[The features of regulatory T-blood cells subpopulation and the level of CD25 expression in patients with Graves' disease in dynamics after radioactive iodine therapy].

BACKGROUND: The content of regulatory T cells (Treg) at different stages in formation of effector subpopulations and the level of CD25 expression on the membrane of their various fractions in Graves' disease can determine the long-term autoimmune process persistence and be the target of immunotropic therapy of the disease. AIM: To study the features of regulatory T-blood cells subpopulation and the level of CD25 expression in patients with Graves' disease in dynamics after radioactive iodine therapy (RIT) to identify the specific Treg subpopulations for potential immunotropic therapy targets of the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-center, prospective, cohort, open, controlled study was conducted with the participation of women with laboratory-confirmed Graves' disease. The features of regulatory T-blood cells subpopulation and the level of expression (MFI) CD25 surface receptor were studied by flow cytometry using direct immunofluorescence using monoclonal antibodies. RESULTS: The study included 36 women with recurrent Graves' disease, middle age 46.34±14.32 years. In patients with Graves' disease before and during the entire period after RIT a low percentage of naive (CD45R0-CD62L+) and terminally differentiated (CD45R0-CD62L-) Treg was established relative to the control, and on 3 and 6 months after RIT a significant decrease of cells with this phenotype was revealed relative to the values detected in patients before and 1 month after RIT (p<0.001). Against the background of compensated hypothyroidism the most significant changes of expression CD25 receptor in patients with Graves' disease were found on 3 and 6 months after RIT: reduced levels of MFI CD25 on surface of naive and terminally differentiated Treg. CONCLUSION: A decrease in the level of naive Treg was found (apparently due to a violation of differentiation processes in thymus) and terminally differentiated Tregs (due to maturation and survival processes), which are supplemented by a reduced expression of the CD25 receptor on the surface of these cells and do not depend on hyperthyroidism compensation, the titer of TSH receptor antibodies, previous conservative therapy with thiamazole and RIT. The obtained new data reveal the role of naive and terminally differentiated Treg subpopulations in immunopathogenesis and help to outline further ways to develop approaches for immunotropic therapy.

Changes in the Subpopulation Composition and Phagocytic Activity of Monocytes in Patients with Kidney Cancer under the Influence of Metabolites In Vitro.

We studied changes in the subpopulation composition and phagocytic activity of monocytes in patients with kidney cancer under the influence of metabolites of the tumor microenvironment in vitro (lactate, ADP, and glutamate). Incubation with metabolites caused similar shifts in the monocyte subsets in kidney cancer patients (an increase in the relative content of classical CD14++CD16- monocytes and a decrease in the content of the fraction of intermediate CD14++CD16+ monocytes), but different changes in their phagocytic activity. The regulatory effect of metabolites on cells is realized by various mechanisms: receptor, metabolic, and epigenomic. The reactions of monocytes to metabolites in vitro confirm the existence of a distant metabolic effect of the tumor on blood cells that should be taken into account when developing new immunotherapeutic methods.

[Functional activity of blood neutrophilic granulocytes in patients with opisthorchiasis, depending on the severity of liver fibrosis].

AIM: To study the activity of neutrophilic granulocytes in patients with opisthorchiasis, depending on the severity of liver fibrosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 74 patients with chronic opisthorchiasis (39 men and 35 women, average age 42.3 years) and 32 practically healthy patients (17 men and 15 women, average age 41.5 years) aged 24 to 60 years were examined. Diagnosis of opisthorchiasis was carried out by two methods: coprooscopy and identification of eggs or bodies of adult parasites in duodenal content. Liver fibrosis was determined by the method of elastometry according to the METAVIR scale in all 74 patients with opisthorchiasis. The study of the functional activity of neutrophils in the blood was performed to all 74 patients with opisthorchiasis and 32 healthy individuals from the control group by chemiluminescent analysis with measurement of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) production intensity in a spontaneous and zymosan-induced reaction in lucigenin and luminol-dependent processes. RESULTS: Liver fibrosis F2 by METAVIR was registered in 20.3% of the examined individuals, liver fibrosis F3F4 by METAVIR was detected in 17.6% of patients with opisthorchiasis. In patients with opisthorchiasis with liver fibrosis F3F4 by METAVIR, a significant decrease in the functional activity of neutrophilic granulocytes was registered in comparison with individuals with liver fibrosis F0F1 by METAVIR, as evidenced by a significant decrease in the maximum intensity of ROS production (Imax) and the area under the curve (S) chemiluminescence in lucigenin and luminol-dependent processes both in the spontaneous and zymosan-induced reaction. CONCLUSION: These results provide new information to explain the mechanisms of liver fibrosis in patients opisthorchiasis and create opportunities for the development of diagnostics and preventive technologies.

