Departamento de Sanidad Animal, Facultad Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain; E-mails:
Viruses. 2009 Dec;1(3):545-73. doi: 10.3390/v1030545. Epub 2009 Oct 27.
Type-I interferons (IFN-I) play an important role in the innate immune response to several retroviruses. They seem to be effective in controlling the in vivo infection, though many of the clinical signs of retroviral infection may be due to their continual presence which over-stimulates the immune system and activates apoptosis. IFN-I not only affect the immune system, but also operate directly on virus replication. Most data suggest that the in vitro treatment with IFN-I of retrovirus infected cells inhibits the final stages of virogenesis, avoiding the correct assembly of viral particles and their budding, even though the mechanism is not well understood. However, in some retroviruses IFN-I may also act at a previous stage as some retroviral LTRs posses sequences homologous to the IFN-stimulated response element (ISRE). When stimulated, ISREs control viral transcription. HIV-1 displays several mechanisms for evading IFN-I, such as through Tat and Nef. Besides IFN-α and IFN-β, some other type I IFN, such as IFN-τ and IFN-ω, have potent antiviral activity and are promising treatment drugs.
I 型干扰素 (IFN-I) 在机体对几种逆转录病毒的固有免疫反应中发挥着重要作用。它们似乎在控制体内感染方面是有效的，尽管许多逆转录病毒感染的临床症状可能是由于它们的持续存在，过度刺激免疫系统并激活细胞凋亡。IFN-I 不仅影响免疫系统，还直接作用于病毒复制。大多数数据表明，体外用 IFN-I 处理感染逆转录病毒的细胞会抑制病毒发生的最后阶段，从而阻止病毒颗粒的正确组装和出芽，尽管其机制尚未完全理解。然而，在某些逆转录病毒中，IFN-I 也可能在早期发挥作用，因为一些逆转录病毒的 LTR 具有与 IFN 刺激反应元件 (ISRE) 同源的序列。当受到刺激时，ISREs 控制病毒转录。HIV-1 有几种逃避 IFN-I 的机制，如通过 Tat 和 Nef。除了 IFN-α 和 IFN-β，其他一些 I 型 IFN，如 IFN-τ 和 IFN-ω，具有强大的抗病毒活性，是有前途的治疗药物。
