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Immune cells in mice with lupus symptoms have overactive metabolisms, so scientists inhibited two metabolic pathways and succeeded in reversing lupus symptoms in mice

The Great Diseases curriculum is targeted to elective biology (Biology II). It is divided into four different modules. Each module consists of a 6-week course that is focused on a specific class of disease. Within each module, there are five units, each corresponding to a week's worth of lessons. Within each unit there are therefore approximately five forty-five minute lessons. Each module has been designed so it is thoroughly aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.

The researchers, Eicke Latz at the University of Bonn and colleagues, followed up on the parents' hypothesis and found that in mice, cyclodextrin indeed blocked plaque formation, melted away plaques that had already formed in arteries, reduced atherosclerosis-associated inflammation, and revved up cholesterol metabolism-even in rodents fed cholesterol-rich diets. In petri dish-based tests, the researchers found that the drug seemed to have the same effects on human cells and plaques.

The research suggests that in mice with Alzheimer's disease certain immune cells that normally protect the brain begin abnormally to consume an important nutrient called arginine. By blocking this process using the drug difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), memory loss and a buildup of sticky proteins known as brain plaques were prevented.

In this directed case study students follow a nurse practitioner and work with a diagnostics team to determine what is wrong with Tristan, an infant who comes to the clinic with multiple bruises. Students are given background and patient history, and are then given results of various blood tests ordered by the diagnostics team. The exercise emphasizes the physiological process of coagulation and the importance of various clotting factors, especially factor VIII. Students will be introduced to results from several blood tests, including: complete blood count, partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time, metabolic panel, and factor VIII assay. The patient is ultimately diagnosed with severe hemophilia A and the case then introduces students to this disorder, the genetic determinants, the incidence, and ways to manage the disease. The data in this case are real and the story represents the medical history of an actual patient. Originally developed for pre-nursing students, this activity would also be suitable for majors in physiology or pre-medical students; it could also be used in an introductory genetics or biology course.