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Volume 10 Issue 3, March 2004

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SAR) emerged last year as a threat to global health. On page 290 of this issue, Haagmans et al. show that pegylated interferon-alpha is an effective prophylactic in a macaque model of respiratory infection by SARS coronavirus. The cover image shows a transmission electron micrograph of SARS coronavirus nucleocapsids (purple) in a type 1 alveolar pneumocyte from the lung of an infected macaque. Magnification, approximately x50,000.

Volume 10 Issue 3

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Editorial

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News

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Commentary

  • Several lines of evidence indicate that development of an effective vaccine for HIV-1 is going to be, at best, extremely difficult. The inability to solve fundamental scientific questions is the root cause for why a successful vaccine is not currently within our grasp. A renewed, organized, focused effort is needed to overcome these scientific obstacles.

    • Ronald C Desrosiers
    Commentary

  • Using stem cells to generate new neurons and replace those lost in diseases such as Parkinson and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis would be a major breakthrough, but significant hurdles remain before this goal can be realized. Instead, a more practical short-term approach may be to use stem cells to protect neurons dying in these diseases.

    • Clive N Svendsen
    • J William Langston
    Commentary
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Book Review

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News & Views

  • HIV mutates to avoid the pressure of the immune system. This process is balanced by the need of the virus to replicate efficiently. Two studies examine this dynamic as the virus infects new hosts (pages 275–281 and 282–289).

    • John D Altman
    • Mark B Feinberg
    News & Views

  • Aging is driven in part by an evolutionarily conserved hormone signaling pathway. A new study shows that this pathway is controlled by the p53 tumor suppressor, which exquisitely balances the need for cell proliferation against that for tumor suppression.

    • Judith Campisi
    News & Views

  • According to the 'hygiene hypothesis', viral infections prevent the development of asthma and other atopic diseases. Influenza virus appears now to enhance, rather than inhibit, the development of asthma and allergic responses.

    • Dale T Umetsu
    News & Views

  • Upon injury, axons can send a message to the cell body to implement repair programs. This message is now shown to require a complex of the microtubule motor dynein and proteins that mediates nuclear-cytoplasmic transport.

    • Armin Blesch
    • Mark H Tuszynski
    News & Views

  • Conditional removal of the putative tumor suppressor gene Aml1/Runx1 from the bone marrow of mice mimics a human familial platelet disorder (pages 299–304).

    • Brenda J Irvin
    • Scott W Hiebert
    News & Views

  • Heart researchers have had hints that a stress response protein, PKC-α, influences the progression to heart failure. The inner workings of this key regulator are now coming to light (pages 248–254).

    • Hunter C Champion
    • David A Kass
    News & Views
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Brief Communication

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Article

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Letter

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