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Malaria kills over one million people, mainly children, in the tropics each year, and DDT remains one of the few affordable, effective tools against the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. Attaran et al. explain that the scientific literature on the need to withdraw DDT is unpersuasive, and the benefits of DDT in saving lives from malaria are well worth the risks.
Impressive progress has been made in the development of drugs that inhibit human immunodeficiency virus replication. A new study indicates that mycophenolic acid, a selective inhibitor of lymphocyte proliferation, might also be useful in controlling viral replication through several mechanisms (pages 762–768).
In patients with human immunodeficiency virus 1, a comparison of the genotype of rebounding virus to that in the latent reservoir after highly active anti-retroviral therapy is discontinued indicates that the latent reservoir is not the cause of viral rebound in most cases. However, the precise anatomic location of the source of viral rebound is still undefined (pages 757–761).
Multiple sclerosis and Guillain-Barré syndrome have traditionally been regarded as ‘demyelinating’ disorders. An important lesson of recent studies, however, is that these diseases involve more than damage to myelin, and that ion channels, which are pivotal in neuronal function, may also be important targets in these disorders (pages 808–811).
Overactivation of receptors for the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate may be involved in disorders ranging from epilepsy to Alzheimer disease. This destructive pathway may be held in check by basic fibroblast growth factor acting through an intermediary cytokine called activin A (pages 812–815)
α-hemolysin is a pore-forming cytolysin involved in the virulence of uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains. Recent studies have shown that at sublytic concentrations, this toxin can also induce calcium oscillations that affect gene expression, the inflammatory response and other cellular activities.
Structurally and functionally altered transcription factors have been associated with many human neoplasms. A better understanding of these transcriptional defects has revealed new therapeutic opportunities.
Measles is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths among children worldwide. The development of a measles DNA vaccine may prevent the complications associated with non-infectious vaccine approaches and eventually contribute to global measles eradication (pages 776–781 ).
Around 1775, Typhoon Lengkieki decimated the population in the Micronesian Pingelap Atoll, leaving only a handful of survivors to repopulate the islands. Their ancestors have a high incidence of the autosomal recessive disorder achromatopsia, or total colorblindness, and genetic analysis of the Pingelapese has revealed the mutation responsible.
A collection of recent studies have suggested that adult stem cells taken from brain, muscle and blood can be converted into multiple mammalian tissue types. Can we build entire animals from stem cells found in the adult body?
Little is known about the pathogenesis of the Dengue virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes about 50 million human infections annually, some of which may be fatal. Recent studies have demonstrated two subsets of dendritic cells, monocyte-derived dendritic cells and human skin Langerhans cells, that are targets for Dengue virus infection (pages 816–820).
