Phagocytic NADPH oxidase and its role in chronic granulomatous disease.

Chronic granulomatous disease is an inherited disease manifest as recurrent bacterial and fungal infections. Although extremely rare, in the absence of long-term treatment it can be lead to death at an early age. Even though the disease was first described almost 40 years ago it is only recently that the enzymatic defects which cause the disease have been well characterised, allowing an instructive classification of the disorder and paving the way for advances in gene therapy as a lasting cure.