Refraction of Fast Ne Atoms in the Attractive Well of a LiF(001) Surface.

Ne atoms with energies of ≤3 keV are diffracted under grazing angles of incidence from a LiF(001) surface. For a small momentum component of the incident beam perpendicular to the surface, we observe an increase in the elastic rainbow angle together with a broadening of the inelastic scattering profile. We interpret these two effects as the refraction of the atomic wave in the attractive part of the surface potential. We use a fast, rigorous dynamical diffraction calculation to find a projectile-surface potential model that enables a quantitative reproduction of the experimental data for ≤10 diffraction orders. This allows us to extract an attractive potential well depth of 10.4 meV. Our results set a benchmark for more refined surface potential models that include the weak van der Waals region, a long-standing challenge in the study of atom-surface interactions.

[Types of immune response in advanced suppurative peritonitis]. / Tipy immunnogo reagirovaniya pri rasprostranennom gnoinom peritonite (s kommentariem).

AIM: to assess types of immune response in patients with advanced suppurative peritonitis and course of disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We examined 79 patients with acute surgical abdominal diseases and injuries complicated by advanced suppurative peritonitis. Blood immunological parameters were estimated using flowing cytometry and enzyme immunoassay. RESULTS: It was concluded that functional parameters of immune system are very various in patients with advanced suppurative peritonitis. Cluster analysis defined 4 immune types which are determined by different state of congenital and acquired immunity. Immunodeficient and unreactive immune types are unfavorable. Immune types with activation of congenital and acquired immunity are the most favourable. This stratification personifies diagnosis and treatment of immune disorders in patients with advanced suppurative peritonitis.

[Expert approaches to chronic kidney disease].

Expert approaches to chronic kidney disease. The basic symptoms that indicate the presence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are analysed. The authors present the modem classification of CKD, the characteristics of its stages, and requirements for the formulation of a diagnosis. The author's interpretation of the articles of the Regulations on military-medical examination, which are carried out survey of citizens subject to an initial statement on the military registration, conscription and reservists who have given pathology, is given. The necessity of the unification of expert approaches in military-medical and medical-social examination.

[Diagnosties of pulmonary-renal syndrome in young patients with suspected community-acquired pneumonia].

In patients of young age atical clinical course of community-acquired pneumonia may mask of interstitial lung disease causing systemic vasculitis. Lung damage occurs in the form of vasculitis with perivascular infiltration, interstitial pneumonia symptoms and various sequential processes up to necrosis of the lung tissue and pleurisy. A distinctive feature of vascular pneumonia is probability of development of plurivisceral damage with simultaneous involvement of heart, kidney, abdominal, skin, joints and hepatolienal syndromes into tfe pathohogical process. At suspicion on development of systemic vasculitis it requires to perform differential diagnosis with the use of immunological tests and X-ray examination of the chest. Lung disease in systemic vasculitis worsens prognosis and necessitates urgent therapeutic measures.

Atomistic near-field nanoplasmonics: reaching atomic-scale resolution in nanooptics.

Electromagnetic field localization in nanoantennas is one of the leitmotivs that drives the development of plasmonics. The near-fields in these plasmonic nanoantennas are commonly addressed theoretically within classical frameworks that neglect atomic-scale features. This approach is often appropriate since the irregularities produced at the atomic scale are typically hidden in far-field optical spectroscopies. However, a variety of physical and chemical processes rely on the fine distribution of the local fields at this ultraconfined scale. We use time-dependent density functional theory and perform atomistic quantum mechanical calculations of the optical response of plasmonic nanoparticles, and their dimers, characterized by the presence of crystallographic planes, facets, vertices, and steps. Using sodium clusters as an example, we show that the atomistic details of the nanoparticles morphologies determine the presence of subnanometric near-field hot spots that are further enhanced by the action of the underlying nanometric plasmonic fields. This situation is analogue to a self-similar nanoantenna cascade effect, scaled down to atomic dimensions, and it provides new insights into the limits of field enhancement and confinement, with important implications in the optical resolution of field-enhanced spectroscopies and microscopies.

