For many people in the west, a nematode infestation is an unpleasant, but rare event. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the inhabitants of many less developed countries, where nematodes are rife and cause many crippling diseases. Fortunately, modern medicine is equipped with a battery of drugs to rid patients of unwanted parasites. But the threat remains that the nematodes will eventually outsmart the pharmacologists and become resistant to the three major classes of drug currently in use. Which is why Richard Martin is keen to understand how one of these nematode targeting drugs, levamisole, attacks the nematode, Ascaris suum. He hopes this will help us to design new therapies to keep medicine ahead of the nematode in the race to beat resistance (p. 3979).
Martin explains that many of the drugs, called anthelmic drugs, which are currently so effective in treating roundworm infections, were originally...
