Enhancement of IgE-mediated histamine release from human basophils by viruses: role of interferon

The demonstration here that interferon enhances histamine release represents a hitherto unrecognized biological role for interferon. This points to the possibility that the induction of interferon may be one of the cofactors responsible for precipitating or potentiating attacks of bronchial asthma during viral infections (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) . Recent evidence from several laboratories indicates that interferon can suppress the growth of certain tumor cells and alter the functional response of cells of the immune system (for review, see reference 26). If it turns out that interferon acts on a common metabolic pathway (e.g., cyclic nucleotides or microtubule aggregation), interferon may modulate a variety of other biological processes.