Trends in Immunology
Volume 36, Issue 3, March 2015, Pages 124-138
Journal home page for Trends in Immunology

Feature review
Focus: Type I interferons
Interferons and viruses: an evolutionary arms race of molecular interactions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.it.2015.01.004Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Pathogen recognition leads to the production of many similar interferons.

  • Interferons signal through the same receptor but can have different effects.

  • Viruses antagonize interferon induction and signaling.

  • Innate immune activators are effective vaccine adjuvants.

Over half a century has passed since interferons (IFNs) were discovered and shown to inhibit virus infection in cultured cells. Since then, researchers have steadily brought to light the molecular details of IFN signaling, catalogued their pleiotropic effects on cells, and harnessed their therapeutic potential for a variety of maladies. While advances have been plentiful, several fundamental questions have yet to be answered and much complexity remains to be unraveled. We explore the current knowledge surrounding four main questions: are type I IFN subtypes differentially produced in response to distinct pathogens? How are IFN subtypes distinguished by cells? What are the mechanisms and consequences of viral antagonism? Lastly, how can the IFN response be harnessed to improve vaccine efficacy?

Keywords

interferons
interferon subtype
innate immunity
viruses
viral antagonism
vaccine adjuvants.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.

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