title: Is RNA interference involved in intrinsic antiviral immunity in mammals?
abstract: RNA interference constitutes a key component of the innate immune response to viral infection in both plants and invertebrate animals and has been postulated to have a similar protective function in mammals. This perspective reviews the available data addressing whether RNA interference forms part of the mammalian innate immune response and concludes that the popular hypothesis in favor of that possibility remains far from proven and may not be valid.
authors.affiliation: Center for Virology and Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. culle002@mc.duke.edu
authors.forename: Bryan R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Cullen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity / Q000235:genetics*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010944:Plants / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D034622:RNA Interference; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs