Interferon response pathways—a paradigm for cytokine signalling?

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Abstract
SUMMARY. Considerable progress has been made in the past few years elucidating the molecular mechanisms of cytokine signalling. The interferons (IFNs) have provided a singular system allowing the detailed characterization of a specific cytokine signalling pathway. Studies on the IFN signal transduction pathway have identified protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) that phos-phorylate signal transducers (STATs) which then bind to DNA promoter sequences and activate gene transcription. Related work has shown that JAKs and STATs are also activated in response to a variety of the cytokines. Thus the novel type of signal transduction pathway identified for the IFNs promises to be more widely utilized than anticipated.