Infectious diseases articles within Nature

Featured

  • News |

    Reports throw unsubstantiated suspicion on scientific advice given to the World Health Organization.

    • Declan Butler

  • Letter |

    Rising global temperatures resulting from climate change have been predicted to increase the future incidence of infectious diseases, including malaria. However, it is known that the range of malaria has contracted through a century of economic development and disease control. This contraction has now been quantified, and compared with the predicted effects of climate on malaria incidence. It is suggested that the impact of rising temperature is likely to be minor.

    • Peter W. Gething
    • , David L. Smith
    •  & Simon I. Hay

  • News & Views |

    Emerging resistance to existing antimalarial drugs could nullify efforts to eliminate this deadly disease. The discovery of thousands of agents active against malaria parasites offers hope for developing new drugs.

    • David A. Fidock

  • Opinion |

    Klaus Stöhr of Novartis argues that pre-pandemic immunization with a cocktail of likely strains could be a cheap, practical and equitable way to protect people against influenza.

    • Klaus Stöhr

  • Letter |

    SUMOylation is a post-translational protein modification that affects many eukaryotic cellular processes. It is shown here that cellular infection with Listeria monocytogenes induces degradation of one of the essential SUMOylation enzymes, Ubc9, through a mechanism that involves a bacterial toxin, listeriolysin O. This effect on SUMOylation may support efficient infection by Listeria.

    • David Ribet
    • , Mélanie Hamon
    •  & Pascale Cossart

  • News & Views |

    Proteins are synthesized by ribosomes, and then commonly undergo further modifications. A new example of how these host-cell processes can e subverted by a pathogenic bacterium has come to light.

    • Julian I. Rood

  • Letter |

    Almost 200 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus. Current treatments are poorly tolerated and not wholly effective, so new drugs are needed. Here, a potent new inhibitor of hepatitis C virus is described. This inhibitor targets the viral protein NS5A, and shows potential as part of a therapeutic regimen based on a combination of viral inhibitors.

    • Min Gao
    • , Richard E. Nettles
    •  & Lawrence G. Hamann

  • News & Views |

    To combat intestinal worms, mammals rely on adaptive immune responses mediated by T cells. However, it seems that, initially, innate immune cells mimic T-cell activity, while T cells get ready for action.

    • Gérard Eberl

  • Letter |

    Several non-haematopoietic-cell-derived cytokines, including interleukin (IL)25, have been implicated in inducing T helper 2 (TH2) cell-dependent inflammation, but their precise role has been unclear. Here, IL25 is shown to promote the accumulation of multipotent progenitor cells in gut-associated lymphoid tissue. These cells can give rise to macrophage or granulocyte lineages that promote the differentiation of TH2 cells and contribute to protective immunity against helminth infections.

    • Steven A. Saenz
    • , Mark C. Siracusa
    •  & David Artis

  • Letter |

    Here, a new type of innate effector leukocyte cell — the nuocyte — is described and characterized. It is shown that interleukin (IL)25 and IL33 drive the expansion of the nuocyte population, that these cells secrete IL13, and that they are required for protection against helminth infection.

    • Daniel R. Neill
    • , See Heng Wong
    •  & Andrew N. J. McKenzie

  • Article |

    African sleeping sickness, caused by Trypanosoma brucei species, is responsible for some 30,000 human deaths each year. Available treatments are limited by poor efficacy and safety profiles. However, a new molecular target for potential treatments has now been identified. The protein target is T. brucei N-myristoyltransferase. In further experiments, lead compounds have been discovered that inhibit this protein, kill trypanosomes in vitro and in vivo, and can cure trypanosomiasis in mice.

    • Julie A. Frearson
    • , Stephen Brand
    •  & Paul G. Wyatt

  • News & Views |

    The addition of a fatty acid to certain proteins is vital for the survival of protozoa that cause sleeping sickness and of their mammalian hosts. Compounds that target this process in the protozoa are now reported.

