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Olfactory knows the truth
Olfaction, the sense of smell detects and discriminate odors as well as social cues which influence our innate responses. The olfactory system in human beings is found to be weak as compared to other animals; however, it seems to be very precise. It can detect and discriminate millions of chemical moieties (odorants) even in minuscule quantities. The sense of smell is greatly underappreciated, despite the fact that it monitors the intake of airborne agents into the human respiratory system and determine to a large degree the flavor and palatability of foods and beverage. In addition to enhancing quality of life, this primary sensory system warns of spoiled foods, leaking natural gas, polluted air and smoke, and mediates basic elements of communication (e.g., mother-infant interaction). It is now apparent that smell dysfunction is among the first clinical signs of such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s disease and sporadic Parkinson’s disease.
Obesity and Cancer
This book highlights the concordance between signaling pathways that are involved in obesity and cancer cross-talks. It describes the role of cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, insulin, and adipokines in the development of obesity-associated cancers. The book reviews the role of inflammatory signaling pathways such as estrogen-mediated signaling, mTOR and AMP-activated protein kinase pathway and the involvement of adaptive and innate immunity, oxidative stress, gene polymorphism, dietary phytochemicals, and miRNAs in obesity and cancer. In addition, it covers the latest research on the drugs and natural therapeutic agents that target obesity-induced cancers and discusses various in vivo models for studying obesity and obesity-associated cancer. Lastly, it analyses the role of genetic polymorphisms in the obesity-related genes that influence cancer development.
Modulation of host gene expression and innate immunity by viruses
This book is reference on a relatively young area of research in which virology, cellular biology and molecular pathogenesis govern the principles of coinvestigation. Infection of a naïve (non-immune) host with a virus elicits an immediate response which results in a cascade of changes in the host, including an interferon response (innate immunity). The outcome of this interaction is influenced by the genes of the virus as well as the genes of the host. Interestingly, different viruses do it in different ways. Not only is there a plethora of mechanisms used by the invading organisms, but the host has also evolved a great variety of redundant and robust countermeasures. This interplay of host and virus represents one of the most significant frontiers in biology today. A clearer understanding of the mechanisms involved will arm us with better strategies to deal with viruses, including emerging pathogens and potential bioterrorism agents. This book is sure to benefit students, scientists, and physicians working in the areas of virology, immunology, microbiology, and infectious diseases.
Mechanisms of Lymphocyte Activation and Immune Regulation X ; Innate Immunity
Mechanisms of Lymphocyte Activation and Immune Regulation X: Innate Immunity is the proceedings of the Xth International Conference on Mechanisms of Lymphocyte Activation and Immune Regulation: Innate Immunity, held February 6-8, 2004 in Newport Beach, California. It is the tenth volume of its kind to appear in the series Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Topics include toll receptors, dendritic cells, NK cells, and complement receptors.
Innate Immunity of Plants, Animals, and Humans
This book wants to give an overview of our current knowledge about the innate immune system of plants, animals and humans. It not only covers the innate immune mechanisms and responses of so diverse organisms such as plants, Cnidaria, Drosophila, urochordates and zebrafish, but also the major receptor systems in mammalians and humans as well as the central defense mechanisms, antimicrobial peptides and the complement system.
Innate and Adaptive Immunity in the Tumor Microenvironment
Recent studies, indicate that the tumor microenvironment is unique in providing both supportive and inhibitory factors that determine the fate of the tumor and its host. Accordingly, microenvironmental immunity that operates inside and around a tumor plays a crucial role in cancer development and progression. The aim of the present volume is to compile reviews on innate and adaptive immune responses at the tumor microenvironment with emphasis on positive and negative outcomes that affect the progression of the disease. These reviews have been solicited from experts in the field who published original research studies focusing on these issues.
Immunology, phenotype first : How mutations have established new principles and pathways in immunology
This monograph deals with the impact of classical genetics in immunology, prov- ing examples of how large immunological questions were solved, and new fields opened to analysis through the study of phenotypes, either spontaneous or induced. As broad as biology has become, there are those who do not fully understand what the genetic approach is, and how it differs fundamentally from most of the methods available to natural scientists.
Immunology of fungal infections
Covers all aspects of the immunology of fungal infection. Beyond the basics, coverage includes recent developments in innate and adaptive immunological mechanisms involved in the host response to fungal infection.
Immunobiology of natural killer cell receptors
Natural Killer (NK) cells are large granular lymphocytes of the innate immune system. They are widespread throughout the body, being present in both lymphoid organs and non-lymphoid peripheral tissues. NK cells are involved in direct innate immune reactions against viruses, bacteria, parasites and other triggers of pathology, such as malignant transformation, all of which cause stress in affected cells. Importantly, NK cells also link the innate and adaptive immune responses, contributing to the initiation of adaptive immune responses and executing adaptive responses using the CD16 FcgRIIIA immunoglobulin Fc receptor. Such responses are mediated through two major effector functions, the direct cytolysis of target cells and the production of cytokines and chemokines. The authors focus here on the nature of recognition events by NK cells and address how these events are integrated to trigger these distinct and graded effector functions.
Human Cytomegalovirus
The golden age of cytomegalovirus research was ushered in during the late 1970s and early 1980s by a set of powerful new technologies that included restriction enzymes, DNA cloning, DNA sequencing, and open reading frame prediction. The genetic manipulation and propagation of novel CMV strains was accelerated with the app- cation of bacterial artificial chromosome technology. Today, we still struggle to understand the full spectrum of disease associated with human CMV. To the molecular biologist, CMV is a master of regulation in the eukaryotic cell where it either replicates or remains latent. To the immunologist, CMV is a master of immune evasion with tools to escape both the innate and acquired immune responses. The use of animal models with non-human CMVs has become significantly more sophisticated and tied to a more certain understanding of the interrelationships of non-human and human CMV genes.
