Induction of IFN-α Subtypes and Their Antiviral Activity in Mumps Virus Infection

Abstract Human type I interferons (IFNs) comprise one IFN-β, -ω, -κ, and -ɛ and 12 different IFN-α subtypes, which play an important role in early host antiviral response. Despite their high structural homology and signaling through the same receptor, IFN-α subtypes exhibit different antiviral, antiproliferative, and immunomodulatory activities. Differences in the production of IFN-α subtypes therefore determine the quality of an antiviral response. In this study, we investigated the pattern of IFN-α subtypes induced in infection with different mumps virus (MuV) strains and examined the MuV sensitivity to the action of IFN-α subtypes. We found that all IFN-α subtypes are being expressed in response to MuV infection with a highly similar IFN-α subtype pattern between the virus strains. We assessed an antiviral activity of several IFN-α subtypes: IFN-α1, IFN-α2, IFN-α4, IFN-α6, IFN-α8, IFN-α14, IFN-α17, and IFN-α21. Although they were all effective in suppressing MuV replication, the intensity and pattern o...