COVID-19 and emerging viral infections: The case for interferon lambda

Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson; Noémie Alphonse; Ruth E Dickenson; Joan E Durbin; Jeffrey S Glenn; Rune Hartmann; Sergei V Kotenko; Helen M Lazear; Thomas R O'Brien; Charlotte Odendall; Olusegun O Onabajo; Helen Piontkivska; Deanna M Santer; Nancy C Reich; Andreas Wack; Ivan Zanoni

doi:10.1084/jem.20200653

COVID-19 and emerging viral infections: The case for interferon lambda

J Exp Med. 2020 May 4;217(5):e20200653. doi: 10.1084/jem.20200653.

Authors

Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson¹, Noémie Alphonse^{2

3}, Ruth E Dickenson^#², Joan E Durbin^{4

5}, Jeffrey S Glenn^#⁶, Rune Hartmann⁷, Sergei V Kotenko^{5

8

9}, Helen M Lazear¹⁰, Thomas R O'Brien¹¹, Charlotte Odendall², Olusegun O Onabajo¹, Helen Piontkivska¹², Deanna M Santer¹³, Nancy C Reich¹⁴, Andreas Wack³, Ivan Zanoni¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Translational Genomics, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.
² Department of Infectious Diseases, School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences, King's College London, London, UK.
³ Immunoregulation Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Pathology, Laboratory Medicine and Immunology, Newark, NJ.
⁵ Center for Immunity and Inflammation, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, NJ.
⁶ Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Palo Alto Veterans Administration, Palo Alto, CA.
⁷ Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
⁸ Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, NJ.
⁹ Center for Cell Signaling, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, NJ.
¹⁰ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
¹¹ Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.
¹² Department of Biological Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, PA.
¹³ Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology and Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.
¹⁵ Division of Immunology, Division of Gastroenterology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

With the first reports on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the scientific community working in the field of type III IFNs (IFN-λ) realized that this class of IFNs could play an important role in this and other emerging viral infections. In this Viewpoint, we present our opinion on the benefits and potential limitations of using IFN-λ to prevent, limit, and treat these dangerous viral infections.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus / physiology*
COVID-19
Coronavirus Infections / metabolism*
Humans
Interferons / metabolism*
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral / metabolism*
SARS-CoV-2
Virus Internalization

Substances

Interferons

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding