Compositions of highly-purified natural mixtures of type I interferon derived from leukocytes and methods

This invention relates to methods for isolating highly-purified mixtures of natural type I interferons from white blood cells, and particularly human white blood cells. The invention also relates to highly-purified mixtures of natural type I interferons which resemble natural type I interferon in that it includes 9 subtypes, i.e., alpha-1, alpha-2, alpha-5, alpha-7, alpha-8, alpha-10, alpha-14, alpha-21 and omega, giving rise to possibly 20 molecular species, including alpha-1a, alpha-1new, alpha-2a, alpha-2b, alpha-2c, alpha-5, alpha-5LG, alpha-7, alpha-8a, alpha-8c, alpha-10a, alpha-14a, alphal 14-b, alpha 14-c, alpha-14LG, alpha-21a, alpha-21b, alpha-21c, omega and omega LG. This invention relates to methods for isolating highly-purified mixtures of natural type I interferons from white blood cells. The invention also relates to highly-purified mixtures of natural type I interferons which resemble natural type I interferon in that it includes 9 subtypes, i.e., alpha-1, alpha-2, alpha-5, alpha-7, alpha-8, alpha-10, alpha-14, alpha-21 and omega, giving rise to possibly 20 molecular species, including alpha-1a, alpha-1new, alpha-2a, alpha-2b, alpha-2c, alpha-5, alpha-5LG, alpha-7, alpha-8a, alpha-8c, alpha-10a, alpha-14a, alpha14-b, alpha 14-c, alpha-14LG, alpha-21a, alpha-21b, alpha-21c, omega and omega LG.