Early cytokine responses to viral infections and their roles in shaping endogenous cellular immunity.

Immune responses to different infectious agents have overlapping constituents. However, certain of these are induced to higher levels and/or play more important roles in defense under conditions of infections with particular agents. In the case of many viral infections, immune responses important in protection include the unique or uniquely prominent systemic type 1 interferons (IFN), i.e., IFN-α/β, activation and function of natural killer (NK) cells, and activation and function of CD8+ T cells. The studies presented here extend characterization of endogenous innate cytokine responses elicited at early times during viral infections and dissection of immunoregulatory roles for these cytokines in promoting cell-mediated immunity.