Sensitivity of influenza a viruses to human interferons in human diploid cells

Abstract The sensitivity of influenza virus to the action of natural human interferon (IFN)-α+β and -γ, and to the action of highly purified recombinant HuIFN-αB, -αD, and -αF, has been investigated. A plaque assay for the fowl-plague strain of influenza A virus has been established using human embryonic foreskin (HEF) cells. The sensitivity of influenza virus to all IFNs tested in this assay was comparable to that shown by vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) which was taken as the reference standard. The high sensitivity to IFN action found for the fowl-plague strain was confirmed for the WSN strain of human origin in a yield reduction assay.