Nature view
Research highlights from the NPG family of journals.
Relief for summer sufferers
Increasing
numbers of us are succumbing to the fits of sneezing and streaming eyes
brought on by hayfever. Also known as allergic rhinitis, this condition
currently affects about 30% of adults and up to 40% of children in industrialized
societies. It takes its economic toll both directly through the costs
of medications, and indirectly through lost workdays. In November's Nature
Reviews Drug Discovery, Stephen Holgate and David Broide examine how
improved understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie
the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis has resulted in the identification
of new therapeutic strategies for its treatment.
reviews
New targets for allergic rhinitis — A disease
of civilization
S. T. HOLGATE AND D. BROIDE
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2, 903; November 2003
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Bad press
The
well-publicized controversy in Britain about the safety of the MMR (measles,
mumps and rubella) vaccine in 2002 could have real consequences for public
health, as the strategy of giving children three individual vaccines in
three separate doses may increase the risk of disease. In November's Nature
Reviews Immunology, Justin Lewis and Tammy Speers discuss whether
the media misled the public about the risk of the MMR vaccine and precipitated
the decline in public confidence.
perspectives
Misleading media reporting? The MMR story
J. LEWIS AND T. SPEERS
Nature Reviews Immunology 3, 913; November 2003
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Cell wounding aids malaria infection
Long
before a person exhibits the symptoms of a full-blown malarial infection,
Plasmodium parasites must first establish themselves in liver cells.
But on their way to infecting one cell, the sporozoite form of the parasite
migrates through several other cells, damaging their plasma membranes
as it does so. In November's issue of Nature Medicine, Margarida
Carrolo and colleagues show that this wounding of the cells results in
the release of growth factors and other proteins to the extracellular
environment. Intriguingly, these growth factors render neighbouring host
cells more susceptible to infection, by inducing rearrangements of the
host–cell cytoskeleton required for the early development of the parasite.
articles
Hepatocyte growth factor and its receptor are
required for malaria infection
M. CARROLO et al.
Nature Medicine 9, 1363; November 2003
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Nanoparticles stump Einstein
Attempts
to understand the mechanical properties of particulate suspensions have
a long history. Nearly a century ago, Einstein demonstrated that the suspension
of brownian particles in a liquid increases its viscosity — the increase
is dependent on the volume of particles added and the viscosity of the
liquid. But in November's Nature Materials, a study by Michael
Mackay et al. suggests that nanoparticles behave differently. In
their study, the addition of organic nanoparticles to polystyrene macromolecules
resulted in an unexpected decrease in viscosity, suggesting that a different
and, as yet, poorly understood physics comes into play with the addition
of nanoparticles. Sharon Glotzer reviews this work in a News and Views
article.
articles
Nanoscale effects leading to non-Einstein-like decrease in viscosity
M. E. MACKAY et al.
Nature Materials 2, 762; November 2003
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new and views
Complex rules for soft systems
S. C. GLOTZER
Nature Materials 2, 713; November 2003
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Discovery of first polyamine deficiency syndrome
Polyamines
are understood to be essential molecules for normal cell growth and differentiation,
but their specific cellular functions remain to be elucidated. Further,
until now, no heritable condition had been identified in humans whereby
polyamine synthesis is disturbed. The European Journal of Human Genetics
hereby publishes a study by Cason et al. that not only is the first
report of a polyamine deficiency syndrome, but also links this splice
mutation of the spermine synthase (SMS) gene with Snyder-Robinson Syndrome
(SRS). SRS is an X-linked disorder that causes mental retardation, facial
asymmetry, osteoporosis and other complications.
This article has free access on the EJHG journal page.
articles
X-linked spermine synthase gene (SMS) defect: the first polyamine deficiency
syndrome
A LAUREN CASON, YOSHIHIKO IKEGUCHI, CINDY SKINNER,
TIM C WOOD, KENTON R HOLDEN, HERBERT A LUBS, FRANCISCO MARTINEZ, RICHARD
J SIMENSEN, ROGER E STEVENSON, ANTHONY E PEGG AND CHARLES E SCHWARTZ
European Journal of Human Genetics, Advanced Online Publication.
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New approach for transgenesis
Transgenic
animals could be beneficial to the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries,
but a major obstacle has been the low efficiency of creating such animals
using current approaches. In the November issue of EMBO reports,
research teams led by Alexander Pfeifer and Eckhard Wolf from the University
of Munich have used lentiviral vectors that carry the green fluorescent
protein (GFP) to generate transgenic pigs with high efficiency. Of the
piglets born, 70% carried the transgene and 94% of these expressed GFP
in all tissues analysed. This establishes the proof of principle that
animals could in future be engineered by this method for the production
of therapeutic proteins or even organs for xenotransplantation.
scientific reports
Efficient transgenesis in farm animals by Lentiviral vectors
HOFMANN et al.
EMBO reports 4, 11, 1054–1058 (2003).
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