Effect of recombinant murine interferon-beta on the replication of murine cytomegalovirus.

Pretreatment of mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF) with recombinant murine interferon-beta (rMuIFN-beta) induced a high level of intracellular 2',5'-oligoadenylate (2-5A) synthetase activity. However, murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) replicated under such condition, indicating that MCMV is relatively insensitive in vitro to rMuIFN-beta. Thus, there was a dissociation of 2-5A synthetase activity and antiviral activity against MCMV. In contrast to MCMV, the two parameters were closely associated in the case of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV).