POTENTIATION OF INTERFERON-ALPHA INVITRO ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY BY INTERFERON-ALPHA IS NOT ABROGATED BY ANTIBODY TO INTERFERON-GAMMA

The addition of minute amounts of recombinant interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) to recombinant IFN-alpha2 significantly enhances its antiviral activity. Although this potentiating action of IFN-gamma is destroyed by treatment with acid, it is not significantly affected by treatment with antibodies to IFN-gamma, suggesting that IFN-gamma molecules can interact with cells to potentiate IFN-alpha activity, even in the presence of neutralizing antibodies. Implications of this phenomenon are multifaceted, including the possibility that other IFN activities can be altered synergistically by combinations of different IFN types, even in the presence of specific antibodies, which have been described to occur in vivo in several pathological conditions.