干扰素(interferons)在50年前被发现，是人体对抗外来病菌的第一道防线，当病菌入侵，细胞便开始分泌干扰素，并将这个讯息分子传递，开始提醒所有细胞进入警界状态，这个讯息分子与发热及发炎反应有关。
迄今，已有三种主要的干扰素被发现，分别以希腊字母α, β及γ-interferon来命名，其中α与β-interferon十分相似，甚至于会与细胞壁上相同的接受器(receptor)结合，而γ-interferon就不同了，它有自己专一的接受器，并且参与许多重要的免疫反应，包括记住抗原(antigen presenting)，能让免疫系统针对这些特定的抗原订制对付它的抗体，或者活化免疫细胞以摧毁致病菌。
魏茨曼科学院(Weizmann Institute)的研究人员发现γ-interferon并非独自完成这些任务，Charles Dinarello教授的研究团队发现另一个在细胞内的分子interleukin-1 alpha(IL-1α)，会与γ-interferon一起启动一连串的免疫反应。此研究发表于近期的PNAS期刊。
虽然γ-interferon及IL-1α这两个分子是由两个分别的系统所产生，但在免疫调节的反应中都扮演相当重要的角色。Rubinstein教授说：「IL-1α不会影响α或β-interferon，但却发现IL-1α与γ-interferon之间有协同作用，互相影响着对方，能活化超过500个以上的基因，当然也包括那些带来热及肌肉疼痛的基因。」Rubinstein教授说：「由于启动γ-interferon抗病毒的活性需要耗费很大的成本，这应该是身体使用γ-interferon及IL-1α“dual key”系统的原因吧！」
(资料来源 : Bio.com)
原始出处: http://www.bio.com/newsfeatures/newsfeatures_research.jhtml?cid=27500004
部分英文原文：
PNAS | March 20, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 12 | 5044-5049
Antiviral and immunoregulatory activities of IFN- depend on constitutively expressed IL-1
Vladimir Hurgin*, Daniela Novick*, Ariel Werman*, Charles A. Dinarello, and Menachem Rubinstein*,
*Department of Molecular Genetics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel; and Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80262
Contributed by Charles A. Dinarello, December 28, 2006 (received for review October 24, 2006)
IFN- induces its immunoregulatory activities by activating genes mainly through the Jak-STAT signaling pathway. Here we show that what was considered to be intrinsic IFN- activities depend largely on the basal level of NF-B, which is maintained by constitutively expressed IL-1. The IL-1 receptor antagonist and antibodies to IL-1, but not to IL-1, inhibited the antiviral activity of IFN- by 90%, whereas no inhibition of type I IFN activity was observed. Similarly, the induction of many genes by IFN-, including HLA-DR, ICAM-1, IL-18BP, and genes mediating its antiviral activity, greatly depended on basal IL-1. Furthermore, IFN- induced serum IL-18 binding protein in wild-type mice but not in IL-1/ double-deficient mice. Thus, constitutively expressed IL-1 is critical for numerous IFN- activities.
Keywords：IFN regulatory factor-1 | NF-B | transcription regulation
