Effect of interferon on retrovirus replication.

Interferon block of retrovirus replication can be explained as a consequence of interferon induced changes in physiology (e.g. fluidity) of cellular plasma membranes. Thus, both the membrane associated virus uptake and assembly of progency virus are altered in interferon treated cells (Fig. 1). The relative unsensitivity of retroviral mRNA to the enzymatic systems alternating efficiency of viral mRNA translation in interferon treated cells may be only a relative phenomenon, since the inhibition of viral protein synthesis is observed under conditions of limited viral expression.