Synopses & Reviews
Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in industrialized nations and is responsible for epidemics of meningococcal meningitis and septic shock in Africa and Asia. In Meningococcal Disease: Methods and Protocols, Andrew Pollard and Martin Maiden bring together a panel of leading authorities to produce a comprehensive, interdisciplinary survey of recent advances and knowledge about this much-feared disease. The review and methods-based chapters collected here provide essential information for diagnosis in the clinical microbiology laboratory, isolate characterization, clinical management, and control of meningococcal disease. They also examine the immunopathological mechanisms occurring in the acutely ill, host-pathogen interactions, and the possible components of meningococcus responsible for virulence. A companion volume, Meningococcal Vaccines, provides detailed methods for the design and evaluation of meningococcal vaccines. Comprehensive and authoritative, Meningococcal Disease: Methods and Protocols integrates the basic science and the clinical and epidemiological aspects of this terrible infectious disease to promote the deeper understanding needed to identify novel targets for therapeutic interventions and vaccines.
Review
"The editors invited the most skilled specialists in the world, 95 contributors, to share with the readers their knowledge of many aspects of meningococcal disease....The book is a brilliant and comprehensive review of the most recent methods for investigation of meningococcal disease and Neisseria meningitidis. It also includes detailed protocols, which should contribute to standardization of meningococcal investigation in the whole world and should allow different laboratories to obtain comparable results. The book is an excellent source of references. It is highly recommended to microbiologists, epidemiologists and clinicians dealing with meningococcal disease." - Folia Microbiologia "The book claims to be "a comprehensive and authoritative review of meningococcal biology", "an interdisciplinary survey of recent advances and knowledge", to give "cutting-edge methods for the diagnosis, epidemiology and treatment of meningococcal disease", and it fully meets these standards. It has achieved its aim to join basic science with epidemiological and clinical aspects of the disease." - International Journal of Medical Microbiology
Synopsis
Andrew Pollard and Martin Maiden bring together a panel of leading authorities to produce a comprehensive, interdisciplinary survey of recent advances and knowledge about meneigococcal disease. The review and methods-based chapters collected here provide essential information for diagnosis in the clinical microbiology laboratory, isolate characterization, clinical management, and control of meningococcal disease. They also examine the immunopathological mechanisms occurring in the acutely ill, host-pathogen interactions, and the possible components of meningococcus responsible for virulence. Meningococcal Disease: Methods and Protocols integrates the basic science, clinical, and epidemiological aspects of this terrible infectious disease to promote the deeper understanding needed to identify novel targets for therapeutic interventions and vaccines.
Table of Contents
Microbiology and Laboratory Diagnosis Keith Cartwright Isolation, Culture, and Identification of Meningococci from Clinical Specimens Per Olcén and Hans Fredlund PCR Diagnosis Malcolm Guiver and Ray Borrow Detection of Meningococcal Antigen by Latex Agglutination Michael A. Sobanski, Rosemary A. Barnes, and W. Terence Coakley Meningococcal Serology Stephen J. Gray, Ray Borrow, and Edward B. Kaczmarski Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Colin Block Molecular Approach for the Study of Penicillin Resistance in Neisseria Meningitidis Luisa Arreaza and Julio A. Vázquez Overview: Epidemiology, Surveillance and Population Biology Martin C. J. Maiden and Norman T. Begg Serological Characterization Betsy Kuipers, Germie van den Dobbelsteen, Elisabeth Wedege, and Loek van Alphen Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Mark Achtman and Giovanna Morelli Nucleotide Sequencing of Antigen Genes of Neisseria Meningitidis Rachel Urwin Multi-Locus Sequence Typing Keith A. Jolley Capsular Operons Ulrich Vogel, Heike Claus, and Matthias Frosch Molecular Analysis of the Meningococcal LPS Expression Michael P. Jennings, Andrew W. Berrington, and E. Richard Moxon Genome Sequencing and Annotation Alex C. Jeffries, Nigel J. Saunders, and Derek W. Hood Representational Difference Analysis Lucas D. Bowler, Aldert Bart, and Arie van der Ende Managing Outbreaks: The Public Health Response James M. Stuart Global Trends in Meningococcal Disease Dominique A. Caugant Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Population Biology: Carriage Studies Keith Cartwright Surveillance of Meningococcal Disease in Europe Norman Noah Global Surveillance for Meningococcal Disease Nancy E. Rosenstein Epidemiology of Meningococcal Disease in North America Andrew J. Pollard, David Scheifele, and Nancy Rosenstein Computational Methods for Meningococcal Population Studies Keith A. Jolley and Rachel Urwin Clinical Studies and Host-Pathogen Interactions F. Andrew I. Riordan and Andrew J. Pollard Clinical Scoring Systems in Meningococcal Disease Marino Festa and Bert Derkx Quantitative Detection of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharides in Clinical Specimens Petter Brandtzaeg, Reidun Øvstebø, and Peter Kierulf Isolation and Analysis of Radiolabeled Meningococcal Endotoxin Peter C. Giardina, Jerrold A. Weiss, Brad W. Gibson, and Michael A. Apicella Cytokine Measurement In Vivo and In Vitro Marcel van Deuren and Petter Brandtzaeg Cytokine Bioassays Nina-Beate Liabakk, Anders Waage, Egil Lien, Jørgen Stenvik, and Terje Espevik Molecular Analysis of Gene-Polymorphisms Affecting the Host Response to Infection Rudi G. J. Westendorp and Tom W.J. Huizinga Coagulation Studies Jan A. Hazelzet, C. Erik Hack, and Ronald de Groot Complement Pathways and Meningococcal Disease: Diagnostic Aspects Anders G. Sjöholm, Lennart Truedsson, and Jens C. Jensenius Evaluation of New Treatments for Meningococcal Disease Simon Nadel, Iain Macintosh, and Michael Levin Studies on the Effect of Neisserial Porins on Apoptosis of Mammalian Cells Paola Massari and Lee M. Wetzler Molecular Recognition Mechanisms of Meningococci: Identifying Receptor-Ligand Pairs Involved in Microbe-Host Interactions Mumtaz Virji and Laura Serino Experimental Nasopharyngeal Colonization by Neisseria Meningitidis Using Explant Organ Culture Robert C. Read and Linda Goodwin Invasion of the Central Nervous System by Neisseria Meningitidis Colin Tinsley and Xavier Nassif Interactions of Meningococci with Endothelium Robert S. Heyderman and Nigel J. Klein A Promoter Probe Plasmid Based on Green Fluorescent Protein: A Strategy for Studying Meningococcal Gene Expression Steven A. R. Webb, Paul R. Langford, J. Simon Kroll Signature Tagged Mutagenesis Sharmila Bakshi, Yao-Hui Sun, Ronald Chalmers, and Christoph M. Tang