• Lauren M Smith, Lisa E Hensley, Thomas W Geisbert, Joshua Johnson, Andrea Stossel, Anna Honko, Judy Y Yen, Joan Geisbert, Jason Paragas, Elizabeth Fritz, Gene Olinger, Howard A Young, Kathleen H Rubins, and Christopher L Karp.
• Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
• J. Infect. Dis. 2013 Jul 15;208(2):310-8.

AbstractThere is a clear need for novel, effective therapeutic approaches to hemorrhagic fever due to filoviruses. Ebola virus hemorrhagic fever is associated with robust interferon (IFN)-α production, with plasma concentrations of IFN-α that greatly (60- to 100-fold) exceed those seen in other viral infections, but little IFN-β production. While all of the type I IFNs signal through the same receptor complex, both quantitative and qualitative differences in biological activity are observed after stimulation of the receptor complex with different type I IFNs. Taken together, this suggested potential for IFN-β therapy in filovirus infection. Here we show that early postexposure treatment with IFN-β significantly increased survival time of rhesus macaques infected with a lethal dose of Ebola virus, although it failed to alter mortality. Early treatment with IFN-β also significantly increased survival time after Marburg virus infection. IFN-β may have promise as an adjunctive postexposure therapy in filovirus infection.

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