Analysis of Natural Antibodies during the Development of Phantom Pain Syndrome

We determined natural antibodies (n-Abs) to the regulators of the main systems of biochemical homeostasis: β-endorphin, serotonin, dopamine, histamine, orphanin, angiotensin, GABA, glutamate, bradykinin, vasopressin, thrombin, and α-2-macroglobulin in individuals with phantom pain syndrome (PPS), resulting from amputation after injury. It was established that each patient has an individual immunoprofile, but for all of them there was a significant increase in the level of antibodies to serotonin, histamine, and angiotensin, which reflect the chronicity of the pain syndrome and do not depend on the self-assessment of the severity of PPS. Determination of the role of regulators of biochemical homeostasis in the development of phantom pain showed that, at high, moderate, and weak severity of PPS, the biogenic amine and angiotensinergic systems are activated. A decrease in PPS intensity normalizes deviations in all immunological parameters. The levels of n-Abs for the pain (β-endorphin) and analgesic (orphanin) systems are significant only at low PPS. Monitoring the individual profile of n-Abs to endogenous regulators allows us to obtain an objective picture of the pain status of the patient's body.

Online Service with Automated Interpretation of Sequencing Data and Prediction of Pyrazinamide Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Pyrazinamide plays an important role in the treatment of tuberculosis. However, the microbiological test for pyrazinamide resistance is more complex and less reliable than testing of susceptibility to other anti-tuberculosis drugs due to the need to grow the pathogen at pH 5.5. Identification of mutations that cause resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs can replace microbiological methods. Mutations in the pncA gene are responsible for the main mechanism of the resistance to pyrazinamide and are found in more than 90% of resistant strains. However, the genetic method for determining drug susceptibility is very complex, because mutations leading to pyrazinamide resistance are diverse and scattered throughout the gene. We have developed a software package for automatic data interpretation and prediction of the resistance to pyrazinamide based on Sanger sequencing results. The effectiveness of detection of pyrazinamide resistance in 16 clinical samples was compared using the BACTEC MGIT 960 automated system and pncA gene Sanger sequencing with automated analysis of the results. A significant advantage of the developed method over a single microbiological study was shown, due to greater reliability of the results irrespective of the purity of isolates.

Analysis of Immunobiochemical Parameters in Overweight People in Assessing the Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases

A comparative analysis of specific immunobiochemical parameters, including natural antibodies (NAb) to endogenous regulators of the cardiovascular system, adrenal and gastrointestinal hormones, was performed in students aged 18-22 years with normal and increased body weight (the body mass index from 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m² and from 25 to 29.9 kg/m², respectively). The serum content of NAb and hormones was determined by ELISA. The level of the studied indicators depended on the body mass index value. In overweight subjects, the main immune indicators of the biogenic amine system, renin-angiotensin system, and kinin system exceeded the normal. The cortisol level was higher than in subjects with normal body weight. Aldosterone secretion was less dependent on the ACTH content and was lower than in students with normal body weight. The content of cholecystokinin and gastrin corresponded to the values for overweight. These trends in hormone contents are a predisposing factor for further weight gain. Practical significance of the combined assessment of disturbances in the immunological and biochemical homeostasis has been established. Analysis of the adrenal and gastrointestinal hormones can predict the risk of weight gain, but at the same time, changes in the level of immunological indicators in subjects with increased body weight characterizes the possibility of developing cardiovascular pathologies.

Measurement of Immunological Parameters to Assess Human Body Readiness for Physical Load

We measured the level of natural antibodies (nAb) to glutamate and GABA reflecting the balance of excitation and inhibition systems and involved in the adaptation processes in athletes receiving normalized physical activity in the dynamics of training (figure skaters, football players, and people actively involved in sports). It was found that each subject has an individual immunological profile and its parameters change in accordance with the training load. The measured levels of nAbs to GABA and glutamate correlate the physical activity of a person. The surveyed football players were divided into 3 groups according to the results of the analysis. Subjects of the first group had reliably high immunological indices in comparison with the control and were at the peak of physical form; in the third group, low immunological indices relative to the control indicated exhaustion and fatigue. The indicators of the second group corresponded to normal and demonstrated the resource of adaptation to load. The developed method can be used for assessing person's readiness for physical activity.

