Interferons (IFNs) are divided into 3 types (type I, type II, and type III) on the basis of sequence homology and functional properties. Recombinant IFNs have been approved by regulatory agencies in many countries for clinical treatment of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and other diseases; these IFNs are mainly produced in microorganisms and mammalian cell systems. However, there are serious obstacles to the production of recombinant IFNs in microorganism systems; for example, the recombinant IFN may have different glycosylation patterns from the native protein, be present in insoluble inclusion bodies, be contaminated with impurities such as endotoxins and nucleic acids, have a short half-life in human blood, and incur high production costs. Some medicinal proteins have been successfully expressed in plants and used in clinical applications, suggesting that plants may also be a good system for IFN expression. However, there are still many technical problems that need to be addressed before the clinical application of plant-expressed IFNs, such as increasing the amount of recombinant protein expression and ensuring that the IFN is modified with the correct type of glycosylation. In this article, we review the classification of IFNs, their roles in antiviral signal transduction pathways, their clinical applications, and their expression in plant systems.

中文翻译：

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干扰素的类型及其在植物系统中的表达。

根据序列同源性和功能特性，干扰素 (IFN) 分为 3 类（I 型、II 型和 III 型）。重组干扰素已被许多国家的监管机构批准用于乙肝、丙肝等疾病的临床治疗；这些干扰素主要在微生物和哺乳动物细胞系统中产生。然而，在微生物系统中生产重组干扰素存在严重障碍；例如，重组干扰素可能与天然蛋白具有不同的糖基化模式，存在于不溶性包涵体中，被内毒素和核酸等杂质污染，在人体血液中的半衰期短，生产成本高。一些药用蛋白已在植物中成功表达并用于临床应用，表明植物也可能​​是干扰素表达的良好系统。然而，植物表达的干扰素在临床应用之前仍有许多技术问题需要解决，例如增加重组蛋白的表达量以及确保干扰素被修饰为正确类型的糖基化。在本文中，我们回顾了干扰素的分类、它们在抗病毒信号转导途径中的作用、它们的临床应用以及它们在植物系统中的表达。