The Undiscovered Country

Resistant plus susceptible tuberculosis: the undiscovered country.

Before the emergence of molecular epidemiology techniques, the conceptual approach to tuberculosis treatment seemed straightforward. The clinical laboratory sent the patient’s isolate (singular) for testing at a reference laboratory, which would perform a drug-susceptibility test (DST) whose findings were reported as a categorical result (ie, susceptible or resistant). This information then gui...

The Undiscovered Country: The Future of Industrial Automation

The Final Frontier of pH and the Undiscovered Country Beyond

The comparison of volumes of cells and subcellular structures with the pH values reported for them leads to a conflict with the definition of the pH scale. The pH scale is based on the ionic product of water, K(w) = [H(+)]×[OH(-)].We used K(w) [in a reversed way] to calculate the number of undissociated H(2)O molecules required by this equilibrium constant to yield at least one of its daughter ...

Cyclophilins in rheumatoid arthritis--stepping into an undiscovered country?

Recent years have seen enormous progress in understanding the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmunological disorder that primarily affects the joints and leads to their progressive destruction. Advances in molecular biology techniques such as the use of gene transfer and gene silencing technology, the utilization of novel animal models of destructive arthritis–particularly in...

Trypsin- and Chymotrypsin-Like Serine Proteases in Schistosoma mansoni – ‘The Undiscovered Country’

BACKGROUND Blood flukes (Schistosoma spp.) are parasites that can survive for years or decades in the vasculature of permissive mammalian hosts, including humans. Proteolytic enzymes (proteases) are crucial for successful parasitism, including aspects of invasion, maturation and reproduction. Most attention has focused on the 'cercarial elastase' serine proteases that facilitate skin invasion b...