Image-Based Wheat Fungi Diseases Identification by Deep Learning

Diseases of cereals caused by pathogenic fungi can significantly reduce crop yields. Many cultures are exposed to them. The disease is difficult to control on a large scale; thus, one of the relevant approaches is the crop field monitoring, which helps to identify the disease at an early stage and take measures to prevent its spread. One of the effective control methods is disease identification based on the analysis of digital images, with the possibility of obtaining them in field conditions, using mobile devices. In this work, we propose a method for the recognition of five fungal diseases of wheat shoots (leaf rust, stem rust, yellow rust, powdery mildew, and septoria), both separately and in case of multiple diseases, with the possibility of identifying the stage of plant development. A set of 2414 images of wheat fungi diseases (WFD2020) was generated, for which expert labeling was performed by the type of disease. More than 80% of the images in the dataset correspond to single disease labels (including seedlings), more than 12% are represented by healthy plants, and 6% of the images labeled are represented by multiple diseases. In the process of creating this set, a method was applied to reduce the degeneracy of the training data based on the image hashing algorithm. The disease-recognition algorithm is based on the convolutional neural network with the EfficientNet architecture. The best accuracy (0.942) was shown by a network with a training strategy based on augmentation and transfer of image styles. The recognition method was implemented as a bot on the Telegram platform, which allows users to assess plants by lesions in the field conditions.

Detection of Genomic Regions Associated with Resistance to Stem Rust in Russian Spring Wheat Varieties and Breeding Germplasm

Stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici Eriks. is a dangerous disease of common wheat worldwide. Development and cultivation of the varieties with genetic resistance is one of the most effective and environmentally important ways for protection of wheat against fungal pathogens. Field phytopathological screening and genome-wide association study (GWAS) were used for assessment of the genetic diversity of a collection of spring wheat genotypes on stem rust resistance loci. The collection consisting of Russian varieties of spring wheat and introgression lines with alien genetic materials was evaluated over three seasons (2016, 2017 and 2018) for resistance to the native population of stem rust specific to the West Siberian region of Russia. The results indicate that most varieties displayed from moderate to high levels of susceptibility to P. graminis; 16% of genotypes had resistance or immune response. In total, 13,006 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers obtained from the Infinium 15K array were used to perform genome-wide association analysis. GWAS detected 35 significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) with SNPs located on chromosomes 1A, 2A, 2B, 3B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 7A and 7B. The most significant associations were found on chromosomes 7A and 6A where known resistance genes Sr25 and Sr6Ai = 2 originated from Thinopyrum ssp. are located. Common wheat lines containing introgressed fragments from Triticum timopheevii and Triticum kiharae were found to carry Sr36 gene on 2B chromosome. It has been suggested that the quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapped to the chromosome 5BL may be new loci inherited from the T. timopheevii. It can be inferred that a number of Russian wheat varieties may contain the Sr17 gene, which does not currently provide effective protection against pathogen. This is the first report describing the results of analysis of the genetic factors conferring resistance of Russian spring wheat varieties to stem rust.

[Predictors of epilepsy in children after ischemic stroke]

AIM

To determine clinical/instrumental predictors of symptomatic epilepsy after ischemic stroke in children.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

One hundred and thirty-six patients, aged 0-15 years, with the diagnosis of ischemic stroke (ICD-10 I63.0-I63.9) were examined. The duration of the study was 18 months - 12 years. Patients were stratified into post-stroke (n=22) and control (n=114) groups, the latter included patients without epilepsy regardless of the presence of convulsive seizures in the acute stage of stroke. Predictors were determined based on EEG and characteristics of convulsive syndrome in the acute stage of stroke.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

The following prognostic criteria were found: generalized type of seizures, focal type of seizures with secondary generalization, epileptiform (peak and/or peak-wave) activity, focal character of epileptiform activity, generalized type of seizures in the combination with slow wave background activity on EEG, generalized type of seizures in the combination with slow wave activity and disorganized activity on EEG.

[Role of NO-synthase in stimulation of opiate receptors and kidney oxidative stress resistance]

It was established that dalarginum injection before ARI (acute renal insufficiency) formation prevented an increases of proteolysis, decrease of SOD (superoxide dismutase), increase of NO2-/NO3- content in kidney tissue. Antioxidant effect of opiate receptor agonist was completely abolished by preliminary injection of OR antagonist--naloxone. Aminoguanidine nitrate (inducible NO-synthase inhibitor) injection removed positive effect of OR stimulation too. Thus OR stimulation increases kidney oxidative stress resistance due to NO-synthase and SOD activation.

