title: Cloning, expression and antiviral activity of mink alpha-interferons.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  As a key link between innate and adaptive immune responses, the interferon (IFN) system is the first line of defense against viral infection. IFN, and in particular, IFN-α, has been used clinically as an effective therapeutic agent for viral infections. However, different subtypes of IFN-α demonstrate distinct antiviral activity. Therefore, it is important to identify IFN-α subtypes with high antiviral activity for the development of genetically engineered antiviral drugs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, we cloned the genes for 13 IFN-α subtypes from peripheral blood lymphocytes of the mink. The homologies of the 13 mink IFN-α genes were 93.6-99.3% and 88.8-98.4% at the nucleotide and amino acid sequence levels, respectively. In contrast to human and canine IFN-α subtypes, most mink IFN-α subtypes contained two N-glycosylation sites. We expressed and purified 13 mink IFN-α subtypes in Escherichia coli. The cytopathic effect inhibition assay showed that all the 13 recombinant mink IFN-α subtypes inhibited the propagation of vesicular stomatitis virus in WISH cells, with IFN-α2 and IFN-α12 demonstrating the highest activities. Furthermore, recombinant mink IFN-α2 and IFN-α12 significantly suppressed the propagation of canine distemper virus in Vero cells, with IFN-α2 demonstrating the highest activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified the mink IFN-α2 subtype as a promising candidate for the development of effective antiviral drugs.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. zhanghailing@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Hai-ling
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. zhaojianjun@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Jian-jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. 1610012383@qq.com.
authors.forename: Xiu-li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. zhanglei19790401@126.com.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. xuebai_1982@126.com.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. 0434-3379293@163.com.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. liuhaowinner@126.com.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Jilin Teyan Biotechnological Co. Ltd, 388 Liuying West Road, Changchun, 130122, China. sare135790@163.com.
authors.forename: Dong-liang
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Jilin Teyan Biotechnological Co. Ltd, 388 Liuying West Road, Changchun, 130122, China. 304749041@qq.com.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Jilin Teyan Biotechnological Co. Ltd, 388 Liuying West Road, Changchun, 130122, China. jlztwuwei@163.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases of Special Economic Animal, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 4899 Juye Street, Changchun, 130112, China. yanxijun@163.com.
authors.forename: Xi-jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine / Q000187:drug effects; D015870:Gene Expression; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000235:genetics* / Q000494:pharmacology; D008907:Mink / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D011994:Recombinant Proteins