ABSTRACT
Health Sciences Centre, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I. INTRODUCTION Interferons (IFNs) are a family of biologically active proteins that are active against viruses and tumors. They comprise three main types, a, /3, and y, that are distinguished by the cell of origin, amino acid structure, production, and response to a given stimulus. Both the IFN-/6 and IFNy are coded by one gene each. IFN-a, in contrast, has at least 23 different genes on chromosome 9 coding for 15 different functional proteins (1).
