Enhanced disease susceptibility

Feys, B. J., Wiermer, M., Bhat, R. A., Moisan, L. J., Medina-Escobar, N., Neu, C., Cabral, A. and Parker, J. E. (2005). Arabidopsis senescence-associated genelOl stabilizes and signals within an enhanced disease susceptibility 1 complex in plant innate immunity. Plant Cell 17, 2601-13. 

Thipyapong P, Hunt M and Steffens, J. 2004. Antisense down regulation of polyphenol oxidase results in enhanced disease susceptibility. Planta 220 105—117. 

Connective tissue disorders such as SSc, LE, Sjogren s syndrome, dermatomyositis and RA can be induced by occupational exposure to silica, solvents, and other chemical offenders. An enhanced genetic susceptibility seems to favor these disorders. SSc is the most frequent and best-studied disease. While silica precipitates SSc, the other offenders induce scleroderma-like diseases with different clinical and laboratory findings than with SSc. Taking a careful case history of patients with SSc will help to identify the occupational causes. The best way to prevent this type of connective tissue disease is to minimize the exposure to occupational substances. However, efforts in the form of individual expert decisions have to be made in order to acknowledge these disorders as occupational diseases and provide some social and financial support to patients and reduce the harm caused by these disorders. 

In addition to providing identification of disease susceptibility, advances in DNA hybridization techniques have greatly enhanced pathogen detection. These improvements permit the diagnosis timeline for sepsis, a rapidly advancing systemic infection for which timely treatment is critical, to narrow from the 24 to 48 h... 

Adult dopamin-containing neurons in the substantia nigra rely on Cavl. 3 channels as pacemaker channels. It appears that the resulting enhanced Ca2+ load renders these channels more susceptible to neurotoxic effects and neurodegeneration as observed in Parkinson s disease. Preclinical evidence suggests that block of these with dihydropyridines causes a switch to a Cavl.3-independent pacemaker and protects these neurons from neurotoxicity. 

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