New opportunistic infections - more opportunities

Article Abstract:

People with AIDS are sensitive to not only organisms that commonly cause disease in healthy people (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, salmonella), but also those that are normally present but not normally disease-causing (candida, cytomegalovirus). Infections by the latter agents are called opportunistic, and it appears that a large number of bacteria are capable of destruction in the presence of a compromised immune system. Three reports in the December 6, 1990 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine discuss newly characterized opportunistic infections in AIDS patients. In one article, two patients who were not immunocompromised were apparently affected by the same bacterial invasion. A brief evaluation of the different methodological approaches used in the three studies is presented; it is likely that two reports concerned the same bacterial organism. One used methods of genetic analysis to identify the structure of the bacteria, which appears to be a rickettsia; disorders caused by this group can often be treated with antibiotics. The possibility of infection by newly discovered organisms suggests that AIDS patients who develop signs of either bacillary angiomatosis or peliosis hepatis (the disorders discussed in the reports) should be treated with antibiotics (particularly, erythromycin). The organisms investigated share the common property of not being cultivable under laboratory conditions. Thus, investigation has been hampered. The use of molecular biology to characterize such organisms offers hope for their ultimate control. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Methods, Evaluation, Complications and side effects, AIDS (Disease), Pathogenic microorganisms, Opportunistic infections, Microbiological research, Diagnostic bacteriology, editorial

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New genetic insights into Parkinson's disease

Article Abstract:

Advances in molecular genetics have revealed important genetic influences underlying the development of Parkinson's disease. A general hypothesis is arrived upon that concludes that the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease involves the abnormal folding, aggregation, and deposition of alpha-synuclein as key steps in mediating neuronal dysfunction and degeneration.

Science & research, Research, Development and progression, Parkinson's disease, Parkinson disease, Molecular genetics

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