[Interferons and their importance for prevention and therapy in man and animals].

In form of a survey of the actual international literature, taking into consideration own investigations, the present stage of knowledge concerning properties of interferones, inductors, course of synthesis and therapeutic mechanism is described. The effect of the interferones is in a manifold way connected with the effect of other factors of the infection defence, with complement, properdin, activity of phagocytosis and formation of antibodies. Though the application of interferone is still connected with great difficulties, encouraging results were yielded already in respiratory diseases and in tumour diseases, too. These results justify the performance of further experiments.