A component of the human interferon system that activates SARS-CoV-2 cellular defenses appears to be defective in a proportion of humans, new research reports. COVID-19 outcomes were more severe in ...

The paper E.N. Judd et al., “Positive natural selection in primate genes of the type I interferon response,” BMC Ecol Evol, 21:65, 2021. In humans, one of the host cell’s first lines of defense ...

Researchers have discovered that Type I interferon (IFN) plays a key role in helping the immune system effectively target viruses, while stopping white blood cells from 'going rogue' and attacking the ...

In severe cases of COVID-19, a person’s immune system throws everything it has at the coronavirus, but some of the weapons it lobs end up hurting the patient instead of fighting the virus. Now ...

These intercellular messages, ferried about by molecules called interferons, serve as a warning signal to nearby cells—“‘You are about to be infected; it’s time for you to set up an antiviral state,’” ...

An inhaled form of interferon — a drug commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis by injection — may help protect hospitalized Covid-19 patients from getting worse, according to a British drugmaker.

Northwestern Medicine investigators have discovered a novel signaling pathway activated by interferons, a group of immune system proteins, that suppresses the anti-tumor response of interferons in ...

The immune system uses a special mechanism to protect children from novel viruses—and it typically saves them from a severe course of COVID-19 in two different ways. In the mucous membranes of their ...