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Interferon

About: Interferon is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 28969 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1219645 citations. The topic is also known as: IFN & interferons.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results indicate that TLR3, TLR7 and TLR9 may play an important role in detecting and combating viral infections.

1,138 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
10 Apr 1997-Nature
TL;DR: The results implicate caspase-1 in the physiological production of IGIF and demonstrate that it plays a critical role in the regulation of multiple proinflammatory cytokines, which would provide a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs with multipotent action.
Abstract: Interferon-gamma-inducing factor (IGIF, interleukin-18) is a recently described cytokine that shares structural features with the interleukin-1 (IL-1) family of proteins and functional properties with IL-12. Like IL-12, IGIF is a potent inducer of interferon (IFN)-gamma from T cells and natural killer cells. IGIF is synthesized as a biologically inactive precursor molecule (proIGIF). The cellular production of IL-1beta, a cytokine implicated in a variety of inflammatory diseases, requires cleavage of its precursor (proIL-1beta) at an Asp-X site by interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme (ICE, recently termed caspase-1). The Asp-X sequence at the putative processing site in proIGIF suggests that a protease such as caspase-1 might be involved in the maturation of IGIF. Here we demonstrate that caspase-1 processes proIGIF and proIL-1beta with equivalent efficiencies in vitro. A selective caspase-1 inhibitor blocks both lipopolysaccharide-induced IL-1beta and IFN-gamma production from human mononuclear cells. Furthermore, caspase-1-deficient mice are defective in lipopolysaccharide-induced IFN-gamma production. Our results thus implicate caspase-1 in the physiological production of IGIF and demonstrate that it plays a critical role in the regulation of multiple proinflammatory cytokines. Specific caspase-1 inhibitors would provide a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs with multipotent action.

1,137 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Innate defenses provide a pre-existing and fast-acting system of protection which is non-specific and relatively temperature-independent and thus has several advantages over the slow-acting and temperature-dependent specific immune responses.
Abstract: The integumental defenses provide a physical and chemical barrier to the attachment and penetration of microbes. Besides the entrapping and sloughing of microbes in the mucus, the latter contains many antibacterial substances including anti-bacterial peptides, lysozyme, lectins and proteases. The gastro-intestinal tract is a hostile environment of acids, bile salts and enzymes able to inactivate and digest many viruses and bacteria. In most cases the integumental defenses are sufficient to protect against even quite virulent organisms which often only produce disease when the integument has been physically damaged. If a microbe gains access to the tissues of the fish, it is met with an array of soluble and cellular defenses. The complement system, present in the blood plasma, plays a central role in recognising bacteria and its activated products may lyse the bacterial cells, initiate inflammation, induce the influx of phagocytes and enhance their phagocytic activity. Complement can be activated directly by bacterial products and constituents and also indirectly by other factors, principally C-reactive protein and lectins, which can also bind to the bacterial surface. Plasma also contains a number of factors which inhibit bacterial growth(e.g. transferrin and anti-proteases) or which are bactericidal e.g. lysozyme. Following the infection of fish with virus pathogens, infected cells produce interferon. This induces antiviral defenses in neighbouring cells which are then protected from becoming infected. Anti-viral cytotoxic cells are able to lyse virally infected cells and thus reduce the rate of multiplication of virus within them. Innate defenses thus provide a pre-existing and fast-acting system of protection which is non-specific and relatively temperature-independent and thus has several advantages over the slow-acting and temperature-dependent specific immune responses.

1,115 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Analysis of biopsy specimens from patients with melanoma confirmed interferon signature enrichment and upregulation of gene targets for STAT1/STAT2/STAT3 and IRF1 in anti-PD-1-responding tumors.

1,111 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023812
20221,354
20211,152
20201,057
2019902
2018881