Table 2.

Outcome and clinical measures among COVID-19 patients treated by IFN-β

Author	IFN-β dose	Interferon type	Interferon administration	Resolved fever	Measured CBC		Hospitalization or discharge (intervention/control)	Mortality	Serious adverse effects
					WBC count	Lymphocyte count
Rahmani et al. (2020)	250 mcg subcutaneously every other day for two consecutive weeks	IFN β-1b	Subcutaneous	54.5% vs. 63.6%	5400 (4025–8250) vs. 5900 (4050–7650)	924 (520–1400) vs. 869 (670-1000)	Discharge (78.79% vs 54.55%)	6.06% vs. 18.18%	No
Dastan et al. (2020)	44 μg subcutaneously every other day up to 10 days. (equivalent to 12 million international units)	IFN-β-1a	Subcutaneous	Resolved in all patients during first 7 days	Increased	Increased	Mean ±SD: 16.8 ± 3.4 days	0% in 14 days	No
Monfared et al. (2020)	44 micrograms/ml (12 million IU/ml) of interferon β-1a three times weekly for two consecutive weeks	IFN-β-1a	Subcutaneous		8345±4632/7686±4033	Not reported	14.80 ± 8.45/12.25 ± 7.48	19%/43.6% in 28 days	Not different between the groups
Payandemehr et al. (2020)	(44 μg every day until discharge or until 5 days of admission	IFN-β-1a	Subcutaneous	The most common symptom of the patients at onset of disease was fever. None of the patients had fever even in follow-up	5.9×103	20.7%	6.75 (±9.2) days	One of them died after 45 days of hospitalization	No adverse effects reported
Fan-Ngai Hung et al. (2020)	three doses of 8 million international units of interferon-beta-1b on alternate days	beta-1	Subcutaneous	81% vs 78%	4.9 vs 5.4 × 109 per L	1.0 vs 1.3 × 109 per L	9.0 vs 14.5 days	0.0% vs 0.0%	0.0% vs 2%