Table of contents
May 2006 Vol 6 No 5
From the editors
p335 | doi:10.1038/nri1849
Research Highlights
Immunotherapy: Cortistatin to the rescue
p337 | doi:10.1038/nri1846
Phagocytosis: CRIg clears out the bad guys
p338 | doi:10.1038/nri1850
Gene therapy: Phoxing a myeloid-cell genetic defect
p338 | doi:10.1038/nri1855
Immunotherapy: Right place, right time
p339 | doi:10.1038/nri1847
In the news
Drug-trial disaster
p340 | doi:10.1038/nri1852
Asthma and allergy: NKT cells have a role in human asthma
p340 | doi:10.1038/nri1854
Innate immunity: RNA viruses: all bases covered?
p340 | doi:10.1038/nri1856
T cells: BLIMP1 increases its control over lymphocytes
p341 | doi:10.1038/nri1851
Focus on: TRANSLATIONAL IMMUNOLOGY
Reviews
Potent antibody therapeutics by design
Paul J. Carter
p343 | doi:10.1038/nri1837
The use of antibodies as therapeutic agents is a big business, with 18 now approved for use in the United States. How they are generated and optimized to increase efficacy and safety is the focus of extensive research efforts, which are reviewed here.
Statin therapy and autoimmune disease: from protein prenylation to immunomodulation
John Greenwood, Lawrence Steinman & Scott S. Zamvil
p358 | doi:10.1038/nri1839
Statins are best known as cholesterol-lowering drugs but increasing evidence indicates that they might be an effective treatment for autoimmune disease. Their ability to inhibit post-translational protein prenylation could be key to their immunomodulatory effects.
Microbicides and other topical strategies to prevent vaginal transmission of HIV
Michael M. Lederman, Robin E. Offord & Oliver Hartley
p371 | doi:10.1038/nri1848
With the search for an HIV vaccine still ongoing, attention is turning towards developing topical prevention strategies that prevent HIV transmission. This Review describes the rationale behind the choice of targets for such strategies and how their clinical development is progressing.
Adoptive immunotherapy for cancer: building on success
Luca Gattinoni, Daniel J. Powell, Jr., Steven A. Rosenberg & Nicholas P. Restifo
p383 | doi:10.1038/nri1842
This Review discusses recent studies that have identified ways to increase the antitumour response of autologous tumour-reactive cells adoptively transferred to individuals with cancer, such as the use of lymphodepleting regimens before adoptive cell transfer.
B-cell targeting in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases
Jonathan C. W. Edwards & Geraldine Cambridge
p394 | doi:10.1038/nri1838
Clinical trials of reagents that target B cells in individuals with autoimmune disease, in particular rheumatoid arthritis, have yielded highly promising results. Might such an approach bring us closer to the goal of re-establishing immune tolerance in these individuals?
Immunology and immunotherapy of Alzheimer's disease
Howard L. Weiner & Dan Frenkel
p404 | doi:10.1038/nri1843
Although the discontinuation of a clinical trial of amyloid-
vaccination of subjects with Alzheimer's disease led us to reassess the use of immune-based therapy for this disease, subsequent work involving antibody and cell-based therapies looks promising.
Perspective
Opinion
Functional signatures in antiviral T-cell immunity for monitoring virus-associated diseases
Giuseppe Pantaleo & Alexandre Harari
p417 | doi:10.1038/nri1840
How does a T-cell response to viral infection inform us of the state of the disease? Patterns of cytokine production by T cells could hold the key and might be useful markers for monitoring virus-associated disease in the clinic.
Correspondence
Correspondence: Oversimplification of the role of immunological processes in the pathogenesis of malaria
Geoff Butcher & Janice Taverne
| doi:10.1038/nri1858-c1
Author Reply: Complexity of immunological processes in the pathogenesis of malaria
Louis Schofield & Georges E. Grau
| doi:10.1038/nri1858-c2