INTERFERONS.

Interferons are cytikine barrier of innate immunity.When a normal cells are infected by a virus, they produce small amounts of antimicrobial proteins called interferons that increase the resistance of neighboring cells to infection by the same or other viruses. Interferons have been found in many vertebrates and are one of the body’s inborn first lines of nonspecific defense against the internal spread of viral infection. Interferons differ from species to species, and each vertebrate species produces at least three different interferons.Chemically  all interferons are glycoproteins ie proteins with attached carbohydrate groups  consisting of about 160 amino acids. By binding to receptors in the plasma membranes of uninfected cells, interferons stimulate a signaling pathway that results in the inhibition of viral reproduction inside the infected cells