Different antiviral spectra of human macrophage interferon activities.
The antiviral activity of alpha-interferon (IFN-alpha) produced by human leukocytes in response to viral infection has been considered to be independent of the virus which induced its production. Recently, however, IFN-alpha has been found to include at least eight different subtypes, as indicated by measurement of antigenic variability, DNA hybridization and amino acid sequencing. We considered the possibility that interferon heterogeneity may play a part in enhancing host antiviral defence and now present data suggesting that purified human macrophages, when exposed to different viruses, produce interferons having differing spectra of antiviral activity. These findings may provide a functional correlation for IFN-alpha heterogeneity.[1]References
- Different antiviral spectra of human macrophage interferon activities. Bell, D.M., Roberts, N.J., Hall, C.B. Nature (1983) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg