Isoprinosine in the treatment of genital warts.
Several modes of therapy are presently available for treatment of genital warts. These include use of keratolytics such as podophyllin or trichloroacetic acid, electrocoagulation, cryotherapy, and laser therapy. Responses have not been uniformly successful, however, and particularly in patients with resistant warts there is evidence of impairment of cell-mediated immunity (CMI). In the healing process both humoral and CMI responses are of importance, and indeed it has been reported that in patients with recalcitrant viral warts the lesions disappeared at the same time the CMI response returned to normal. Isoprinosine is an orally administered drug known to have both in vitro and in vivo immunopotentiating activity and has been shown previously to restore toward normal the depressed CMI responses of diverse etiology accompanying a variety of clinical conditions. Recent evidence implicating certain types of genital warts in later development of cervical cancer in females has led to the search for a more effective treatment of this condition. Clinical studies to date involving the use of isoprinosine alone or in combination appear to have established the role of this safe and easily administered oral drug in increasing the chances of total eradication of condylomatous lesions and sparing a high percentage of patients from having to undergo repeated and more traumatic therapies.