Word: interferon
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...protection against the dozens of viruses that attack him throughout his lifetime, man has two major natural defenses: antibodies and a mysterious substance called interferon. Most antibodies give lifetime immunity, but the body takes days or weeks to make them, and each type of antibody is effective against only one type of virus. The body makes interferon faster, within a few hours of exposure, but still not fast enough to keep many invading viruses from multiplying in millions of cells and causing severe illness. It is effective against the whole catalogue of viruses, but its protection may last only...
Forearmed Cells. Interferon is a protein discovered ten years ago in Britain. Many if not all of the body's cells can make it. When the infective core of a virus particle invades a cell, that cell is usually doomed; its biochemical factory will soon be taken over by the virus and begin making new virus particles or parts of them. But before this happens, some cells produce interferon and pass this on through the bloodstream. Thus forearmed, other cells can then ward off attacks by the next generation of virus particles...
...severe freezing, hypothesizes Dr. Bellows, "causes disruption of the infected cells. These disrupted cells release a high concentration of interferon," a natural virus fighter. Most of the herpesvirus is killed outright by the cold, and the interferon is able to stop the spread of whatever remains, eventually allowing it all to be killed. "The response to cryotherapy is so uniformly satisfactory," says Dr. Bellows, "that in unresponsive cases the physician should question the diagnosis and re-examine the patient...
Also: Michael N. Ozman (third year), "Interferon Production by, and Interferon Sensitivity of the Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV);" and Charles D. Woody (fourth year), "Conversion of Analogue Data to Computer Acceptable Format...
...Interferon. From the chemists' laboratories there has come no drug that will selectively attack viruses while sparing the cells in which they seek sanctuary. But nature suggests that there is a way. If it takes days or weeks for protective antibodies to develop, why does not the pullulating virus overwhelm all the victim's susceptible cells in the meantime? London's Dr. Alick Isaacs last year found a partial answer. Virus-infected cells produce a substance that Isaacs calls interferon, which spreads to neighboring, uninfected cells. With their interferon guard up, these cells are unusually resistant...