Direct Antimicrobial Activity of IFN-β

Type I IFNs are a cytokine family essential for antiviral defense. More recently, type I IFNs were shown to be important during bacterial infections. In this article, we show that, in addition to known cytokine functions, IFN-β is antimicrobial. Parts of the IFN-β molecular surface (especially helix 4) are cationic and amphipathic, both classic characteristics of antimicrobial peptides, and we observed that IFN-β can directly kill Staphylococcus aureus . Further, a mutant S. aureus that is more sensitive to antimicrobial peptides was killed more efficiently by IFN-β than was the wild-type S. aureus , and immunoblotting showed that IFN-β interacts with the bacterial cell surface. To determine whether specific parts of IFN-β are antimicrobial, we synthesized IFN-β helix 4 and found that it is sufficient to permeate model prokaryotic membranes using synchrotron x-ray diffraction and that it is sufficient to kill S. aureus . These results suggest that, in addition to its well-known signaling activity, IFN-β may be directly antimicrobial and be part of a growing family of cytokines and chemokines, called kinocidins, that also have antimicrobial properties.