Credit: Photograph by Sanjay Sinha

●Vietnam's war on flu.Nature 13 January (2005) Reporting in this News Feature, Peter Aldhous discovers that researchers in Vietnam are not well equipped to fight the human influenza epidemic that might arise following the recent outbreak of avian influenza in Southeast Asia.

●Inflammation and cancer: the long reach of Ras. Karin, M. Nature Medicine January (2005)

●T cell receptor CDRs: starring versus supporting roles. Kranz, D. M. Nature Immunology February (2005) The current dogma for immune recognition predicts that the T-cell receptor complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) is involved in recognition of MHC-bound peptide, whereas the CDR1 and CDR2 loops engage the MHC molecule. However, new research indicates that this might not always be the case. CDR3 might indeed have the main role in peptide recognition, but CDR1 and CDR2 are required to support or stabilize CDR3 during this process.

●Endemic Burkitt's lymphoma: a polymicrobial disease? Rochford, R., Cannon, M. J. & Moormann, A. M. Nature Reviews Microbiology February (2005) This Opinion article discusses the recent evidence indicating that endemic Burkitt's lymphoma is caused by infection with both Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and Plasmodium falciparum (a causative agent of malaria). The authors propose that P. falciparum might increase infection of B cells with EBV and reduce immunity to EBV, thereby increasing the probability of development of B-cell lymphoma.

●No driving without a license. Heath, W. R. & Villadangos, J. A. Nature Immunology February (2005) This News and Views article discusses recent data indicating that the way in which dendritic cells (DCs) are activated can impact on their function. DCs that are activated directly through triggering of receptors for pathogens can drive both activation and differentiation of CD4+ T cells, whereas DCs that are activated indirectly by exposure to inflammatory signals cannot direct differentiation of T cells.

●Knockout malaria vaccine? Ménard, R. Nature 13 January (2005) Despite extensive efforts, effective vaccination against malaria remains a pipe-dream. However, as discussed in this News and Views article, recent data provide renewed hope for the use of live attenuated malaria parasites as protective vaccines.