    • George A. M. Cross

  • News & Views |

    Mosquitoes' odorant receptors help the insects to find humans and, inadvertently, to transmit malaria. The identification of the odorants that bind to these receptors opens up ways of reducing mosquito biting.

    • Walter S. Leal

  • Letter |

    The unfolded protein response, known to contribute to the defence against infectious agents and toxins, is shown here to protect Caenorhabditis elegans larvae against detrimental effects of the innate immune response to infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The findings establish innate immunity as a physiologically relevant inducer of ER stress during C. elegans development.

    • Claire E. Richardson
    • , Tristan Kooistra
    •  & Dennis H. Kim

  • Letter |

    Worldwide, 170 million people are infected with the hepatitis C virus, which is a significant cause of liver-related illnesses and deaths. Standard treatment combines pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin (RBV), but has some negative effects, notably RBV-induced haemolytic anaemia. Here, a genome-wide study shows that a deficiency in the enzyme inosine triphosphatase protects against haemolytic anaemia in patients receiving RBV.

    • Jacques Fellay
    • , Alexander J. Thompson
    •  & David B. Goldstein

  • Article |

    The transcriptome of Helicobacter pylori, an important human pathogen involved in gastric ulcers and cancer, is presented. The approach establishes a model for mapping and annotating the primary transcriptomes of many living species.

    • Cynthia M. Sharma
    • , Steve Hoffmann
    •  & Jörg Vogel

  • News |

    Experts question claims that malaria and osteonecrosis contributed to Pharaoh's decline.

    • Declan Butler

  • Article |

    To survive and evade host responses, malaria parasites export several hundred proteins into the host cell on infection. A feature of these proteins is a conserved, pentameric motif that is cleaved by an unknown protease before export. This is one of two independent studies revealing the identity of the protease as plasmepsin V, an aspartic acid protease located in the endoplasmic reticulum. This enzyme is essential for parasite viability and is an attractive candidate for drug development.

    • Ilaria Russo
    • , Shalon Babbitt
    •  & Daniel E. Goldberg

  • Article |

    To survive and evade host responses, malaria parasites export several hundred proteins into the host cell on infection. A feature of these proteins is a conserved, pentameric motif that is cleaved by an unknown protease before export. This is one of two independent studies revealing the identity of the protease as plasmepsin V, an aspartic acid protease located in the endoplasmic reticulum. This enzyme is essential for parasite viability and is an attractive candidate for drug development.

    • Justin A. Boddey
    • , Anthony N. Hodder
    •  & Alan F. Cowman

  • Article |

    Insect vectors of diseases locate their animal hosts through olfaction via largely unknown molecular processes. Here the 'empty neuron' system of genetically engineered Drosophila is used to assign specific odorants to the entire repertoire of olfactory receptors of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. The results illuminate ecological and neurobiological differences between mosquitoes and fruitflies and provide new potential molecular targets to boost the struggle against insect–borne diseases.

    • Allison F. Carey
    • , Guirong Wang
    •  & John R. Carlson

  • News & Views |

    TH2 growth factors, which are involved in allergy and in defence against parasites, are produced by many different cell types, including a newly identified population found in fat-associated lymph clusters in the abdomen.

    • Warren Strober

  • Brief Communications Arising |

    • Sophie Brinster
    • , Gilles Lamberet
    •  & Claire Poyart

  • Letter |

    High mutation rates in the influenza A virus facilitate the generation of viral escape mutants, rendering vaccines and drugs potentially ineffective, but targeting host cell determinants could prevent viral escape. Here, 287 human host cell genes influencing influenza A virus replication are found using a genome-wide RNA interference screen. An independent assay is then used to investigate overlap between genes necessary for different viral strains.

    • Alexander Karlas
    • , Nikolaus Machuy
    •  & Thomas F. Meyer

  • Editorial |

    It is time to assess what worked, and what didn't, in the global efforts to cope with swine flu.

  • News Feature |

    Richard Besser led the United States' top public-health agency as swine flu broke out on its doorstep. And his communication shaped the early days of a pandemic, finds Brendan Maher.

    • Brendan Maher

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