{"doi":"10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110799","title":"Nasally delivered interferon-λ protects mice against infection by SARS-CoV-2 variants including Omicron","abstract":"Although vaccines and monoclonal antibody countermeasures have reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, variants with constellations of mutations in the spike gene jeopardize their efficacy. Accordingly, antiviral interventions that are resistant to further virus evolution are needed. The host-derived cytokine interferon lambda (IFN-λ) has been proposed as a possible treatment based on studies in human coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Here, we show that IFN-λ protects against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 (Beta) and B.1.1.529 (Omicron) variants in three strains of conventional and human ACE2 transgenic mice. Prophylaxis or therapy with nasally delivered IFN-λ2 limits infection of historical or variant SARS-CoV-2 strains in the upper and lower respiratory tracts without causing excessive inflammation. In the lung, IFN-λ is produced preferentially in epithelial cells and acts on radio-resistant cells to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thus, inhaled IFN-λ may have promise as a treatment for evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants that develop resistance to antibody-based countermeasures.","journal":"Cell Reports","year":2022,"id":236294,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":70,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9494,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":804573,"name":"Courtney E. Karl","orcid":"0000-0001-9950-2155","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107104,"name":"Peter Halfmann","orcid":"0000-0002-1648-1625","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107110,"name":"Yoshihiro Kawaoka","orcid":"0000-0001-5061-8296","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106514,"name":"Emma S. Winkler","orcid":"0000-0001-8510-1385","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106525,"name":"Shamus P. Keeler","orcid":"0000-0002-1301-0852","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106526,"name":"Michael J. Holtzman","orcid":"0000-0001-8750-3716","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107152,"name":"Jinsheng Yu","orcid":"0000-0003-3377-4304","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106529,"name":"Michael Diamond","orcid":"0000-0002-8791-3165","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247648,"name":"Zhenlu Chong","orcid":"0000-0001-6195-3452","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":68,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:21:58.728756Z","pmid":"35523172","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}