These findings suggest that chicken IRF7 could modulate a wide range of cellular processes in the host innate immune response thus meticulous control of IRF7 expression is crucial to the host in response to AIV infection.
Recently however, human IRF7 was shown to be essential for IFN-α/β- and IFN-λ-dependent protective immunity against primary influenza in vivo, as inferred from a patient with life-threatening influenza revealed to be IRF7-deficient by whole exome sequencing.
These findings suggest that IRF7-dependent amplification of type I and III IFNs is required for protection against primary infection by influenza virus in humans.
These data demonstrate that infection with influenza results in the reduced expression of transcription factor IRF7 in NECs from smokers, and that these effects may be mediated by an epigenetic modification of the IRF7 gene, thus providing a potential mechanism rendering smokers more susceptible to respiratory virus infections.