Undercover Agents Fight Autoimmunity

Undercover Agents Fight Autoimmunity

Under normal circumstances, the cells of the immune system (T cells, B cells, and other lymphocytes) cooperate to police our bodies for evidence of disease, mounting highly coordinated attacks against foreign invaders and cancerous cells. However, the immune system can occasionally become deranged, directing its arsenal against friend not foe, to attack healthy body tissues—a condition called a...

Going Undercover

on the brain are introduced, with particular discussion the depth of treatment is uneven, as if one committee of harrowing experiences of children raised in an alterna-member or another briefly escaped the restraints of the tive sex role as a result of genetic or surgical accident. task. However, overall it hangs together remarkably well. Short sections summarize the evidence for sex differ-Gen...

Malaria undercover

receptor gene that nestles nearest the single enhancer available in the genome is the single gene that gets expressed in a given cell. Various other models for odorant receptor choice had already been deemed unlikely or incorrect. A unique set of transcription factors for each receptor sounded too complicated. And irreversible DNA recombination to place a single receptor gene at a single expres...

Role of infectious agents in autoimmunity

Undercover and Overlooked

N Engl J Med 2004;351:1014-9. Copyright © 2004 Massachusetts Medical Society. A 67-year-old overweight man was seen by his physician because of a two-month history of shortness of breath, a nonproductive cough, and bilateral swelling of the lower extremities. He also reported a tight sensation in the neck, occasional wheezing, and an increase in dyspnea after meals. The patient noted the onset ...