It modulates the response to the virus at the level of the immune system, and is used to treat an infection.
We conducted an experimental protocol with a nasal recombinant IFNα-2b formulation (Nasalferon) in 12 healthy volunteers who received 1 MIU per nostril twice a day, three consecutive days, and studied the induction of biomarkers related to antiviral and immune responses. Nasalferon increases the antiviral biomarker OAS1 transcript levels in oropharynx and PBMCs, regulates molecular and cellular elements related to innate and adaptive immune responses and decreases granulocytes population. These effects support Nasalferon use in virally-exposed populations.
Cuba will start applying Nasalferon to travelers and live-in family members
In Cuba, All International Travelers to Receive Nasalferon
Meanwhile "free" countries are destroying the lives of millions of people by pretending covid doesn't exist anymore, and paxlovid is $1000 dollars and doctors don't want to prescribe it because covid is "mild".
Interferon is named as such because when you have a virally infected cell, it will secrete it to interfere with the process. It knocks on the cell's next door neighbor to say that shit's fucked and you need to prepare. So the cell will close its windows, uptake less, etc. in an effort to be alert to stop the spread.
It still surprises me that you can do recombinant drugs without your body freaking out. Recombinant is when you put the gene (i.e. DNA) for interferon in an E. coli or yeast or something to harvest a bunch of it. The whole schtick of your immune system is deciding what's foreign and what's host. It's like if a little alien knocked on your door and told you a different, mean alien is running around, so you need to lock your doors. You look at them in the eyes
, blink twice, and go "sure!"
IIRC recombinant drugs are all based on human genes so the recomb proteins aren't really "alien" though I like the rest of the analogy
Sure, you're putting a human gene in there, but the subtle part of it is that when you have to recognize something as foreign, your cells chop up a protein and present IIRC 8-12 amino acids to present for immune cells (mhc-1). In that sense, the body is really sensitive to what proteins look like. I would imagine it not accepting a document that was .pdf instead of .docx. So when the protein is synthesized via recombinant means, I would expect some small change - if not even in terms of AA sequence (which Cuban scientists no doubt had to test for) then some glycosylation or other alterations that a bacteria would do.
The method isn't brand new or anything, I believe insulin can be made that way (not checking), it's just a marvel of science to me
You got me thinking about the different forms of insulin where sequence changes result in different effects... so yeah agreed it's marvelous. Good point