Nature
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Sepsis is a condition that results from a harmful or damaging host response to infection. Many of the components of the innate immune response that are normally concerned with host defences against infection can, under some circumstances, cause cell and tissue damage and hence multiple organ failure, the clinical hallmark of sepsis. Because of the high mortality of sepsis in the face of standard treatment, many efforts have been made to improve understanding of the dysregulation of the host response in sepsis. As a result, much has been learnt of the basic principles governing bacterial-host interactions, and new opportunities for therapeutic intervention have been revealed.
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Studies of the administration of interleukin-2 to patients with metastatic melanoma or kidney cancer have shown that immunological manipulations can mediate the durable regression of metastatic cancer. The molecular identification of cancer antigens has opened new possibilities for the development of effective immunotherapies for patients with cancer. ⋯ Highly avid anti-tumour lymphocytes can be isolated from immunized patients and grown in vitro for use in cell-transfer therapies. Current studies are aimed at understanding the mechanisms that enable the cancer to escape from immune attack.
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Earth is over 4,500 million years old. Massive bombardment of the planet took place for the first 500-700 million years, and the largest impacts would have been capable of sterilizing the planet. Probably until 4,000 million years ago or later, occasional impacts might have heated the ocean over 100 degrees C. ⋯ Early hyperthermophile life, probably near hydrothermal systems, may have been non-photosynthetic, and many housekeeping proteins and biochemical processes may have an original hydrothermal heritage. The development of anoxygenic and then oxygenic photosynthesis would have allowed life to escape the hydrothermal setting. By about 3,500 million years ago, most of the principal biochemical pathways that sustain the modern biosphere had evolved, and were global in scope.
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Many drugs are now in development for the treatment of atopic diseases, including asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis. These treatments are based on improvements in existing therapies or on a better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in atopic diseases. Although most attention has been focused on asthma, treatments that inhibit the atopic disease process would have application to all atopic diseases, as they often coincide. Most of the many new therapies in development are aimed at inhibiting components of the allergic inflammatory response, but in the future there are real possibilities for the development of preventative and even curative treatments.