Introduction
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HOW CELLS RESPOND TO INTERFERONS
- George R. Stark,Ian M. Kerr,Bryan R. G. Williams,Robert H. Silverman, andRobert D. Schreiber
- View AffiliationsHide AffiliationsAffiliations:1The Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44195;2Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, United Kingdom;3Department of Pathology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110-1093; e-mail:[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]
- Vol. 67:227-264(Volume publication date July 1998)
- © Annual Reviews
Abstract
Interferons play key roles in mediating antiviral and antigrowth responses and in modulating immune response. The main signaling pathways are rapid and direct. They involve tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of signal transducers and activators of transcription factors by Janus tyrosine kinases at the cell membrane, followed by release of signal transducers and activators of transcription and their migration to the nucleus, where they induce the expression of the many gene products that determine the responses. Ancillary pathways are also activated by the interferons, but their effects on cell physiology are less clear. The Janus kinases and signal transducers and activators of transcription, and many of the interferon-induced proteins, play important alternative roles in cells, raising interesting questions as to how the responses to the interferons intersect with more general aspects of cellular physiology and how the specificity of cytokine responses is maintained.