Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Epidemiology

A human germ project?

Nature volume 389, pages 21–23 (1997)Cite this article

Infectious agents that lead to chronic diseases or cancer tend to persist silently for many years before causing disease in a small proportion of their hosts. There is now much interest in the possible link between coronary heart disease and one such infectious agent, Chlamydia pneumoniae, an intracellular bacterium. Studies published in the Lancet1 and in Circulation2 report the first randomized trials of antibiotics in the prevention of coronary heart disease. Their findings — that antibiotics with activity against C. pneumoniae may prevent further heart attacks in people suffering from heart disease — were based on only a small number of patients, so they are prone to chance fluctuations. But these studies have prompted the start of large-scale clinical trials, and they highlight a larger trend in clinical research, towards the identification of new associations between common infectious agents and chronic disease (Table 1, overleaf).

Table 1 Table 1 Examples of common persistent infections with associated chronic diseases
Full size table

Interest in infections as potential causes of human cancer and other chronic disease has waxed and waned for almost a century, since F. P. Rous demonstrated the carcinogenic effects of chicken sarcoma virus. The search for human ‘cancer viruses’ intensified in the 1960s, culminating in President Nixon's National Cancer Act in 1971. But only limited success followed and, by the early 1980s, interest began to fade. In retrospect, progress may have been hindered by technical limitations. Now, molecular technologies such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can both identify previously unrecognized infections and indicate the presence of recognized organisms in unexpected tissues. And epidemiological methods, such as large observational studies and clinical trials, provide a way of distinguishing between causal and coincidental associations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Coloured transmission electron micrograph of hepatitis B virus particles.

eye of science/Science Photo Library

References

  1. Gurfinkel, E., Bozovich, G., Daroca, A., Beck, A. & Mautner, B. Lancet 350, 404–407(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gupta, S. et al. Circulation 96, 404–407(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Service, R. F. Science 275, 1740–1742(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Goodwin, C. S., Mendall, M. & Northfield, T. C. Lancet 349, 265–269(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Melnick, J. L. et al. Lancet ii, 644–647(1983).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chang, Y. et al. Science 266, 1865–1869(1994).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lorber, B. Ann. Intern. Med. 125, 844–851(1996).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kingsley, G. Lancet 349, 1038–1039(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Chang, M. H. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 336, 1855–1859(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Danesh, J., Forman, D., Collins, R. & Peto, R. Lancet 348, 758–759(1996).

    Google Scholar 

  11. McNeil, C. J. Natl Cancer Inst. 89, 281–282(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Beasley, R. P., Hwang, L. Y., Lin, C. C. & Chien, C. S. Lancet ii, 1129–1133(1981).

    Google Scholar 

  13. IARC Working Group 70-87 (1996).

  14. Munoz, N. et al. Int. J. Cancer 52, 743–749(1992).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Krause, A., Kamradt, T. & Burmester, G. R. Curr. Opin. Rheum. 8, 203–209(1996).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Rettig, M. B. et al. Science 276, 1851–1854(1997).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Kinlen, L. J. Br. J. Cancer 71, 1–5(1995).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6HE, UK

    John Danesh, Robert Newton & Valerie Beral

  2. Robert Newton and Valerie Beral are in the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Oxford, OX2 6HE, UK

    John Danesh, Robert Newton & Valerie Beral

Authors
  1. John Danesh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert Newton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Valerie Beral
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Danesh, J., Newton, R. & Beral, V. A human germ project?. Nature 389, 21–23 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/37879

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/37879

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing