Studies on human adenoviruses as inducers of interferon in chick cells

Summary Purified adenoviruses types 2 and 5 were found to induce a viral inhibitor with the properties of interferon in chick embryo fibroblasts. Soluble antigens alone were ineffective.Trypsin eliminated the interferon-inducing capacity of purified virus. Its effect was not entirely explained. It did not affect the adsorption of the virus to chick or KB cells, but it released acid soluble fragments from labelled virus particles. Adenovirus type 5 produced acid, a late cytopathic effect and occasionally replicated in chick cells in addition to inducing interferon.Dedicated to ProfessorJohn F. Enders on the occasion of his 70th birthday.Senior Fulbright Research Fellow on sabbatical leave from the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 1965–1966.Supported in part by the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft.