Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of a group of glycoproteins that are produced by different cell types in response to various stimuli, such as exposure to a virus, bacterium, parasite, or other antigen, and that prevent viral replication in newly infected cells and, in some cases, modulate specific cellular functions.
Wiktionary
- n. biochemistry Any of a group of glycoproteins, produced by the immune system, that prevent viral replication in infected cells
WordNet 3.0
- n. an antiviral protein produced by cells that have been invaded by a virus; inhibits replication of the virus
Etymologies
- interfere + -on, from its role interfering with viral replication. (Wiktionary)
- interfer(e) + -on3. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He spoke about his treatment and, for the first time, I heard the word interferon.”
“A new study has shown that tweaking a certain group of multipotent stem cells-mesenchymal stem cells-with a hormone called interferon (IFN) in our bodies, might stop osteoporosis and promote bone growth.”
“July 2009 Approved to treat metastatic kidney cancer in combination with a drug called interferon alpha.”
The Wall Street Journal: Study Links Cancer Drug to Dangerous Side Effects
“Until recently, one form of this substance, alpha-interferon (also called interferon A) was the only treatment for HCV infection approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”
“The second refinement is a product called polyethylene glycol PEG interferon, which is given to the patient once a week.”
“Chronic hepatitis B in some patients is treated with drugs called interferon or lamivudine, which can help some patients.”
“With the strength it has today, it was born in 1981, from just the information that a product called interferon existed.”
“Besides from being more convenient and less painful, a trial has also showed Gilenya to be twice as effective at stopping relapses as one of the injectable drugs, called interferon beta”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“In experiments on mice, researchers showed for the first time that a protein called interferon-gamma IFN-gamma plays a key role in the spread of melanoma, a notoriously aggressive form of cancer resistant to standard chemotherapy.”
“Among multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who take the popular drug, known as interferon beta, overall effectiveness is only fair, with about half of all patients experiencing an average one-third reduction in recurrences, according to researchers at Stanford University.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘interferon’.
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
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Mundane Transformers
Bore that meets the eye.
potamogeton, testator, scrutator, isolator, confiteor, deflator, qwerty, susceptor, champertor, preemptor, disinfector, infractor and 91 more...
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anatomy etcetera
Funny sounding things found in bodies. Might be split up into several lists later...
zona incerta, mucous membrane, secretomotor, tear film, tear sac, duodenum, horripilation, peduncle, pelvic outlet, canal of Schlemm, visceral, chromosomal cross... and 189 more...
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Headlines & Newsmakers
frugality, environment, extinction, bible, killer, jazz, cloning, dead, god, moon, global warming, bailout and 340 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
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Sounding like a superhero
Words that sound like they could be the name of a superhero. Or supervillain. Or one of their weapons. Or some form of super paraphernalia...
narcissistic supply, nipple discharge, Radium Girls, exotic pollution, superior meatus, toxic megacolon, neuroblast, extinction burst, butterfly eruption, natural killer cell, spongiform pustul..., zonule of Zinn and 155 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for interferon.
chained_bear Usage on cytokine. Feb 16, 2009