Contents
22 July 2015
Vol 7, Issue 297
Vol 7, Issue 297
Contents
Editorial
- App-enabled trial participation: Tectonic shift or tepid rumble?
App-enabled clinical trials can transform our view of health, disease, and translational research.
Focus
- Optimizing sharing of hospital biobank samples
Implementing technical guidelines and standards as well as ways to boost cooperation should facilitate sharing of hospital biobank samples.
Research Articles
- The prodrug DHED selectively delivers 17β-estradiol to the brain for treating estrogen-responsive disorders
The bioprecursor prodrug 10β, 17β-dihydroxyestra-1,4-dien-3-one (DHED) allows 17β-estradiol to form in the female brain for neuroprotection and to treat neurological and psychiatric symptoms of menopause.
- Fitness cost of antibiotic susceptibility during bacterial infection
The quest to stem antibiotic resistance might be exacerbated by enhanced fitness and virulence displayed by the drug-resistant microbes.
- Human NK cell repertoire diversity reflects immune experience and correlates with viral susceptibility
Human natural killer cell diversity is a metric of immune function associated with less effective antiviral response.
- Inhibition of the alternative complement pathway preserves photoreceptors after retinal injury
The alternative complement pathway is activated in response to retinal injury, and inhibiting this pathway prevents complement-mediated photoreceptor cell death.
Editors' Choice
- Inspirational genes
This study investigated the impact of nebulized nonviral gene therapy on lung function in cystic fibrosis patients.
- Add ARBs to injury?
With an experimental design that mimics the dose and timing possible in patients, angiotensin receptor blockers improve recovery after traumatic brain injury in mice.
- Fresh AIRE for autoimmune disease genetics
New evidence highlights heterozygous mutations in AIRE, with dominant negative effects causing loss of tolerance and organ-specific autoimmunity.
- Speedy repair with stabilized β-catenin
CXXC5 inhibition is a novel strategy to stabilize β-catenin and, in turn, accelerate wound healing.
- Diverse diseases, diverse variants
The disease-associated variants within different disease categories are preferentially targeted to specific regulatory elements.
Letters
- Comment on “Tracking donor-reactive T cells: Evidence for clonal deletion in tolerant kidney transplant patients”
Difficulties in tracking of bona fide alloreactive clones may limit understanding of the mechanisms of spontaneous tolerance.
- Author response to comment on “Tracking donor-reactive T cells: Evidence for clonal deletion in tolerant kidney transplant patients”
Difficulties in tracking of bona fide alloreactive clones may limit understanding of the mechanisms of spontaneous tolerance.
About The Cover
ONLINE COVER Already-Formidable Foes Conceal New Weapons. A pair of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria swim innocently across the stage in this colored transmission electron micrograph. But these Gram-negative bugs cause serious intestinal, lung, wound, skin, and urinary tract infections—especially the drug-resistant varieties. Dire warnings in the popular press have brought to the forefront the perils of antibiotic resistance, but the problem might be worse than we thought. In this week's issue, Roux et al. show that in P. aeruginosa and two other pathogenic bacteria—Acinetobacter baumannii and Vibrio cholerae—mutations in genes that confer intrinsic or acquired antibiotic resistance also impart on the bugs both fitness and virulence advantages during infection. These findings add a new wrinkle in the battle against our drug-resistant adversaries. [CREDIT: L. M. STANNARD, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN/SCIENCE SOURCE]