IFNA1 and viral hepatitis: Apart from respiratory diseases, IFN therapy is currently a mainstay in the treatment of viral hepatitis, used in combination with the antiviral agent ribavirin.26 Increases in host IFN production have been shown to directly translate into antiviral activity in a clinical context.27 Due to the expense associated with using recombinant IFNs as biological interventions in human disease, one alternative approach is small molecule agonists of IFNs or their associated antiviral pathways that illicit the same IFN-mediated protective effect.