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Mass spectrometry Volume 3
54
Book
The more recent concepts and findings are not neglected. however. Perhaps the chapters dealing with this aspect of cancer research may appear jejune or even trivial to the advanced molecular biologist, geneticist or virologist, but one has to consider that many workers in cancer research, while having an interest in these methods of approach, do not have sufficient depth of knowledge to enable them to make a critical assessment of the impact that such specialized studies may have on the field. To this group. this text will serve as a welcome introduction. Although any criticism of the efforts of such an outstanding figure in cancer research may appear somewhat carping. one cannot help feeling puzzled at the author’s apparent reluctance to accept as a general rule that intervening factors may play a predominant role in the induction of cancer in animals by chemical agents. His acceptance of the case for hormonal influences in mammary tumorigenesis does not seem to extend to parallel arguments in connexion with other cancers, such as subcutaneous sarcomas induced by plastics films or cancers of the urinary bladder induced by calculi. The former situation is given very fragmentary consideration, while the latter is hardly mentioned. The scant attention paid to these questions by so eminent a biologist may give the impression that they are of little importance as factors in tumour induction. Yet over a number of years, pathologists and clinicians have accumulated a wealth of experience indicating that repeated tissue damage plays a significant role in the development of cancer. Drug Interactions. Edited by P. L. Morselli, S. N. Cohen and S. Garattini. Raven Press, New York, 1974. pp. x + 406. $28.00. It is becoming recognized to an increasing extent that an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the modifying effects of such factors as nutritional status, genetic differences and drug interactions on the pharmacological response of man to drugs is an essential step in placing chemotherapy on a sound rational basis. This volume, one of a series of monographs emanating from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, and based on an international and interdisciplinary symposium, provides a great deal of valuable information on this complex subject. The book contains 38 papers by nearly 100 authors on 11 related aspects of the problem and opens with an excellent article by J. J. Burns and A. H. Conney entitled “Drug interactions: Historical aspects and perspectives”, which sets the tone for the rest of the volume. Specific instances where gastro-intestinal absorption and renal excretion affect drug action are dealt with in four papers, and other contributions relate to the important role of microsomal enzymes in determining the pharmaco-activity and metabolism of drugs. The effects of protein binding, oestrogen interactions and calcium on drug action are discussed in five papers and views on the importance of genetic factors in determining pharmacological effects are presented. Other contributions are concerned with multiple mechanisms involving drug interactions, with the im-
reviews
portance of monitoring drug levels in therapy and with the design of experimental protocols for evaluating the interactions of drugs. The potential value of computer-based systems for collecting, collating and interpreting information derived from clinical situations is also described. This book will doubtless be of considerable value to experimentalists in the various disciplines involved in the unraveliing of the complex problems concerned with the design and application of drugs.
Mass Spectrometry Volume 3. Senior Reporter R. A. W. Johnstone. The Chemical Society. London, 1975. pp. xiii + 402. f13.50. This book reviews the literature published between July 1972 and June 1974 in the field of mass spectrometry. It is the third in this particular series of Specialist Periodical Reports produced by The Chemical Society, but this volume has been produced by a largely new team of reporters, 13 in all, with Dr. R. A. W. Johnstone of the University of Liverpool as Senior Reporter. The ten chapters cover, in turn. questions of theory, methods and results. Chapter 1. on the theory and energetics of mass spectra, is one of the most extensive and is subdivided into major sections on the calculation of ion structures and energies, ionization processes and energy deposition functions. unimolecular decay processes, experimental methods and appearance potential measurements. It will probably be of purely academic interest to the majority of users of the mass spectrometer. The other chapters are concerned with structure and mechanisms in mass spectrometry, alternative methods of ionization and analysis, computerized data acquisition and interpretation, organometallic, co-ordination and inorganic compounds, natural products, reactions of organic functional groups (positive and negative ions), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, drug metabolism, and protein and carbohydrate sequence analysis, the latter being the only chapter presenting a critical appraisal of the literature. The main criticism that may be directed at this book is that although there is an author index, there is no subject or compound index. The Senior Reporter comments in his foreword that Volume 4 will contain a cumulative index covering the first four volumes, but this does not really obviate the need for a subject index in individual issues. Its absence means that investigating the literature available on a given compound necessitates reading the whole book, since some compounds are covered in more than one chapter. This is clearly a serious disadvantage in an otherwise useful review book.
