Symposium on Interferon and Host Response to Virus Infection

In the 13 years since its discovery, there has been enormous interest in interferon, both from the standpoint of evaluating its role in the cell-virus interaction and the potential clinical use of the mechanism. The contributions for this issue were solicited with the aim of evaluating our progress toward those ends. In recent years there have been many review articles¹ and several volumes ^2-6 published in this area. This symposium issue was organized with the specific aim of bringing to the physician contemporary knowledge in this area as it is likely he will be required to evaluate clinical investigation with this material in the near future.

Interferon studies have involved a diversity of investigators including biochemists committed to molecular level studies on its mechanism of action, biologists interested in its relative role in the in vivo host response, and clinicians and clinical pharmacologists interested in its therapeutic usefulness. Friedman's and