News & Comment

An audit of international activity in malaria research highlights the need for a more concerted research effort.

But more controlled studies are needed to confirm its value.

At graduation, many medical students recite oaths vague in precept and betraying a self-solicitude inimical to professional maturity.

Tamoxifen and its analogues are powerful tools in the fight against breast cancer and may soon find applications fighting other diseases such as atherosclerosis and osteoporosis.

The discovery of hyperhomocysteinemia as a major factor in the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis offers new strategies and opportunities for prevention and treatment.

The brain is an isolated metabolic preserve and small metabolic biases that may have no consequences for other cells may have an important role in many neurological conditions.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia are well-known endemic regions of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). We can expect that HFRS infections will be a hazard to NATO peace-keeping forces.

The human immunodeficiency virus uses the human complement system to its advantage. Is it possible to turn the tables with a vaccine?

The gene therapy community has swung from an excited and overoptimistic mood to one of disillusionment with the apparent slowness of progress and with the absence of truly therapeutic applications. Although gene therapy is yet to come of age, there can be no doubt that, in time, it will bear fruit.

Glutamic acid decarboxylase is attracting much interest because of its putative involvement in two clinical disorders: stiff-man syndrome and insulin-dependent diabetes. Here we discuss the clinical significance of an autoimmune response against CAD and consider how such information may help identify the disease mechanisms of these disorders.

Reduced intake of food and enhanced physical activity, the main behavioral manifestations of self-starvation and anorexia nervosa, activate brain substrates associated with reward.

The infectious disease risks associated with baboon-to-human transplants may represent an insurmountable hurdle in the race to save lives. Yet, public health agencies are relucant to regulate Xenotransplantation in spite of those risks.

Outbreaks of plague in India should stir the country (and the world) to a new awakening of the importance of resurgent and emerging infections

It may, but only under very special circumstances.

Antisense development has required diligent efforts by many labs to allow it to progress. Improved methods have helped to transgress many barriers, resulting in a vibrant technology geared towards generating new human therapuetics.

The discovery of effective disease treatments has slowed. This may be related to a misunderstanding of the treatment-discovery process, and an underappreciation of clinical investigations and off-label drug studies.

The level of scientific understanding required to develop a successful AIDS vaccine is still lacking, although the elements needed to pursue a practical and productive vaccine development program can be defined.

The US government sends a perverse message through its newly announced policy of supporting tobacco exports to developing nations while pontificating about the dangers of teenage smoking.

New data on the AIDS virus suggest that an HIV-1 subtype, ‘clade’ E, which is prevalent in Asia, may spread easily through mucosa, accounting for the greater efficiency of heterosexual spread of the disease in that part of the world.