The innate immune system fights infectious agents, and the alarm messenger interferon plays a central role in this. However, if interferon is produced in the absence of an infection, it can lead to ...

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 ...

In a new study, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have uncovered insights as to why lupus symptoms and severity present differently in individuals with the autoimmune condition, which ...

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 ...

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,’” ...

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 ...

Multiple system atrophy is a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disease, where insoluble inclusions of the protein alpha-synuclein appear in oligodendrocyte cells of the brain. The resulting ...

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 ...

Question: I have been prescribed a drug called Intron A for chronic hepatitis C and I don't understand how it works. My physician tells me I can't go without it, but until I learn how it works, I ...