 10.50±1.60 and 3.16±0.70, while the control group were 27.90±6.70, 15.15±2.35 and 7.50±1.96, respectively. After treatment, the serum IgG, IgM and IgA indexes of the observation group were significantly better than those of the control group(18.60±2.55 vs. 15.50±2.16, 2.06±0.60 vs. 1.43±0.46, 3.20±0.56 vs. 2.80±0.76). The SF-MPQ scores of both groups were significantly lower than those before treatment, and the serum IgG, IgM and IgA indexes were significantly higher than those before treatment at different periods after treatment(all P<0.05). The SF-MPQ scores and serum IgG, IgM and IgA indexes in the observation group were significantly better than those of the control group at different periods after treatment(all P<0.001). There were no serious side effects in both groups. Conclusion Mouse nerve growth factor combined with conventional antiviral therapy is a safe and effective treatment for elderly patients with herpes zoster. It can significantly improve the level of IgG, IgM and IgA in patients, and enhance the humoral immune response. It may be one of the mechanisms for the treatment of herpes zoster.