Type I interferons and the innate immune response-more than just antiviral cytokines

Greater knowledge of the events that result in induction of IFN is necessary in understanding the specificity of expression of an increasingly complex and important aspect of our immune system. This may reveal to us further therapeutic opportunities, either in the use of IFN or in the manipulation of their expression. This review details the established knowledge and recent advances made in understanding how and under what circumstances the IFNs are expressed, starting with brief overviews of IFN and Toll-like receptors before following the molecular processes from induction of IFN, activation of the JAK-STAT pathway and finally the expression of interferon stimulated genes and their functions.