[Cellular sensitivity to the effect of interferon during different forms of viral pathology]

A new approach to evaluation of interferon (IFN) status of patients with acute respiratory viral infections, herpes, and urogenital infections has been developed. It consists in measurement of IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma production by leukocytes primed with IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma, respectively, and subsequent identification of groups of patients whose lymphocytes differ by their in vitro response to IFN priming: sensitive to IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma; sensitive to IFN-alpha but not to IFN-gamma; sensitive to IFN-gamma but not to IFN-alpha; not sensitive to IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma. Such analysis helps understand the mechanisms of IFN system deficiency in infectious diseases and promotes more effective IFN therapy due to selection of patients whose cells retain in vitro sensitivity to a certain IFN type.