Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection causes severe mortality involving multiple possible mechanisms, including cytokine storm, brain stem encephalitis, and fulminant pulmonary edema. Gamma interferon (IFN-␥) may confer anti-EV71 activity; however, the claim that disease severity is highly correlated to an increase in IFN-␥ is controversial and would indicate an immune escape initiated by EV71. This study, investigating the role of IFN-␥ in EV71 infection using a murine model, showed that IFN-␥ was elevated. Moreover, IFN-␥ receptor-deficient mice showed higher mortality rates and more severe disease progression with slower viral clearance than wild-type mice. E nterovirus 71 (EV71) is a single-stranded RNA virus in the Picornaviridae family. The EV71 genome encodes four structural proteins, VP1 to VP4, and seven nonstructural proteins, 2A to 2C and 3A to 3D (1). Numerous studies have investigated the functions of viral proteins in viral replication and virulence (2). During EV71 infection, capsid VP proteins mediate virus entry by binding to cellular receptors, human scavenger receptor class B and P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1 (3). Additionally, VP proteins participate in the assembly of viral particles (4). The 3C protein, a chymotrypsin-like protease, reduces host cell transcription dramatically by inhibiting cell polyadenylation (5) and induces caspase-regulated neural cell apoptosis (6). To develop specific anti-EV71 drugs, a number of small molecules targeting viral proteins have been designed, such as the 3C inhibitor rupintrivir and the 3D inhibitor aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) (7-9).EV71 infection typically causes mild, self-limiting hand-footand-mouth disease; however, patients sometimes have significant morbidity and mortality resulting from hemorrhagic pulmonary edema following acute central nervous system-related cardiopulmonary failure and brain stem encephalitis (2,10,11). In addition to the direct cytotoxicity caused by EV71 infection (12-16) and the resultant virulence factors (6, 17), host factors such as the aberrant production of cytokines that is detected during EV71-associated pulmonary edema can also lead to disease. In infected

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