[Role of T- and B-cell immunity in the pathogenesis of cancer].

Adaptive immunity plays a crucial role in the system of anti-tumor defense of the organism. The theory of immune surveillance defines the presence of permanent monitoring of the organism for the detection of malignant transformed cells and their elimination or suppression of the growth. However in some cases tumor cells overcome immune surveillance that leads to the development of cancer.

Transient quantum trapping of fast atoms at surfaces.

We report on the experimental observation and theoretical study of the bound state resonances in fast atom diffraction at surfaces. In our studies, the 4He atom beam has been scattered from a high-quality LiF(001) surface at very small grazing incidence angles. In this regime, the reciprocal lattice vector exchange with the surface allows transient trapping of the 0.3-0.5 keV projectiles into the quasistationary states bound by the attractive atom-surface potential well which is only 10 meV deep. Analysis of the linewidths of the calculated and measured resonances reveals that prior to their release, the trapped projectiles preserve their coherence over travel distances along the surface as large as 0.2 µm, while being in average only at some angstroms in front of the last atomic plane.

[Chemiluminescent and enzyme activity of neutrophils in patients with widespread purulent peritonitis depending on the outcome of disease].

BACKGROUND: Aim was to study the chemiluminescent activity and the activity of NAD- and NADP-dependent dehydrogenases of neutrophils depending on the outcome of the widespread purulent peritonitis (WPP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: 51 patients with a mean age of RSE 54.2 ± 19.2 years were observed. As a control 75 healthy people of similar age range were examined. Lucigenin- and luminol-dependent chemiluminescence activity and activity of NAD(P)-dependent dehydrogenases peripheral blood neutrophils were studied. RESULTS: In patients with a favorable outcome of WPP the maximum intensity increased and the magnitude of the activation index of lucigenine-dependent spontaneous chemiluminescence reduced. Regardless to the outcome of WPP in patients with increased activation index and maxima of the luminol-dependent spontaneous and zymosan-induced chemiluminescence. At the unfavorable outcome of the disease in neutrophils NAD- dependent isositrate dehydrogenase and anaerobic lactate dehydrogenase reaction activity increased. Regardless to the outcome WPP in patients neutrophils aerobic reaction of lactate dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and NADP-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase activity reduced but levels of NADH-dependent reaction of malate dehydrogenase, NADH-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase and NADP-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase activity increased. CONCLUSION: With the reduction of the intensity ofplastic processes and imbalances enzymatic activity in nitrogen metabolism in patients with WPP at unfavorable outcome of the disease increases the activity of enzymes that characterize the level of anaerobic and aerobic respiration. In the absence of marked changes in the activity of enzymes that characterize the level of energy processes in cells of patients with favorable outcome of the WPP, increases the intensity of spontaneous lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence and reduced neutrophil activation index.

Plexciton quenching by resonant electron transfer from quantum emitter to metallic nanoantenna.

Coupling molecular excitons and localized surface plasmons in hybrid nanostructures leads to appealing, tunable optical properties. In this respect, the knowledge about the excitation dynamics of a quantum emitter close to a plasmonic nanoantenna is of importance from fundamental and practical points of view. We address here the effect of the excited electron tunneling from the emitter into a metallic nanoparticle(s) in the optical response. When close to a plasmonic nanoparticle, the excited state localized on a quantum emitter becomes short-lived because of the electronic coupling with metal conduction band states. We show that as a consequence, the characteristic features associated with the quantum emitter disappear from the optical absorption spectrum. Thus, for the hybrid nanostructure studied here and comprising quantum emitter in the narrow gap of a plasmonic dimer nanoantenna, the quantum tunneling might quench the plexcitonic states. Under certain conditions the optical response of the system approaches that of the individual plasmonic dimer. Excitation decay via resonant electron transfer can play an important role in many situations of interest such as in surface-enhanced spectroscopies, photovoltaics, catalysis, or quantum information, among others.

