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Volume 9 Issue 3, March 2003

Harnessing the immune system to combat disease is the central tenet of immunotherapy. In this issue, two articles and a review discuss the effects of manipulating immune effector cells on the outcome of disease. On page 269 of this issue, Waldmann traces the history of immunotherapy, and on page 279, Brentjens and colleagues target ãƒâƒã‚âƒãƒâ‚ã‚âƒãƒâƒã‚â‚ãƒâ‚ã‚âŸ-cell tumors using genetically modified T cells. Finally, Yan et al. (page 287) demonstrate that blocking the cell surface marker RAGE suppresses experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis induced by T cells. The cover image presents a stylized scanning electron micrograph of a large cancer cell surrounded by three cytotoxic T cells.

Volume 9 Issue 3

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Editorial

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  • The threat of bioterrorism requires active consideration by scientists. On 9 January 2003, the US National Academy of Sciences held a discussion on the balance between scientific openness and security. The next day, a group of editors met to discuss the issues with specific reference to the scientific publication process. The following statement has emerged from that meeting. The principles discussed will be considered and followed through by Nature Medicine

    Editorial
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Letters to the Editor

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News

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Book Review

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News & Views

  • Coaxing T cells into attacking tumors is an intelligent approach to cancer therapy that has met with limited success. A new study applies some very persuasive techniques (pages 279–286).

    • Brian Becknell
    • Michael A. Caligiuri
    News & Views

  • Two studies link signaling of the anticoagulant thrombomodulin–protein C pathway to successful implantation during pregnancy and protection from ischemic brain injury. The data call for a reassessment of the causes of pre-eclampsia, and also provide hope for a new type of stroke therapy (pages 331–337 and 338–342).

    • Wolfram Ruf
    News & Views

  • Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) seems to exploit almost every known cancer pathway to promote tumorigenesis. Activation of the canonical Wnt–β-catenin pathway can now be added to its list of conquests (pages 300–306).

    • Chris Boshoff
    News & Views

  • “The disease leads to death, and it does so within a short period of two to three years...The disease must, from our present experience, be considered from the onset not only as incurable but also as deadly.”—Moritz Kaposi, 1872

    • Chris Boshoff
    News & Views

  • Research on an inherited form of cardiac arrhythmia has now homed in on the elusive trigger of electrical instability in the heart. Aberrant calcium regulation emerges as a strong candidate.

    • Andrew R. Marks
    News & Views

  • Feedback from differentiated cells may keep precursor cells in check, controlling proliferation and differentiation. One such mechanism is now shown to control neuron numbers in the olfactory epithelium.

    • Nicholas B. Hastings
    • Elizabeth Gould
    News & Views

  • The power of small RNAs to shut down specific gene activities has now been brought to bear on an animal model of hepatitis. Mice infused with an siRNA against a cell death receptor recover liver function after experimentally induced injury (pages 347–351).

    • Phillip D. Zamore
    • Neil Aronin
    News & Views

    • Charlotte Schubert
    • Stacie Grossman
    News & Views
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Review Article

  • Harnessing the immune system to treat chronic infectious diseases or cancer is a major goal of immunotherapy. Among others, impediments to this aim include host failure to identify tumor antigens, tolerance to self and negative immunoregulatory mechanisms. But with recent progress, active and passive immunotherapy are proving themselves as effective therapeutic strategies.

    • Thomas A. Waldmann
    Review Article
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