الكاتب: Multiple References

THE PHENOMENON of viral interference, first described in 1935,' is the ability of one virus to interfere with the replication of another (challenge) virus. Thus, the quest was underway for the mediator of viral interference for over 20 years before Isaacs and Lindenmann assigned the name interferon (IFN) to it in 1957.* Thei; discovery of a soluble antiviral factor released from chick chorioallantoic membranes after exposure to a heat-inactivated influenza virus was the beginning of IFN research. IFNs are now recognized to be low molecular weight proteins and glycoproteins that affect a variety of functions in animal cells, iccluding virus replication,2 cell gro~th,~,~ and the immune re~ponse.~ It is likely that the cells of all vertebrate animals are capable of producing IFNs.~ To qualify as an IFN, a viral inhibitor must have virus-aonspecific antiviral activity in at least homologous cells through cellular metabolic processes that involve the synthesis of both RNA and protein.'