tHe USual Suspects

tHe USual Suspects

A 72-year-old man presented with a short history of headaches with reduced visual acuity in his right eye. His general practitioner then referred him to the ophthalmologist who found Grade IV hypertensive retinopathy with bilateral papilloedema on fundoscopy. He was referred to a medical team for further assessment. Eleven months prior to this current presentation, the patient developed painles...

Identifying the “Usual Suspects”

Cryptococcal virulence: beyond the usual suspects.

In this issue of the JCI, the observation of the altered pathogenicity of a Cryptococcus neoformans glucosylceramide (GlcCer) mutant shines new light on the initiation of cryptococcal infection. Rittershaus and colleagues demonstrate that the cell surface glycosphingolipid GlcCer is essential for the fungus to grow in the extracellular environments of the host bloodstream and alveolar spaces of...

Genetic conflicts: the usual suspects and beyond.

Selfishness is pervasive and manifests at all scales of biology, from societies, to individuals, to genetic elements within a genome. The relentless struggle to seek evolutionary advantages drives perpetual cycles of adaptation and counter-adaptation, commonly referred to as Red Queen interactions. In this review, we explore insights gleaned from molecular and genetic studies of such genetic co...

Clostridium difficile--beyond the usual suspects.

One of the central concepts guiding efforts to prevent Clostridium difficile infection has been that symptomatic patients in hospitals are the major source of transmission.1 Infected patients with diarrhea shed large numbers of spores, contaminating their skin, clothing, and surrounding surfaces. The basic measures that are used to prevent transmission include placement of infected patients und...