Two recent papers published online at scienceexpress.org describe studies of antibodies claimed to interfere with infection of host cells by a wide range of HIV-1 strains. These studies strongly suggest that the evolutionary potential of the humoral immune response may be necessary to combat the diversity of HIV-1 antigens that results from the extraordinary pace [...]
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Commentary on: M. Ackermann, B. Stecher, N. E. Freed, P. Songhet, W.-D. Hardt, and M. Doebeli (2008) Self-destructive cooperation mediated by phenotype noise. Nature 454:987-9
One of the most exciting developments in microbial population biology over the past few years is the recognition that high levels of phenotypic noise – in which genetically identical microbes express [...]
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A recent article by Hood and Jenkins provides an overview of a May 2007 Meeting on Evolutionary Medicine organized by Diddahally Govindaraju, Peter Byers and Stephen Stearns and hosted by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Evolutionary Medicine: A Powerful Tool for Improving Human Health (article title)”, url: “http://evmedreview.com/?p=104″ });
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In 2005 Sarkis Mazmanian and colleagues showed that a single polysaccharide from an intestinal commensal, Bacteroides fragilis, could largely correct the subnormal and functionally distorted development of the immune system that occurs in germ-free mice (Mazmanian et al. 2005). More recently they have shown, using three different models of intestinal inflammation, that the same polysaccharide, [...]
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Do worms protect us against autoimmune diseases? The epidemiological evidence is strongly suggestive. Ethiopian, Brazilian, Venezuelan, and Gambian adults have less asthma when infected with nematodes; Gabonese schoolchildren with schistosomiasis have fewer allergic reactions to dust mites than do those who are not so infected, and children living on farms in Germany have fewer allergies [...]
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Posted in Article review, Defenses, Infection on Jun 5th, 2008
It is pretty obvious that fever is useful. Work by Kluger and others has shown that increased temperatures decrease mortality during infection. Even for lizards! (When infected they crawl to warmer places.)
The mystery has been how fever works. Can higher body temperature alone inhibit pathogen growth? It seems unlikely that changing temperature by just a [...]
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