Interferons are cytokines produced by the cells of the immune system in response to viral infection and other stimuli. They were discovered in 1957 by British bacteriologist Alick Isaacs and Swiss microbiologist Jean Lindenmann. They are named for their ability to interfere with viruses that are replicating in host cell.
Interferons are part of the non-specific immune system and are induced at an early stage in viral infection, even before the specific immune system has had time to respond.
By inhibiting virus replication within host cells, activating natural killer cells and macrophages and increasing antigen presentation to lymphocytes, they induce resistance of host cells to viral infection. They are produced by all vertebrate animals and possibly by some invertebrates as well.
In addition to their anti viral activity, interferons perform immunoregulatory functions such as inhibiting B-cell activation, enhancing T-cell activity, and increasing the cellular- destruction ability of natural killer cells.
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Interferons secreted by cells in response to an appropriate stimulus are released into the surrounding medium. Then they bind to receptors on target cells and induce transcription of approximately 20-30 genes in the target cells leading to an anti-viral state in the target cells. Relatively little is known of interferon regulated genes.
INTERFEROME is a database of interferon regulated genes and attempts to bridge the gap in knowledge by identifying and integrating information on IRGs