These are an extraordinary group of proteins whose anti-viral activity led to their discovery almost 50 years ago. Lympocytes, macrophages and fibroblasts infected with viruses produce proteins called interferons or IFNs. These are released by virus-infected cells and diffuse to uninfected neighbouring cells to induce synthesis of anti-viral proteins. It has other effects too, viz. induce cell differentiation and inhibit angiogensis in various immunoregulatory roles.
IFN can stop viral replication and therefore prevent the occurrence of diseases. It forms an important defense system against many viral infections viz. chicken pox, genital herpes, rabies, rubella, eye infections, encephalitis and even common cold. There are three types of IFNs-(i)a(alpha), (ii) ß(Beta)
and (iii) y (gamma). The are also widely used as therapeutic agents for cancer, multiple sclerosis, mutiple myclomas etc
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