New acquirements on an old molecule: type I interferon.

摘要

This special issue of Autoimmunity summarizes contributions presented at the symposium "New strategies for the control of inflammatory diseases: Type I interferon in human pathology" held in Brescia (Italy), March 27, 2009. This meeting focused on several aspects of type I interferon (IFN-I) biology such as intracellular signaling, pathogenic and potential therapeutic role. IFN-I was firstly described for its ability to confer viral resistance to in vitro infected cells more than 50 years ago. Nowadays, the IFN-I family includes a wide number of cytokines with the capability to regulate both innate and adaptive immunities.