IMMUNOLOGY:
Immune Defect Makes Gut Bacteria Turn Bad
In each person, a one-cell-thick lining in the colon separates the estimated
500 unidentified kinds of intestinal bacteria from immune defenders. The normal
resident bacteria provide essential services, such as processing nutrients from
food. In a striking new mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease, an immune
glitch converts the mild-mannered gut microbes into an infectious bacterial army
that attacks the host’s colon, and the condition spreads to normal mice,
according to a study in the Oct. 5 Cell from Laurie Glimcher (left),
Wendy Garrett, and their colleagues.
PUBLIC
HEALTH: International Leaders Confer on Children and AIDS
In Africa, where the growing AIDS epidemic has turned millions of children
into orphans, governments and agencies are scrambling to help. Their
rescue efforts are leading to what some are calling an “orphan
fixation.” Yet these bereft children may not be the hardest hit
by the epidemic, a point made at a symposium, “Meeting Children’s
Needs in a World with HIV/AIDS,” held on Sept. 24 at HMS and sponsored
by the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS. The discussion,
with speakers including Shanta Devarajan (left) and Nancy Juma Otieno,
was wide-ranging but tended to circle around three questions: How do
we best help orphans and other vulnerable children? Who should implement
these programs? And who should pay?
NEUROSCIENCE:
Method Sharpens Aim for Pain Relief
HMS researchers blocked pain in the paws of rats without affecting mobility
by injecting them with capsaicin—the active ingredient in chili peppers—and
a derivative of lidocaine. In combination, the chemicals stopped pain-sensing
neurons from signaling without interfering with other types of neurons.
The novel pain management method, reported by (from left) Bruce Bean, Clifford
Woolf, and Alexander Binshtok in the Oct. 4 Nature, could
eventually make trips to the dentist, childbirth, and surgery more manageable
for the doctor and the patient.
Copyright 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College