Non-antiviral activities of interferon are not controlled by chromosome 21.

Abstract

USING mouse–human cell hybrids, Tan et al.1 assigned the gene(s) for the expression of the antiviral state induced by human (leukocyte) interferon to chromosome 21; furthermore, human skin fibroblasts trisomic for chromosome 21 proved more sensitive to the antiviral activity of human (leukocyte) interferon than normal diploid fibroblasts or trisomic 18 or 13 fibroblasts2,3. Since the non-antiviral and antiviral activities of interferon remain inseparably linked through approximately a million-fold purification (ref. 4 and references cited therein), the question may be raised whether these various activities of interferon are accounted for by the same mechanisms and whether the expression of the non-antiviral activity of (human) interferon is also controlled by chromosome 21.