BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

Inverted immunity

Antiviral in mice, ISG15 becomes a proviral therapeutic target in humans

June 30, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

A cohort of interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15)-deficient adolescents has revealed the protein has opposite roles in the viral immunities of mice and humans, and produced data suggesting inhibitors could provide a broad therapeutic strategy for viral pandemics.

While knocking out ISG15 makes mice more susceptible to viral infection, in humans it had the reverse effect...