Institute in La Jolla, Calif., praises the new study but is cautious about its implications for TLR7’s natural role. He’s unconvinced that TLR7 or other toll-like receptors par- ticipate specifically in the body’s defense against viruses. The drugs may simply acti- vate a general immune response, he says.

The new paper “does not suggest in any way that TLR7 is a receptor for components of viruses,” Beutler concludes.

Akira acknowledges that his team hasn’t identified the substance that naturally acti- vates TLR7. It may be a part of a virus or a molecule generated by an animal during a viral infection, he suggests.

Nonetheless, Stephen K. W n g of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston is thrilled to gain some insight into the workings of resiquimod. “Ofall the antiviral drugs I’m working with, it’s the most exciting,” he says. -J. TRAVIS

Slowing Lupus Stifled inflammation limits kidney damage - Restoring the body’s balance between the actions of antibodies and natural regula- tory proteins is the goal of a therapy being developed for the autoimmune disease lupus. This treatment thwarts activation of an array of immune-system proteins called complement, experiments in mice show. The findings clear the way for testing com- plement inhibition as atreatment for lupus patients.

Normally, antibodies bind to foreign tar- gets such as bacteria and viruses. Comple- ment proteins latch onto the antibodies, and the resulting immune complex destroys the invaders and creates debris in the blood- stream. Proteins called regulators of com- plement activation live up to their name by limiting how much complement joins the complexes, thereby fostering a healthy immune response.

In lupus, antibodies attack a person’s own tissues, activating excess complement that gloms onto immune complexes. The result- ing debris can overload housekeeper cells in the liver and spleen and settle in the kid- neys, where it causes inflammation that jams blood flow and kills cells, says study coauthor Richard J. Quigg, a nephrologist at the University of Chicago. About half of lupus patients contract some kidney dis- ease in their lifetimes, Quigg estimates.

To test whether complement suppres- sion can slow lupus, Quigg and his col- leagues used lupus-prone mice that were genetically engineered to produce excess amounts of a rodent regulator of comple- ment activation. Mice overproducing this ! protein, called Crry, were about eight times

8 aslikelyto survive at least 42 weeks as other

lupus-prone mice were, the researchers found.

In another experiment on lupus-prone mice, 37 of 87 mice (42.5 percent) without extra Crry had kidney dis- ease, but only11 of67 animals (16.4 percent) with extra Cny showed such damage.

The results will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Immunology.

On the basis of this and other studies, researchers have started a trial in which lupus patients with kidney damage receive infusions of a complement inhibitor or an inert substance. The study is the first to use a complement inhibitor STORMY ENCOUNTER image taken Dec. 21,2001, shows @nstlUpus in people, says Jupiter‘s Great Red Spot and the nearby, smaller oval storm V. Michael Holers, a (arrow) in the planet‘s southern hemisphere. rheumatologist at the Uni- versity of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver who coauthored the mouse study and is directing the study in lupus patients.

Giving complement inhibitor to people with lupus “is plausible, potentially impor- tant, and increasingly supported by exper- imental data,” says David Wofsy, a rheuma- tologist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in san Francisco. -N. SEPPA

Extreme Weather Massive hurricanes meet on Jupiter

Amateur and professional sky watchers are pointing their telescopes at Jupiter this month to record what could be a historic encounter. l b o huge storms on the giant planet are beginning to encounter each other, and no one knows what will happen as these titans meet.

The more prominent of the swirling storms, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, is twice as wide as Earth. It has endured for more than 300 years. The other storm, about one-third as wide, has persisted in an adjacent band of clouds since the 1930s. The Great Red Spot encounters storms in this band about once every 2 years. The current interaction is different from earlier ones because what had been three oval storms have merged into one (SN: 11/18/00,p. 328).

Although this oval doesn’t appear larger than any of the earlier trio, it may be more massive. If so, the current encounter with the Great Red Spot could be dramatic, notes planetary scientist Reta F. Beebe of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. For instance, the oval could be torn apart or

stalled as it approaches the edge of the larger storm. It may even give up some of its own stuff-fresh ammonia ice crystals- to the Great Red Spot, endowing it with a white fringe.

The two storms are approaching each other at 30 kilometers per hour, with the white oval passing just south of the Great Red Spot. The large wind speeds, up to 700 km per hour, at the fringes of both of these hurricane-like storms sets the stage for an extraordinary interaction, says Amy A. Simon-Miller of NASAk Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Asidefmmtestingthe stabilityoftheoval, the encounter could reveal how much water lies beneath the storms. The greater the amount of water, the larger the separation at which the two storms can begin to inter- act, notes Andrew P. Ingersoll of the Cali- fornia Institute of Technology in Pasadena. -R. COWEN

Protection

Budget favors defense and bioterror research - The four-volume, 2,726-page budget pro- posal that president Bush forwarded to Con- gress on Feb. 4 includes the largest-ever increase for scientific research and develop- ment, with particularly generous provisions for defense and h d t h R&D programs. These priorities tnunp other areas of science, whwe proposed allocations collectively break even, compared with the current budget.

Ofthe $2.13 trillion in proposed federal expenditures detailed for fiscal year (FY) 2003, nearly $112 billion would go to R&D,

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an overall increase over FY 2002 of nearly $8.6 billion, or about 6 percent after accounting for expected inflation. The Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reap the lion’s share of the increase, a reflection of the new emphasis on national security, according to Bush’s chief science advisor, John H. Marburger, who is director of the Oftice of Science and Technology Policy.