Practical Methods in Electron Microscopy. Vol. 3. Edited by Audrey M. Glauert. North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1974. pp. xvi + 353. Dfl. 90.00. Volume 3 of this series is available either in a single clothbound edition or in two separate parts published
Book
The more recent concepts and findings are not neglected. however. Perhaps the chapters dealing with this aspect of cancer research may appear jejune or even trivial to the advanced molecular biologist, geneticist or virologist, but one has to consider that many workers in cancer research, while having an interest in these methods of approach, do not have sufficient depth of knowledge to enable them to make a critical assessment of the impact that such specialized studies may have on the field. To this group. this text will serve as a welcome introduction. Although any criticism of the efforts of such an outstanding figure in cancer research may appear somewhat carping. one cannot help feeling puzzled at the author’s apparent reluctance to accept as a general rule that intervening factors may play a predominant role in the induction of cancer in animals by chemical agents. His acceptance of the case for hormonal influences in mammary tumorigenesis does not seem to extend to parallel arguments in connexion with other cancers, such as subcutaneous sarcomas induced by plastics films or cancers of the urinary bladder induced by calculi. The former situation is given very fragmentary consideration, while the latter is hardly mentioned. The scant attention paid to these questions by so eminent a biologist may give the impression that they are of little importance as factors in tumour induction. Yet over a number of years, pathologists and clinicians have accumulated a wealth of experience indicating that repeated tissue damage plays a significant role in the development of cancer. Drug Interactions. Edited by P. L. Morselli, S. N. Cohen and S. Garattini. Raven Press, New York, 1974. pp. x + 406. $28.00. It is becoming recognized to an increasing extent that an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the modifying effects of such factors as nutritional status, genetic differences and drug interactions on the pharmacological response of man to drugs is an essential step in placing chemotherapy on a sound rational basis. This volume, one of a series of monographs emanating from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, and based on an international and interdisciplinary symposium, provides a great deal of valuable information on this complex subject. The book contains 38 papers by nearly 100 authors on 11 related aspects of the problem and opens with an excellent article by J. J. Burns and A. H. Conney entitled “Drug interactions: Historical aspects and perspectives”, which sets the tone for the rest of the volume. Specific instances where gastro-intestinal absorption and renal excretion affect drug action are dealt with in four papers, and other contributions relate to the important role of microsomal enzymes in determining the pharmaco-activity and metabolism of drugs. The effects of protein binding, oestrogen interactions and calcium on drug action are discussed in five papers and views on the importance of genetic factors in determining pharmacological effects are presented. Other contributions are concerned with multiple mechanisms involving drug interactions, with the im-
reviews
portance of monitoring drug levels in therapy and with the design of experimental protocols for evaluating the interactions of drugs. The potential value of computer-based systems for collecting, collating and interpreting information derived from clinical situations is also described. This book will doubtless be of considerable value to experimentalists in the various disciplines involved in the unraveliing of the complex problems concerned with the design and application of drugs.
Mass Spectrometry Volume 3. Senior Reporter R. A. W. Johnstone. The Chemical Society. London, 1975. pp. xiii + 402. f13.50. This book reviews the literature published between July 1972 and June 1974 in the field of mass spectrometry. It is the third in this particular series of Specialist Periodical Reports produced by The Chemical Society, but this volume has been produced by a largely new team of reporters, 13 in all, with Dr. R. A. W. Johnstone of the University of Liverpool as Senior Reporter. The ten chapters cover, in turn. questions of theory, methods and results. Chapter 1. on the theory and energetics of mass spectra, is one of the most extensive and is subdivided into major sections on the calculation of ion structures and energies, ionization processes and energy deposition functions. unimolecular decay processes, experimental methods and appearance potential measurements. It will probably be of purely academic interest to the majority of users of the mass spectrometer. The other chapters are concerned with structure and mechanisms in mass spectrometry, alternative methods of ionization and analysis, computerized data acquisition and interpretation, organometallic, co-ordination and inorganic compounds, natural products, reactions of organic functional groups (positive and negative ions), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, drug metabolism, and protein and carbohydrate sequence analysis, the latter being the only chapter presenting a critical appraisal of the literature. The main criticism that may be directed at this book is that although there is an author index, there is no subject or compound index. The Senior Reporter comments in his foreword that Volume 4 will contain a cumulative index covering the first four volumes, but this does not really obviate the need for a subject index in individual issues. Its absence means that investigating the literature available on a given compound necessitates reading the whole book, since some compounds are covered in more than one chapter. This is clearly a serious disadvantage in an otherwise useful review book.
Practical Methods in Electron Microscopy. Vol. 3. Edited by Audrey M. Glauert. North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1974. pp. xvi + 353. Dfl. 90.00. Volume 3 of this series is available either in a single clothbound edition or in two separate parts published