[Rehabilitation of patients with chronic bronchitis and spine diseases]

Correction of disturbed respiratory function and inhibition of progression of pulmonary inflammatory and obstructive processes is the aim of respiration rehabilitation in patients with chronic bronchitis (CB). It is known that rehabilitation in CB patients with spinal diseases meets with difficulties as dystrophic lesions of the spine entail its functional-anatomic disorders at the corresponding level. By supporting progression of dystrophic spinal and osteovertebral junction disorders, chronic bronchopulmonary inflammation participates in formation of interrelated respiratory affections. New approaches to rehabilitation of CB patients with spinal lesions lie in use of pharmacopuncture, acupuncture, deep reflex-muscular massage and therapeutic exercise in consensual sequence.

[Effect of dalarginum on the level of nitric oxide stable metabolites in rat kidneys during apoptosis activation]

The influence of dalarginum on the level of nitric oxide stable metabolites in the rat kidneys was investigated at various models of apoptosis activation (formed by two methods of acute renal failure). Dalarginum (synthetic leu-enkephaline) was entered in a dose of 100 micrograms/kg a day. Detection of apoptosis was carried out by determination of DNA fragmentation. Administration of dalarginum resulted in the significant decrease of NO--nitrite- and nitrate anions stable metabolites content, the latter is capable to be one of the mechanisms of the preparation antiapoptotic effect.

[Clinico-diagnostic role of ferritin and lactoferrin assays in benign and malignant affections of lungs and pleura]

Immunochemical tests of blood sera from 160 healthy residents of the town of Astrakhan were performed to determine standard quantities of ferritin and lactoferrin in the serum. Examinations of the saliva from 280 healthy subjects provided the frequency of occurrence and levels of excretory lactoferrin. These iron-containing proteins were also assessed in different biosubstrates (blood serum, sputum, saliva, pleural fluid, lung tissues) from 550 patients with benign and malignant lesions of the lungs and pleura. Tests for ferritin and lactoferrin proved useful in evaluation of bronchopulmonary inflammation activity, early detection of pulmonary and intrapleural supputation, differential diagnosis of chronic nonspecific pulmonary diseases and lung cancer. The excretory salivary lactoferrin provided sufficient information on the condition of adaptive mechanisms of local defense of the lungs in premorbid state in 420 workers of the gas-processing plant exposed to aggressive occupational pollutants.

[Use of piperacillin/tazobactam as empirical monotherapy in the treatment of bacterial infections in a resuscitation department]

Fifteen patients with severe bacterial infection (12 with pneumonia) that developed in the resuscitation unit were subjected to the empirical monotherapy with piperacillin/tazobactam (P/T) or tazocin under an open randomized controlled experiment. P/T was administered intravenously in a dose of 4.5 g every 8 hours for 5 to 12 days (9.3 days on the average). When the monotherapy was not sufficiently efficient the patients were additionally treated with amikacin administered intravenously in a dose of 0.5 g every 8-12 hours. The favourable effect was observed in 14 patients (93 per cent). 7 of them were treated with P/T alone and 7 were treated with P/T in combination with amikacin. The primary pathogens were eradicated in 8 (73 per cent) out of the 11 patients treated with P/T alone. Before the treatment 34 microbial strains were isolated from the patients. 77 per cent of them were susceptible to P/T. The treatment with P/T resulted in eradication of 27 bacterial strains (79 per cent) including 67 per cent of gram-positive organisms and 86 per cent of gram-negative organisms. The adverse effects were recorded in 1 patient on the 6th day of the treatment: skin eruption and pruritus that required the treatment discontinuation. The results showed that the use of P/T in the initial empirical monotherapy of infections in patients under resuscitation conditions could be efficient.

[Action of biologically active peptides and steroids on nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation of protons of kidney tissue water in vitro]

The effect of biologically active peptides (adrenocorticotropin, parathyroid hormone, calcitonin, prolactin) and steroids (aldosterone, progesterone, testosterone) hormones on NMR-relaxation proton of tissue water of kidney have been investigated in vitro. Results of this study suggest that peptide hormones caused dehydration of tissues via sodium regulation. Steroids, quite on the contrary, caused the hydration of kidney tissue independent of the movement of osmotic active electrolyte.

