Antiviral response of fibroblasts from familial Alzheimer's disease and Down's syndrome to human interferon-alpha.

The relative sensitivities of human fibroblast cultures from patients with familial Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with Down's syndrome (Trisomy 21, T-21), and normal control (D-21) subjects, to the antiviral effect of human interferon-alpha (Hu-IFN-alpha) were compared. In confirmation of previous studies, T-21 cell lines showed significantly enhanced sensitivities to IFN compared with D-21 cells from normal controls. Fibroblast cultures from 2 familial AD patients belonging to one family exhibited sensitivities which fell within the range of response of normal D-21 cells. In contrast, fibroblasts from two other related subjects, one with familial AD and his niece "at risk", were extremely insensitive to interferon.