Under Bush’s proposal, DOD would enjoy the largest R&D windfall, as cdcu- lated in dollars. It would get $5.4 billion dollars in new funding, or an inflation- adjusted 8.6 percent increase. The boost, part of a whopping 14 percent increase in the overall defense budget, would be dedi- cated to developing technologies related to, among other areas, cyberspace security and counterterrorism. Those endeavors would receive $1.8 billion and $900 million, respectively. Meanwhile, the administra- tion is asking Congress to slightly trim DOD’s more basic research programs.

The proposed allotment for NIH reaches $27.3 billion, an increase of $3.7bfiOn over the institutes’ current budget for supporting biomedical research. That figure represents the final installment of a process initiated by former President Clinton and Congress to double the NIH budget over 5 years. Pro- grams to counter biotemrism, including such threats as anthrax, smallpox, and plague, would get particular attention under Bush‘s budget, with approximately $1.5 billion in

new funds. That’s six times the FY 2002 budget for antibioterrorism research.

However, the influx of money for that effort would divert expected resources from NIH’s other areas of health research. Most institutes would experience after-inflation boosts between 6 and 7 percent, barely half the average lift that NIH programs have received during each of the past 4 years.

Cancer investigation fares better than most h d t h research not focused on bioter- rorism. The budget calls for an inflation- adjusted 10 percent increase for the National Cancer Institute. HIV and AIDS research at NIH would increase by $255 million, or about 8 percent after inflation.

Science programs unrelated to security or health are treated unevenly in Bush’s budget. If endorsed by Congress, new ini- tiatives spanning several agencies will strive to capitalize on areas of opportunity in information technology, nanotechnology, and climate-change research.

Rita R Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), calls the budget “encouraging news” for her agency, which would benefit from a modest funding increase in new-technology research and other research and education programs. NSF would also take over several R&D pro- grams currently administered by other gov- ernment agencies, in part because it’s the only government agency to receive high marks for fiscal management under the administration’s new assessment system.

NASAIS modest postinflation increase of 3.1 percent would cap next year’s budget for the costly and highly criticized International Space Station at $1.49 billion, a decline of $230 million from this year’s appropriation. A new $125 million initiative in the budget proposal would have NASA work toward nuclear propulsion and power systems for

R&D Budget PrOpOSaI (in millions of dollars)*

AGENCY OR DEPARTMENT

Defense NIH NASA

Energy

Agriculture commerce Interior

NSF

FV 2001 FV 2002 Fy 2003 PERCENl CHANGE“

ACTUAL ESTIMATED PROPOSED 2002-2003

42,235

20,438 9,675 7,772 3,363

2,182 1,054

622

49,171

23,623 9,560 9,253 3,571 2,336 1,129

660

54,544

27,335 10,069

8,510 3,700 2,118 1,114

628

8.6

13.3 3.1

-10.0 1.4

-1 1.2 -3.4 -6.8

EQA 598 612 650 4.0 Other 3,325 3,457 3,088 -12.5

Total 91,264 103,372 111,756 6.0

*Adapted from Office of Management and Budget and NIH data; figures reflect rounding. **Adjusted for 2.14 percent expected inflation.

exploration of the outer solar system. Under this budget, the space agency would cancel planned missions to explore Pluto and Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, which may har- bor a life-friendly ocean beneath its surface.

Ofthe five agencies with the largest R&D budgets, only the Department of Energy (DOE) is looking at a reduction in funding. The department conducts basic research and develops technologies in mas that include nudear weapons and energy supply. The pro- posed overall R&D decrease of more than $700 million, or 10 percent after idation, includes a $113 million-or 55 percent-cut in research related to the cleanup of con- taminated nuclear-weapons sites. At the same time, $110 million in new funds would go toward R&D related to maintaining the nation’s nuclear-weapons stockpile.

Also, DOE would drop a 9-year-old joint venture that aims to develop more fuel-effi- cient cars and cost $127 million last year. In its place, the agency would launch a pro- gram to develop vehicles powered by hydro- gen-consuming fuel cells. Called Freedom- CAR, this program would receive $150 million in 2003. This tack reflects the administration’s desire to hand off projects with near-term commercial prospects to industry and reserve federal outlays for long- term, high-risk programs, says Marburger.

Several agencies with smaller R&D budg- ets are slated to absorb cuts. The Depart- ment OfAgriculture would lose 9 percent of its R&D funding under the administration’s proposal. Such cuts were anticipated as fis- cal belt-tightening in response to economic recession and wartime priorities, accord- ing to USDA officials.

The Interior and Commerce departments would each surrender a program to NSF and give up some additional R&D funding under Bush’s plan. Interior would lose $32 million, much of it from the US. Geologi- cal Survefs water-monitoring programs.

In contrast, the Environmental Protec- tion Agency would receive a modest $38 million, or 4 percent postinflation, R&D increase. Much ofthe increase would go for assessing risks from pollutants.

Some ofthe President’s proposed cuts are likely to meet resistance in Congress. Last year, the administration pushed for aggres- sive reductions outside the spheres of defense and health research (SN: 4/14/01, p. 231). However, Congress ultimately voted to increase science appropriations by the largest amount ever (SN: 1/12/02, p. 20).

The initial response from the Hill sug- gests that the new R&D budget could undergo a similarly critical review. House Science Commim Chairman Shenvood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.) expresses “mixed emo- tions” about the proposal. “Research spend- ingisbeingtreatedbetteretterthan other domes- tic discretionary programs,”but apart from NIH, civilian R&D “would remain anemic under this budget,” he says. -B. HARDER

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