An Alu element in the myeloperoxidase promoter contains a composite SP1-thyroid hormone-retinoic acid response element

An Alu element preceding the myeloperoxidase gene (MPO) contains four hexamer motifs related to the consensus recognition sequence for nuclear hormone receptors (AGGTCA), arranged as direct repeats with spacing of 2, 4, and 2 nucleotides (DR-2-4-2). Gel shift experiments and transient transfection assays demonstrate that these sequences include binding sites for retinoic acid and thyroid hormone receptors and function in vivo to activate transcription of a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene. The first DR-2 elements of the series do not bind known receptors but do bind the SP1 transcription factor. Two alleles of the MPO gene exist that differ at one position within this element, resulting in one allele with and one without a strong SP1 binding site. The element with the SP1 site activates transcription by 25-fold in transient transfection assays, while the alternative allele confers severalfold less transcriptional activity. Most cases of acute myelocytic leukemia are homozygous for the allele with the SP1 binding site, suggesting this element plays an important role in regulating the MPO gene in myeloid leukemias. This MPO-Alu is a representative of an Alu subclass numbering approximately 400,000 copies, suggesting many genes may be regulated by such elements.

[Expression of the human alpha-1-antitrypsin gene in Escherichia coli]

The cDNA, containing the complete human alpha-1-antitrypsin (AT) sequence starting from codon 2, was used to construct bacterial strains producing AT. The fusion protein was obtained by junction of the AT cDNA to the fragment of an Escherichia coli ompF gene. We have also modified the AT cDNA's 5'-terminal part to construct DNAs containing ATG-codon and cDNA sequences starting from codons 1 or 2. These DNAs were inserted into E. coli expression vectors pBR322/trpII-8 and pKK223-3 that allow transcription from efficient trp- and tac-promoters. This construction resulted in the induction of a 46 kDa protein. The polypeptide produced was recognized by an antiserum raised against human alpha-1-antitrypsin protein. Truncation of the gene at its 5'-end or synthesis as a fusion OmpF-AT protein increases expression up to 10-fold, to a level of approximately 1%. On the contrary, no dependence on the promoter type has been observed. Physical properties of the recombinant proteins are discussed.

[The pharmacological characteristics, immunochemical identification and study of the location of quisqualate receptors in the rat and human brains]

The kinetics of [3H]-L-glutamate binding to brain synaptic membranes (SM) and to glutamate-binding proteins (GBP) was determined with agonist and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). It was revealed, that rat and human brain GBP have individual protein components with M(r) from 14 to 92 kDa. Quisqualate inhibited [3H]-L-glutamate binding to solubilized and to purified 68 kDa protein component. MAbs have the most activity, and NMDA was failure. It has been shown that 68 kDa component antigen determinants are similar to those of bovine, frog and rat brain synaptic membranes. Anti-GBP monoclonal antibodies blocked functional non-NMDA receptors in isolated frog spinal cord. Immunocytochemistry was done on rat and human brain sections. Distribution of quisqualate receptors was determined with light and electron microscopy. Some properties of vertebrate CNS non-NMDA receptors are discussed.

[The distribution of glutamate receptors in cultures of the motor area of the rat cerebral cortex studied by an immunoelectron microscopic method]

The aim of the study was to analyse the distribution and localization of glutamate receptors in the cultured cells of the neonatal rat motor cortex, using immunoelectron microscopic technique, and monoclonal antibodies preliminary labeled with colloidal gold. Monoclonal antibodies against glutamate-binding proteins of the adult rat cerebral cortex were produced by means of hybridization of immune splenocytes with plasmocytoma cells. It was found that monoclonal antibodies labeled with colloidal gold could reveal selectively the localization of glutamate receptors on the membranes of neurons. Glutamate receptors were detected on differentiating neuron membranes only, being absent from the glia cell surface.

[Spectrum of reactivity of monoclonal antibodies against specific T-suppressors]

Monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) against specific T-suppressors CI and C4 are characterized by their reactivity with normal lymphoid cells and some tumour cell lines cultivated in vitro. MoAb CI and C4 react with T and B cells from spleen and lymph nodes. The amount of CI and C4 T and B subsets are equal in the spleen (25-29%), while lymph node T-lymphocytes contain twice as much CI and C4 cells than B-lymphocytes (40 and 20%, respectively). In the thymus CI is expressed mostly on immature (cortical) thymocytes and C4--on the mature (medullary) thymocytes. CI is expressed on some T-lymphoma cell lines (BW 5147, EL4, LBRM33), but not on thymoma RDM4 and mastocytoma P815. C4 is not found on the above cell lines but is expressed on the intermediate filament of mouse and quail fibroblasts and in lymphoid cells. This cross-reactivity may result from the existance of similar determinants in cytoskeleton proteins and lymphocyte membranes or from the intermediate filament expression on T-suppressor cellular membranes, but not on other functional T subsets.