Robust subnanometric plasmon ruler by rescaling of the nonlocal optical response.

We present the optical response of two interacting metallic nanowires calculated for separation distances down to angstrom range. State-of-the-art local and nonlocal approaches are compared with full quantum time-dependent density functional theory calculations that give an exact account of nonlocal and tunneling effects. We find that the quantum results are equivalent to those from classical approaches when the nanoparticle separation is defined as the separation between centroids of the screening charges. This establishes a universal plasmon ruler for subnanometric distances. Such a ruler not only impacts the basis of many applications of plasmonics, but also provides a robust rule for subnanometric metrology.

Quantum plasmonics: nonlinear effects in the field enhancement of a plasmonic nanoparticle dimer.

A fully quantum mechanical investigation using time-dependent density functional theory reveals that the field enhancement in a coupled nanoparticle dimer can be strongly affected by nonlinear effects. We show that both classical as well as linear quantum mechanical descriptions of the system fail even for moderate incident light intensities. An interparticle current resulting from the strong field photoemission tends to neutralize the plasmon-induced surface charge densities on the opposite sides of the nanoparticle junction. Thus, the coupling between the two nanoparticles and the field enhancement is reduced as compared to linear theory. A substantial nonlinear effect is revealed already at incident powers of 10(9) W/cm(2) for interparticle separation distances as large as 1 nm and down to the touching limit.

Optical spectroscopy of conductive junctions in plasmonic cavities.

The optical properties of a nanoparticle dimer bridged by a conductive junction depend strongly on the junction conductivity. As the conductivity increases, the bonding dimer plasmon blueshifts and broadens. For large conductance, a low energy charge transfer plasmon also appears in the spectra with a line width that decreases with increasing conductance. A simple physical model for the understanding of the spectral feature is presented. Our finding of a strong influence of junction conductivity on the optical spectrum suggests that plasmonic cavities might serve as probes of molecular conductance at elevated frequencies not accessible through electrical measurements.

Pi resonance of chemisorbed alkali atoms on noble metals.

We have performed a joint experimental and theoretical study of the unoccupied electronic structure of alkali adsorbates on the (111) surfaces of Cu and Ag. Combining angle- and time-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy with wave packet propagation calculations we show that, along with the well known sigma resonance oriented along the surface normal, there exist long-lived alkali-localized resonances oriented parallel to the surface (pi symmetry). These new resonances are stabilized by the projected band gap of the substrate and emerge primarily from the mixing of the p and d Rydberg orbitals of the free alkali atom modified by the interaction with the surface.

Bound States in the continuum in photonics.

With examples of two parallel dielectric gratings and two arrays of thin parallel dielectric cylinders, it is shown that the interaction between trapped electromagnetic modes can lead to scattering resonances with practically zero width. Such resonances are the bound states in the radiation continuum first discovered in quantum systems by von Neumann and Wigner. Potential applications of such photonic systems include: large amplification of electromagnetic fields within photonic structures and, hence, enhancement of nonlinear phenomena, biosensing, as well as perfect filters and waveguides for a particular frequency, and impurity detection.

Quantum scattering of fast atoms and molecules on surfaces.

We present evidence for the diffraction of light keV atoms and molecules grazingly scattered on LiF(001) and NaCl(001) surfaces. At such energies, the de Broglie wavelength is 2 orders of magnitude smaller that the mean thermal atomic displacement in the crystal. Thus, no coherent scattering was expected and interaction of keV atoms with surfaces is routinely treated with classical mechanics. We show here that well-defined diffraction patterns can be observed indicating that, for grazing scattering, the pertinent wavelength is that associated with the slow motion perpendicular to the surface. The experimental data are well reproduced by an ab initio calculation.

[Multimag-M magnetotherapy system of the new generation].

The Multimag-M microprocessor chronomagne-totherapy system of the new generation is described. The system provides on-line diagnosis of the pulse parameters and the breathing rate during a biotechnical feedback session. The requirements to the system software, as well as its specific features and design principles, are considered.