Anti-IFN-alpha 1 (Capture), clone 7B2

The interferons (IFN) are a family of cytokines with potent antiviral, antiproliferative and immunomodulatory properties, and classified based on their binding specificity to cell surface receptors. The type I IFN bind to the interferon alpha receptor (IFNAR), which consists of two subunits: IFNAR1 ( alpha -subunit) and IFNAR2 ( beta -subunit). This binding contributes to TNF-alpha induced signaling. Both the human and mouse genome code for more than a dozen closely related IFNa subtypes and the varous IFN a share about 80% sequence homology among them. Interferon-alpha 1 (IFNA1) is a secreted, approximately 19 kDa member of the type I interferon family of molecules. Mature mouse IFN-alpha 1 shares 63% and 82% amino acid sequence identity with human and rat IFN-alpha 1, respectively. Low level IFN-alpha is detected under physiological conditions, and the production of IFNs is markedly enhanced during virus infection. Although originally discovered by its capability to fight virus replication, IFN-alpha functions as a prototypic tumor suppressor that represses the clinical tumorigenic phenotype in some malignancies. Protein function: Produced by macrophages, IFN-alpha have antiviral activities. Interferon stimulates the production of two enzymes: a protein kinase and an oligoadenylate synthetase. [The UniProt Consortium]