The Influence of Water-Soluble Polysaccharides of Crataegus sanguinea Pall. on Nitric Oxide Production by Macrophages.

The in vitro addition of water-soluble polysaccharides isolated from the leaves of Crataegus sanguinea Pall. to culture of mouse peritoneal macrophages induced classical activation of antigen-presenting cells by increasing NO synthase activity and reducing arginase expression.

[World Collections of Parasitic Worms].

This article provides information about the depositories of parasitic worms in the scientific institutes and museums in the United States, Japan, and Europe (the total number of samples and the availability of types of helminths from various classes), as well as information on the availability of electronic catalogues of the collections in the continental, national, and regional centers for collective use. The extent of this material has determined the necessity of creating digital collections and libraries that would represent a new form of storing, displaying, and exchanging information for scientific research. An analysis was performed of the current state of approaches and methods of development of the specialized information retrieval system (IRS) and databases (DBs) on the parasitic worms in Russia on the basis of a common conceptual data model, taking into account their local use (as desktop systems of database management) and access by scientists worldwide via the Internet.

[Sclerodegenerative aortic valve lesions and hereditary connective tissue disorders].

AIM: To estimate the role of different dysplastic syndromes and phenotypes in the development of sclerodegenerative lesions and calcific stenosis of the aortic valve (AV). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: One hundred and fifty patients (82 men and 68 women) aged 42 to 83 years were examined. A study group consisted of 89 patients (mean age 60.7 +/- 8.9 years) with clinical and echocardiographic signs of sclerodegenerative AV lesions (SDAVL). A control group included 61 patients (mean age 61.3 +/- 7.6 years) who had no clinical, physical, or echocardiographic signs of SDAVL. Twenty-five patients with critical calcific aortic stenosis (CAS) underwent histological examination of removed aortic semilunar valves after prosthetic AV replacement. RESULTS: Persons with a Marfanoid habitus (18%) and mitral valve prolapse (10.7%) are most common in older age groups. An association has been found between the bone signs of dysmorphogenesis and the development of SDAVL and CAS. CONCLUSION: Three or more signs of bone dysmorphogenesis and the Marfanoid habitus should be viewed as a predictor of SDAVL.

[Immunogenicity of N-protein of Puumala hantavirus for noninbred mice in the intramuscular administration of its gene DNA].

The outbreaks of hantavirus infections in some regions of the Russian Federation in some years involve considerable material and social losses. In this connection, the designing of the most effective types of vaccines is an urgent task. The authors have created plasmid constructions containing the gene of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome virus, with whose Intramuscular injection there is a specific immune response and plasmid DNA is detectable in the adjacent tissues within a month after injection.

[Amplification test-systems in the diagnosis of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and in studies of viral pathogens]. / Primenenie amplifikatsionnoi test-sistemy dlia diagnostiki gemorragicheskoi likhoradki s pochechnym sindromom i izucheniia genotipov virusov-vozbuditelei.

The "VectoHantivirus-ampli" test system based on rtPCR was shown as fitting the detection of virus RNA in blood samples of patients with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) made at early stages and no later than 7 days from the disease onset. A sequence analysis of viral nucleotide sequences of PCR products produced by the test-system ensured the identification of Hantaviruses (pathogens of HFRS). Two genetic variants of Puumula virus were shown to circulate in the territory of the Bashkortostan Republic; they differ by 10.0-13.8%, one of them is absolutely new. The Hantan virus FE genetic variant was detected in the studied samples from the Khabarovsk Territory.

[Early diagnostics of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome on the basis of the use of Pumala virus recombinant nucleocapsid protein]. / Ranniaia diagnostika gemorragicheskoi likhoradki s pochechnym sindromom na osnove ispol'zovaniia rekombinantnogo nukleokapsidnogo belka virusa Pumala.

Pumala virus recombinant nucleocapsid protein was used for the early diagnosis of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Specific IgM in the sera of patients could be determined by the IEA technique as early as on days 2-3 from the onset of the disease. The diagnostic effectiveness of the test-system was 95% and its specificity was 98%.

[Analysis of the primary structure of hantavirus RNA, detected in organs of patients that died from HFKS in the Republic of Bashkortostan]. / analiz pervichnoi struktury RNK khantavirusa, obnaruzhennogo v organakh pogibshikh ot TLPS bol'nykh v respublike Bashkortostan.

Fragments of the minor S and middle M segments of Hantavirus genome RNA were isolated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from the organs of patients who died from hemorrhagic fever with the renal syndrome (HFRS) during an epidemic outbreak of this infection in the Bashkortostan Republic in 1997-1998. The sizes of the resultant PCR fragments were 317 p. n. for S segment and 416 p. n. for M segment. Their primary structures (GENBANK registration numbers AJ133581 and AJ133582) were determined and they were compared with the nucleotide sequences of the respective genome sites of Hantavirus strain CG1820/Ufa-83 isolated from Clethrionomys in Bashkortostan in 1983. The homologies of nucleotide sequences of the corresponding sites of S and M segments of RNA isolate of 1997 and CG1820/Ufa-83 were 87.7 and 96.6%, respectively. The authors discuss the probability of circulation of hantaviruses differing by individual features of primary structure of genome RNA in Bashkortostan.

[Specific activity of a concentrated, chromatography-purified cultured rabies vaccine]. / Spetsificheskaia aktivnost' kontsentrirovannoi, ochishchennoi metodom khromatografii kul'tural'noi antirabicheskoi vaktsiny.

Animal experiments and trials on humans have shown that purified and concentrated chromatographic tissue-culture rabies vaccine is safe and essentially more potent than commercial tissue-culture rabies vaccine.