One of the authors of the research is the Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Innate Immunity of Petrozavodsk State University Aleksandr Poltorak.

Russian scientists in collaboration with foreign colleagues have discovered that before the immune cell activation in response to infection, infected cells start fighting its spread. This happens due to interferon proteins that are produced in all cells of an organism. Sometimes an excessively high level of interferons can be the cause of autoimmune diseases. The discovery can facilitate better understanding and treatment of such diseases as lupus. The results are published in the Cell Death & Differentiation. The research was supported with the grant of the Russian Science Foundation.

“Our research was triggered by the observation that in the pathogenesis of many infections, both in laboratory and clinical settings, the effect of IFN-signalling is evident much earlier than IFN could be produced in response to infection. This is due to the presence of necroptosis regulators in the cells, the authors of the paper call them CIRENs. These regulators are central effectors that determine the speed of cell deaths in the form of necroptosis,” said Aleksandr Poltorak.