Abstract
Pretreatment of normal adult peripheral blood mononuclear cells with interferon-α (IFN-α) resulted in enhanced natural killing (NK) of varicella-zoster virus (VZV)-infected and uninfected target cells. In contrast antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) against VZV-infected targets was not augmented by preincubation of effector cells with IFN-α. Preincubation of uninfected target cells with IFN-α significantly reduced their susceptibility to NK. In contrast, VZV-infected target cells preincubated with IFN-α remained fully susceptible to lysis by NK and also by ADCC. Since IFN has been detected in vesicular fluid and plasma of individuals with VZV infections, the in vitro mechanisms detected in this study may have biological relevance.
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