COMPARATIVE-STUDIES OF GAMMA-INTERFERON RECEPTOR-LIKE PROTEINS OF VARIOLA MAJOR AND VARIOLA MINOR VIRUSES

To study specific properties of the human gamma-interferon (gamma-IFN) receptor-like proteins of the highly virulent and low virulent strain s of variola (smallpox) virus (VAR) recombinant plasmids determining s ynthesis of these proteins in E. coli cells have been constructed. The recombinant viral gamma-IFN receptor-like proteins have been found to have high interferon-neutralising activity with regards to human gamm a-IFN but not murine gamma-IFN and human alpha-IFN. The variola major and variola minor proteins under study do not differ in the efficiency of human gamma-IFN antiviral activity inhibition.