Effect of ultraviolet irradiation and heating on the interferon-inducing capacity of human adenoviruses.

Heating adenovirus types 8 and 12 for 2 to 3 min. at 560 simultaneously reduced both interferon-inducting capacity and infectivity. In contrast, virus inactivated by u.v.-irradiation effectively stimulated interferon production in chick cells. Chick cells infected with adenovirus type 12 and incubated at 25 °, 35 ° or 4 °o produced about the same amount of interferon but the kinetics of interferon production differed, i.e. at the higher temperatures interferon formation commenced earlier. The possibility that the penton antigen may be responsible for interferon induction by human adenoviruses in chick cells is discussed.