In a study conducted with mice by the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut and the Institute of Virology at the University of Freiburg, a research team under the lead of Professor Zoe Waibler demonstrated that upon infection with negative-strand RNA viruses, both the route and the dose of infection determine whether or not the production of type I interferons (IFN), is independent from their receptor, the IFN receptor (IFNAR). These results shed a new light on the previously postulated mechanism, which implied that a positive feedback loop via the IFNAR is strictly needed for robust IFN production. The new findings were published in the “Journal of General Virology” on 16. July2021.