Novel nonviral bioassays for mouse type I and type III interferon

We used embryo fibroblasts from Mx2-Luc transgenic mice that express Firefly luciferase under control of the interferon (IFN)-regulated mouse Mx2 promoter to develop simple nonviral bioassays for type I and type III IFN. Since type III IFN is acid-labile, Mx2-Luc fibroblasts detected the presence of type I IFN in acid-treated biological samples with high sensitivity and selectivity. For selective detection of type III IFN, we employed embryo fibroblasts from Mx2-Luc mutant mice that lack functional receptors for type I IFN. The sensitivity of this latter assay remained comparatively low, presumably because type III IFN receptors are not abundantly present on fibroblasts. The main advantages of our novel IFN assays are that they are easy to perform, yield fast results, and can be used in laboratories that are not licensed for work with infectious agents. Further, the type I IFN assay has superior sensitivity than commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay systems.