VACCINE RESEARCH: Masked Vector Rides Past Immune Defense
Adenoviruses have become one of the most promising vaccine strategies when used as vectors to deliver foreign genes. But many people already have immunity to the common serotype of adenovirus used in current vaccines, which might prevent the vector from delivering its cargo. Diane Roberts, Dan Barouch, and their colleagues circumvented this problem by swapping small portions of the vector’s outer shell with those of a much rarer serotype. The new chimeric vector, described in the May 11 Nature, looks like a new virus to the immune system.

CARDIOLOGY: Risks Evaluated for Heart Implants
In an increasingly common dilemma in modern medicine, physicians must grapple with newly discovered risks that emerge after medical products have been declared safe and effective and are in widespread use. William Maisel, a cardiologist who specializes in arrhythmia, led two studies in the April 26 Journal of the American Medical Association that provide more information about risks and benefits of replacing potentially flawed pacemakers and implanted defibrillators. For the vast majority of people, the benefits of these devices still trump any risks by a wide margin. The results only apply to the small group of patients with devices that are affected by a recall or advisory.

ANGIOGENESIS: New Vessels Take Direction from Vascular Cell Signals
Angiogenesis is considered a “disease common denominator” because abnormal blood vessel growth contributes to many diverse disorders, from macular degeneration to cancer. Several successful drug therapies emerged from research revealing the extracellular cues that activate new blood vessel growth. By probing inside the endothelial cell, Eunok Im and Andrius Kazlauskas have found that two enzymes compete within these cells to control the opposing activities of vessel growth and regression. Their findings, reported in the May 17 EMBO Journal, may inspire new treatments for angiogenesis-related disease.