Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) represents a macrophage (MØ)-tropic virus which is unable to induce interferon (IFN) type I in its target cells. Nevertheless, infected pigs show a short but prominent systemic IFN alpha (IFN-α) response. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is the ability of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) to produce IFN-α in response to fre...

The ultimate goal of pegylated interferon-alfa-2a (Peg-IFN-α) therapy in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is HBsAg seroconversion. Even though B cells are major mediators of a positive clinical outcome, their modulation during Peg-IFN-α therapy has not yet been described. We investigated here the effects of Peg-IFN-α on eight circulating B-cell subsets thanks to an original multi-gating appr...

The survival time of patients with early clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is fairly long, but 20% to 30% of patients with localized tumors experience relapse, and the effect of IFN-α on survival has not been well studied in patients with early ccRCC. In this study, 208 patients with early ccRCC were treated with surgery, and 54 of the patients received IFN-α as adjuvant therapy. The rema...

The cytokine IFN-α is secreted during viral infections and has been shown to inhibit telomerase activity and accelerate T cell differentiation in vivo. However, the mechanism for this inhibition is not clear. In this study, we show that IFN-α inhibits both the transcription and translation of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic component of telomerase, in activated CD8...

To investigate whether the JAK-STAT (Janus kinase-signal transducers and activators of transcription) pathway participates in the regulation of APOBEC3G (Apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like 3G) gene transcription and to study the molecular mechanisms of interferon resistance in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), changes in APOBEC3G and STAT-1 expression levels...

BACKGROUND Interferon (IFN)-α is effective in inhibiting tumor growth and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the biologic mechanisms of IFN-α treatment in lung metastasis are not yet clear. METHODS The effect of IFN-α treatment was studied by using an orthotopic xenograft model and measuring tumor size and lung metastasis. Pretreatment with IFN-α before implantation of tum...

Depression is one of the major side effects of interferon alpha (IFN-α) treatment, but the molecular mechanism underlying IFN-α-induced depression remains unclear. Several studies have shown that the serotonin receptors 5-HTR1b and 5-HTR4 play key roles in the anti-depression effects associated with p11 (S100A10). We investigated the effects of IFN-α on the regulation of p11, 5-HTR1b and 5-HTR4...

OBJECTIVE To track changes in interferon (IFN) production in healthy individuals to shed light on the effect these changes have on the course of healthy ageing. DESIGN Study is based on data that were collected over 24 years from a cohort of individuals whose IFN-α production was quantified as a part of their annual routine health check-up. SETTING All individuals in this study underwent re...

Interferon-induced thyroiditis (IIT) is a major clinical problem for patients receiving interferon-alpha (IFN-α) therapy. But, destructive thyroiditis followed by Graves' disease associated with IFN-α therapy is very rarely reported. Herein, we report a rare case of pegylated IFN-α (pegIFN-α) induced destructive thyroiditis followed by Graves' disease in a patient with HCV infection. A 31-yr-ol...

Human rhinovirus (HRV) infection is a major cause of asthma exacerbations, which appears to be linked to a defective innate immune response to infection. Although the type I interferons (IFN-α and IFN-β) have a critical role in protecting against most viral infections, the cells responsible for IFN production in response to HRV and the relative importance of pattern recognition receptors locate...