Journal article

Constitutive Type I Interferon Modulates Homeostatic Balance through Tonic Signaling

DJ Gough, NL Messina, CJP Clarke, RW Johnstone, DE Levy

Immunity | Published : 2012

Abstract

Interferons (IFNs) were discovered as cytokines induced during and protecting from viral infection. They have been documented to play essential roles in numerous physiological processes beyond antiviral and antimicrobial defense, including immunomodulation, cell cycle regulation, cell survival, and cell differentiation. Recent data have also uncovered a potentially darker side to IFN, including roles in inflammatory diseases, such as autoimmunity and diabetes. IFN can have effects in the absence of acute infection, highlighting a physiologic role for constitutive IFN. Type I IFNs are constitutively produced at vanishingly low quantities and yet exert profound effects, mediated in part throug..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by National Institutes of Health


Funding Acknowledgements

D.J.G. is supported by a Special Fellow award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. N.L.M. is supported by a Cancer Research Institute Predoctoral Emphasis in Tumor Immunology Scholarship. R.W.J. is a Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and is supported by NHMRC Program and Project Grants, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Cancer Council Victoria, The Leukemia Foundation of Australia, Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium, Victorian Cancer Agency, and the Australian Rotary Health Foundation. D.E.L. acknowledges funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01Al28900, U54AI057158).