Talk:Interferon

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Contents 1 Links 2 Chicken bones 3 Discovery 4 Alfa and Beta Interferons 5 Whilst 6 Whilst corrections. 7 Viral Induction of Interferons: 8 Fever

[edit] Links

The following materials need to be organized:

All materials from: http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?lex_i

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?key=IFN%2dalpha IFN-alpha

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?key=IFN%2dbeta IFN-beta

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?key=IFN%2dbeta%2d2 IFN-beta-2

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?key=IFN%2ddelta IFN-delta

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?key=IFN%2dkappa IFN-kappa

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?key=IFN%2domega IFN-omega

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/cope.cgi?key=IFN%2dgamma IFN-gamma

189.58.0.248 (talk) 02:44, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello, Please add more information about INF-alpha's pyrogenic role after bacteria infection. Thank you!! All I know is that it acts on the hypothalamus.

Howdy! I reworked your interferon page quite a bit. I don't want to bitch about short articles, but for a lot of these biology articles, specificity is pretty important :) Anyway, its more specific now... there's still plenty more to put in about interferon structure, differences between species, Th1 and Th2 responses, etc. -Dlamming

Hi! I redid the first paragraph and updated with current information on interferons and their receptors -eviltwin

Does anyone have any knowledge about administrating both Interferon alpha and beta (concurrently) to treat a patient who suffers from both Hepatitis C and Multiple Sclerosis???? -User:physician question

[edit] Chicken bones

I wish to extract interferon from chicken bones and I am wondering if the broth containing the interferon can be frozen without inactivating the interferon. In other words, I want to stockpile some "Jewish penicillin" against the possibility of catching the flu, but don't want to bother if it will not contain active interferon after freezing. Can someone enlighten me about this, please?

Interferon is not present in significant quantities in bone. It is a small peptide mainly found in blood and extracellular fluid and produced by certain leukocyte subsets and other specialised tissues. Why are you concerned about the freezing? Is your grandma's freezer bursting with frozen chicken soup? JFW | T@lk 21:51, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discovery

I have added a section about the discovery of the interferon. It was going to be a complete 'brief history' talking about the work of Kari Cantell etc. in the 1960's and how isolation methods improved over the decades, but I think i'll try and add to it in time.--Shastrix 19:19, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alfa and Beta Interferons

I have a question concerning medicines used to treat multiple sclerosis--particularly inteferons--and those used to treat chronic hepatitis C.

A few years back, I underwent therapy consisting of injections of pegalated alfa 2b interferon and ribaviron to treat hepatitis C. I feel blessed; my therapy was a success and I haven't felt better in years! They say I could be in remission for the rest of my life (I'm 50 years old).

Unfortunately, the side-effects of the treatment were not so kind to me; I even had to quit work for four months. My sister (while being treated with interferons for MS) suffered little or no side-effects while being treated for her MS.

So often people ask the question, "Aren't the medications for both illnesses the same, and if so, why did you suffer so severely on alfa 2b (pegalated version)while your sister's side effects on beta have been so minimal?"

So, are both the meds(interferons) for MS and HCV basically the same?

I'd like to be able to supply an answer once and for all; because, frankly, I'm getting a little tired of the question?

Thanks,

--Debbie122756 18:10, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

PS. A professional opinion would be welcomed.

Though I am not a doctor, I am a researcher working in the interferon field. IFN-Beta for MS and IFN-alpha for HCV are both interferons but they are not the same. For instance IFN-alpha has been tried for MS and did not help, and IFN-beta has not proven useful, to date, for cancer and viral diseases. Hence there are some fundamental differences between the two drugs. There are also differences between patients in how well they tolerate the drugs, some are highly sensitive to the side effects, while others are much less sensitive.

Best, Proteinman 12:20, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Whilst

Hi. I highly doubt that "whilst", which appears 3 times in the "Discovery" section would qualify for common english to be used in wikipedia!  ;) I suggest someone with a better mastery of english that I posses to change this to equivalent expressions.

Cheers

[edit] Whilst corrections.

I changed the 3 whilst's. I couldn't resist. It's like listening to my otherwise articulate weatherman use the word "acrost" instead of across. Elizabeth Macy.

