{"id":5525,"date":"2023-12-12T19:10:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T01:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=5525"},"modified":"2023-12-12T19:10:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T01:10:31","slug":"scientists-identify-interferon-gamma-as-potential-sars-cov-2-antiviral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/12\/12\/scientists-identify-interferon-gamma-as-potential-sars-cov-2-antiviral\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Identify Interferon-gamma as Potential SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.niaid.nih.gov\/news-events\/ifn-gamma-covid-antiviral?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=blog_interferon-gamma_12082023\">NIH<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conditioning the lungs with interferon-gamma, a natural immune system protein (cytokine) best known for fighting bacterial infections, appears to be a strong antiviral for SARS-CoV-2, according to National Institutes of Health scientists and colleagues. Their new study, published in&nbsp;<em>Nature Communications<\/em>, shows in two different mouse models that when a bacterial infection triggers the release of interferon-gamma in the lungs, those animals subsequently are protected from infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The investigators further report that using recombinant interferon-gamma in the nose of study mice at the time of viral exposure substantially reduces SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lead project scientists suggest testing interferon-gamma further, alone and in combination with other treatments, to limit early SARS-CoV-2 infection in people. They also hypothesize that people with prior bacterial infections that naturally release interferon-gamma in their lungs may be less susceptible to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NIH\u2019s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) led the project with collaborators at Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously, the research team had observed that a vaccine for tuberculosis, known as BCG, given intravenously to establish a mild lung infection subsequently provided strong protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge. The new study reveals that interferon-gamma, released by the immune system in response to BCG vaccine, is required for the observed SARS-CoV-2 antiviral immunity. The investigators also examined the mechanism by which interferon-gamma protects against SARS COV-2 and presented evidence that the cytokine targets lung epithelial cells, a major site of early viral replication, thus limiting its spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the project began, the research team did not expect interferon-gamma to be the necessary component for SARS-CoV-2 protection. Traditionally, other forms of interferon \u2013 alpha, beta and lambda \u2013 are known to fight viruses, but not gamma. Their findings thus uncover a newly appreciated anti-viral function for this cytokine.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NIH Conditioning the lungs with interferon-gamma, a natural immune system protein (cytokine) best known for fighting bacterial infections, appears to be a strong antiviral for SARS-CoV-2, according to National Institutes of Health scientists and colleagues. Their new study, published in&nbsp;Nature Communications, shows in two different mouse models that when a bacterial infection triggers the release [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-and-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-12-at-20.09.53.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5527,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5525\/revisions\/5527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}