Kategoria BISAC: Medical >> Infectious Diseases

Legionella pneumophila is an emerging human pathogen that resides in natural environments as a parasite of freshwater. There have been new developments in this field including the publication of three whole genome sequences, the discovery of a developmental cycle and novel cyst-like highly infectious form, and the bacteria have been used as a probe for macrophage cellular function to unravel fundamental new knowledge in the area of cellular biology. Legionella has also become a model system for the study of innate as well as adaptive immunity. Information on Legionella continues to...

Androgens are critical regulators of prostate differentiation and function, as well as prostate cancer growth and survival. Therefore, androgen ablation is the preferred systemic treatment for disseminated prostate cancer. Androgen action is exerted in target tissues via binding the androgen receptor (AR), a nuclear receptor transcription factor.

Historically, the gene expression program mediated by the AR has been poorly understood. However, recent gene expression profiling and more traditional single-gene characterization studies have revealed many androgen-regulated...

This book describes the latest research on neurodegenerative disease and metal-binding proteins. It lays strong emphasis on biochemistry and cell biology. The diseases covered in the book include Parkinson s disease, Alzheimer s disease, prion disease, and ALS. The chapters separately examine such issues as mechanisms of metal binding, metal-induced structural changes in proteins, alterations in cellular metal metabolism in disease, and attempts at a therapeutic approach based on protein metal binding.

Proteases are everywhere from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, from virus to bacteria and in all human tissues, playing a role in many biological functions. Among these functions, the inflammatory reaction is of particular interest. In inflamed tissues, proteases can have a microbial and/or host origin and are involved not only in tissue remodeling, but also in specific signaling to resident or inflammatory cells, thereby contributing to the innate immune response.

This volume presents all advances in our knowledge of the role proteases and their inhibitors play in various diseases...

In recent years, plants have been increasingly explored for production of biomedicines and vaccine components. The two main advantages of plant systems are low cost and a greater potential for scalability as compared to microbial or animal systems. An additional advantage from the public health point of view is high safety compared to animal systems, which is important for vaccine production: there are no known plant pathogens capable of replicating in animals, and in humans in particular. A particular antigen or a protein has to be expressed in a plant using one of many available...

American Pandemic offers a much-needed corrective to the silence surrounding the influenza outbreak. It sheds light on the social and cultural history of Americans during the pandemic, uncovering both the causes of the nation's public amnesia and the depth of the quiet remembering that...

Ma'i Lepera attempts to recover Hawaiian voices at a significant moment in Hawai'i's history. It takes an unprecedented look at the Hansen's disease outbreak (1865-1900) almost exclusively from the perspective of "patients," ninety percent of whom were Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian). Using traditional and nontraditional sources, published and unpublished, it tells the story of a disease, a society's reaction to it, and the consequences of the experience for Hawai'i and its people.

Over a span of thirty-four years more than five thousand people were sent to a leprosy settlement on the...