Mestan J, Digel W, Mittnacht S, Hillen H, Blohm D, Möller A, Jacobsen H, Kirchner H
Nature. 1986;323(6091):816-9. doi: 10.1038/323816a0.
Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) was first described as a factor in the serum of mice injected with tubercle bacilli (BCG) and several days later with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The gene encoding TNF has recently been cloned and pure recombinant human TNF is now available. TNF is known for its in vivo antitumour effect and in vitro cytotoxicity on certain transformed cell lines. Similarities in amino acid sequence and biological activity to lymphotoxin and cachectin have been reported, and very recently a growth-factor-like activity on diploid fibroblasts was observed. There is no similarity between these proteins and interferons (IFNs), which are also induced during in vivo induction of TNF. Here we describe the antiviral activity of pure recombinant human TNF in a typical in vitro antiviral assay which we discovered while investigating the possible role of TNF as an inducer of IFN.
肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）最初被描述为在注射结核杆菌（卡介苗）以及数天后注射脂多糖（LPS）的小鼠血清中的一种因子。编码TNF的基因最近已被克隆，现在已有纯的重组人TNF。TNF以其体内抗肿瘤作用以及对某些转化细胞系的体外细胞毒性而闻名。据报道，其氨基酸序列和生物活性与淋巴毒素及恶病质素相似，并且最近观察到它对二倍体成纤维细胞具有生长因子样活性。这些蛋白质与干扰素（IFN）之间没有相似性，IFN也是在体内诱导TNF的过程中被诱导产生的。在此，我们在一项典型的体外抗病毒试验中描述了纯重组人TNF的抗病毒活性，该试验是我们在研究TNF作为IFN诱导剂的可能作用时发现的。