Hepatitis C Virus Disease
Emphasizes the most recent advances on the Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) moving from basic research to clinical application. In spite of the numerous studies on HCV infection, its pathogenesis and medical treatment have not been fully explained. The first chapters of this volume analyize the full spectrum of immune responses to HCV taking into account either innate or adoptive immunity involvement. The volume also includes a series of contributions which explain the state of art of IFN-alpha treatment in HCV patients and the effectiveness of therapy also in relation to HCV genotypes. The use and applications of pegylated IFNs will also be discussed as well as the complicated HCV disease and its treatment. Hepatitis C Virus Disease: Immunobiology and Clinical Applications is an ideal volume for researchers, scientists, professionals, clinicians, physicians and graduate students in the fields of infectious disease, immunology, virology, microbiology, pharmacology and medicine.
General Principles of Tumor Immunotherapy : Basic and Clinical Applications of Tumor Immunology
Brings together the world’s leading authorities on tumor immunology. This book describes the basic immunology principles that form the foundation of understanding how the immune system recognizes and rejects tumor cells. The role of the innate and adaptive immune responses is discussed and the implications of these responses for the design of clinical strategies to combat cancer are illustrated through both experimental clinical trials and review of current standard of care therapeutic agents. This information will be invaluable to both students of immunology and cancer research and practicing physicians who have patients with cancer. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the field, demonstrates how advances in basic immunology can and are being applied to cancer, and describes the current status of approved immunotherapy regimens.
Fungal Immunology: From an Organ Perspective
This book will serve as a comprehensive review of all known immune mechanisms for common medically important fungal pathogens. Its novelty lies in the organization: Rather than chapters devoted to specific fungi, chapters are organized by organ system. All other texts in the field, which are now quite old, are arranged according to specific fungi.
From Innate Immunity to Immunological Memory
The ability to remember an antigenic encounter for several decades, even for a life time, is one of the fundamental properties of the immune system. This phenomenon known as "immunological memory", is the foundation upon which the concept if vaccination rests. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms by which immunological memory is regulated is of paramount importance. Recent advances in immunology, particularly in the field of innate immunity, suggest that the innate immune system plays fundamental roles in influencing immunological memory. Indeed, emerging evidence suggests that events that occur early, within hours if not minutes of pathogen or vaccine entry profoundly shape the quantity, quality and duration of immunological memory. The present volume assembles a collection of essays from leading experts that span the entire spectrum research from understanding the molecular mechanisms of innate immune recognition, to dendritic cell function, to the generation and maintenance of antigen-specific B and T-cell responses.
Current Topics in Innate Immunity
This volume represents a collection of topics on natural killer cells, mast cells, phagocytes, toll like receptors, complement, host defense in plants and invertebrates, evasion strategies of microorganisms, pathophysiology, protein structures, design of therapeutics, and experimental approaches discussed during the conference.
Current Topics in Complement
Complement has been regarded as a pivotal effector arm of the innate immune response. Many scientists convened at the Third Aegean Conferences Workshop on Complement Associated Diseases, Animal Models, and Therapeutics, to discuss the advances in this field. This volume represents a collection of topics discussed during the conference.
Crossroads between Innate and Adaptive Immunity
This compilation presents minireviews derived from work presented at the Aegean Conference, which occurred October 9-14, 2005 at the Hilton Conference. Center on the island of Rhodes, Greece. The conference included sessions dedicated to host recognition of and response to pathogens, innate immune networks, antigen presentation, and adaptive immune responses, each headlined by a leading scientist at the forefront of that field. The intimate networking and interaction of dendritic cells, T cells, B cells, NK cells, NK-T cells, and complement during the host response to pathogens and tumors are only now starting to be elucidated.
Construction risk management decision making : Understanding current practices
Effective risk management is a vital component of all successful construction projects. Although quantitative tools for evaluating data and minimizing risk are readily available, construction managers commonly adopt a more innate, experience-based approach. In Construction Risk Management Decision Making, project manager and senior consultant Alex C. Arthur provides step-by-step advice on assessing and prioritizing risk using qualitative decision-making systems in the construction industry.
Lectins
In the intervening years well over 10,000 articles have appeared with lectins as the main subject, and more than twice as many in which they were touched upon, as well as around 20 books. In particular, great strides have been made in several areas of lectin research, about which little was known until the late 1980s. One prominent example is animal lectins, many of which have been discovered only during the last decade and the functions of several of which have been clarified, especially as to their key role in innate immunity.
La scuola dell’atopia = The school of atopy
The need to clarify the current concepts of atopy, which for too long have oscillated between a primitive purely clinical vision and a subsequent purely immunological one, had been ripe for some time. Understanding that the role of immunoglobulins E is not exhaustive and accepting the Solomonic division between intrinsic and extrinsic atopy were the first two fundamental steps. Recent discoveries of the role of innate immunity, and therefore of antimicrobial peptides, have opened fundamental spaces for understanding in atopy and beyond. What now appears clear is that atopy is not the disease of an organ but rather a defect in the membranes that delimit our "self". The fact that these membranes are called skin, intestines, conjunctiva, bronchi or whatever has artificially fragmented the understanding and treatment of a unitary phenomenon. This book seeks to summarize the different experiences but above all to be a stimulus to ensure that medicine focuses constructively on the same target. If this is the case, we will no longer see "religious wars" between scientists and practicing doctors or, even worse, between the different specialists vying for the patient. If atopy, as we believe, is a global problem, it can only be adequately addressed in a multidisciplinary context and in a collaborative atmosphere, not only between doctor and doctor but also between doctor and patient.
