COVID-19: J. Exp. Med. 2020 May 4;217(5)

COVID-19 and emerging viral infections: The case for interferon lambda

4 May 2020

J. Exp. Med. 2020 May 4;217(5):e20200653.
COVID-19 and emerging viral infections: The case for interferon lambda
Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson 1, Noémie Alphonse 2 3, Ruth E Dickenson # 2, Joan E Durbin 4 5, Jeffrey S Glenn # 6, Rune Hartmann 7, Sergei V Kotenko 5 8 9, Helen M Lazear 10, Thomas R O'Brien 11, Charlotte Odendall 2, Olusegun O Onabajo 1, Helen Piontkivska 12, Deanna M Santer 13, Nancy C Reich 14, Andreas Wack 3, Ivan Zanoni 15

Abstract

With the first reports on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the scientific community working in the field of type III IFNs (IFN-λ) realized that this class of IFNs could play an important role in this and other emerging viral infections. In this Viewpoint, we present our opinion on the benefits and potential limitations of using IFN-λ to prevent, limit, and treat these dangerous viral infections.