As the original writer of the 'discovery' section I was somewhat bemused by your comments. Yes the frequency at which the 'whilst' appeared was perhaps a little high, but as far as I'm aware there is nothing incorrect about its usage. A little search on the Internet revealed: "Both while and whilst are ancient, though while is older. There’s no difference in meaning between them. For reasons that aren’t clear, whilst has survived in British English but has died out in the US. However, in Britain it is considered to be a more formal and literary word than its counterpart."

Is there something that my 17 years of English education has missed? I'm guessing that we merely have an Atlantic disparity here. Whilst I prefer the original two instances of the word, I must concede that 'meanwhile' is more suited in the final case. If this really is an issue, perhaps it would be worth mentioning on the American_and_British_English_spelling_differences page; it is certainly news to me. 0_o --Shastrix 23:02, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Viral Induction of Interferons:

This section has a few major problems. I don't have time to re-write it properly at the moment but I'll come back in a week or two. I'll sketch out my concerns here but I'm in the middle of another big project at the momentand don;t have time to properly hunt for references.

Specifically:

"The dsRNA acts like a trigger for the production of interferon (via Toll Like Receptor 3 (TLR 3) a pattern recognition receptor of the innate immune system which leads to activation of the transcription factor IRF3 and late phase NF kappa Beta)." Broadly correct, but incomplete. TLR3 is able to sense dsRNA and induce IFN production but it is by no means uniue in this respect. RIGi, MDA5 and PKR all play similar roles in detecting dsRNA. This article correctly mentions IRF3 but IRF7 also plays a role.

"However, these cells have received interferon, which essentially warns these other cells that there's a wolf in the pack of sheep. They then start producing large amounts of a protein known as protein kinase R (or PKR). If a virus chooses to infect a cells that has been “pre-warned” by interferon, it is like charging into a hail of bullets for the virus."

The slightly weird writing style aside (maybe I've got too used to the dry style of scientific papers), I see two problems here. Firstly, IFN stimulation initiates a lot of changes within cells. This does include upregulation of PKR but there's a lot of other stuff going on as well. I'll go into detail when I have time to re-write. Secondly, implying that the virus "chooses to infect a cell" seems misleading: viruses are so simple that most virologists I know would hesitate to say that they're technically living things so to imply they're capable of choice is ludicrous.

"The PKR is indirectly activated by the dsRNA (actually by 2'-5' oligoadenylate produced by the 2'-5' oligoadenylate-synthetase which is produced due to TLR3 activation), and begins transferring phosphate groups (phosphorylating) to a protein known as eIF2, a eukaryotic translation initiation factor."

This is just plain wrong. PKR binds dsRNA directly and is phosphorylated (either through dimerisation or autophosphorylation - the last I heard this was still controversial) which leads to activation. As stated here 2'5'-oas is a dsRNA-activated enzyme which churns out 2'5'-oa. However, 2'5'-oa is actually the activiating agent for RNAseL, which degrades mRNA molecules within the cell, acting as a secondary shuoff for translation. In short, the PKR and 2'5'-oas pathways are both upregulated by IFN and activated by dsRNA but don't interact. See this article: http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v18/n45/abs/1203127a.html

[Another handy reference for this is http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/mayer/vir-host2000.htm - I too found the content in this section confusing and contradictory.... and you appear to be correct, the result of 2'5'-oas synthesis(?) is the production of RNAse L, not PKR.] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.253.94.214 (talk) 18:47, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

...there are a few other trivial bits I'd like to tidy up but those were my main objections. Sorry to criticise and run but I'll be back shortly to submit an updated and properly cited version. Actually, what's the policy for citations here? Most of my sources are scientific papers, many of which are only accessable with a subscription, Athens account or via a good library. Are these still acceptable given that many people will have trouble getting at them? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 143.65.99.20 (talk) 11:58, 21 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Fever

I always heard that high fever was necessary for the production of interferon by the body; is this fact or myth? Albmont 20:10, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Myth. Interferons are almost certainly produced in small quantities every day. It might be true that old-style bioassays for interferon in the bloodstream would have been positive only with a condition that causes fever, but that's a technological rather than biological restriction.Scray (talk) 03:37, 27 April 2008 (UTC)