CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 38, 280-290, Copyright
© 1988 by American Cancer Society
Virus Interference: I. The Interferon
Alick Isaacs and
Jean Lindenmann 1
1 Professor and Director of the Institute for Immunology and Virology at the University of Zürich in Zürich, Switzerland.
During a study of the intetference produced by heat-inactivated influenza virus with the growth of live virus in fragments of chick chorio-allantoic membrane, it was found that following incubation of heated virus with membrane a new factor was released. This factor, recognized by its ability to induce interference in fresh pieces of chorio-allantoic membrane, was called interferon. Following a lag phase interferon was first detected in the membranes after three hours of incubation, and thereafter it was released into the surrounding fluid.