[The efficiency of combined therapy of herpes virus infection in HIV infected patients]. / Effektivnost' kombinirovannoi terapii gerpesvirusnykh infektsii u VICH-infitsirovannykh patsientov.

The target of the case study was to investigate the efficiency of an alternative combined therapy scheme of herpes simplex infections versus the routine therapy by acyclovir or famvir as applicable to HIV-infected patients. leukinferon was shown to induce the antoherpetic acyclovir efficiency. The use of the latter concurrently with cycloferon for the treatment of infections provoked by herpes simple virus-1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 in HIV-infected patients prolongs the remission period in case of the above opportunistic infections. The leukinferon anti-herpetic efficiency is, obviously, related with the phagocytosis stimulation and with its positive influence exerted on hemopoiesis. The combined therapy can be stated to be most effective in HIV, clinical stages B1 and 2.

[Algorithm for predicting development of HIV infection]. / Algoritm prognozirovaniia razvitiia VICh-infektsii.

Described in the paper are the results of a 15-year monitoring (1986-2001) of HIV patients at the Clinic of the Institute of Immunology, Federal Department "Medbioextreme", Russia's Health Ministry. The gathered experimental data, including the immunologic, biochemical and general-clinical parameters, were comprehensively analyzed. Optimal schemes of complex HIV monitoring were designed to ensure a comparative and dynamic study of different clinical-and-laboratory indices for the purpose of defining the HIV-induced pathogenesis specificity and adequate therapeutic approaches.

[Clinico-immunologic monitoring of HIV-infected patients: comparative analysis of indicators, characterizing development of the disease]. / Kliniko-immunologicheskii monitoring VICh-infitsirovannykh patsientov: sravnitel'nyi pokazatelei, kharakterizuiushchikh razvitie zabolevaniia.

The paper contains the results of a 15-year monitoring (since 1986 to 2001) of HIV-infected patients followed up at the clinic of the Institute of Immunology, Federal Department "Medbioextrem", Russia's Health Ministry. An analysis of a category of HIV-infected persons, who practiced the intravenous consumption of drugs since 1997 to 2001, revealed not only concomitant multi-virus infections (hepatitis C--68%, hepatitis B--48%, herpes 41%, fungal infections--66% and bacterial infections--46%) but also lesions (up to 70%) in the gastrointestinal tract and in the hepatic-cellular and hepatic-biliary systems. It was established that, when only immunological indices are taken account of in presence of multi-virus infections, it does not ensure an adequate evaluation of an HIV-patient condition. The below biochemical parameters must be necessarily taken into consideration: activity of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and of alkaline phosphatase. The changes in the biochemical parameters were shown to be essentially higher in HIV patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) even during the 2 initial follow-up years, when the immunological parameters are in the norm or even insignificantly below it. A comparative analysis of dynamic clinical, immunological and biochemical indices was made within the case study for the purpose of defining the prognostic criteria for HIV progression scenarios.

[Analysis of the biological characteristics of primary HIV-1 isolates using the main components method]. / Analiz biologicheskikh kharakteristik pervichnykh izoliatov VICh-1 s pomoshch'iu metoda glavnykh komponent.

The principal component method is verified for analysis of categorized biological characteristics of HIV-1 variants. Thirty wild isolates of HIV-1 are studied. The method notably facilitated comparative analysis of a large scope of experimental data. Using this method, it is possible to detect a relationship between the biological characteristics and results of other taxonomic schemes, to distinguish the factors restricting the biological signs, to single out the most informative signs for describing a given set of isolates, and to define the criteria for comparing the properties of two sets of virus isolates and selecting the isolates notably differing from each other for more thorough phenotyping.

[Biological properties of primary HIV-1 isolates with varying serotype]. / Biologicheskie svoistva pervichnykh izoliatov VICh-1 razlichnykh serotipov.

Russian HIV variants with common (rapid/high SI and slow/low NSI) and rare (slow/low SI and rapid/high NSI) phenotypes are described. SI variants demonstrate a higher p24 concentration level than serotype-independent NSI. The majority of SI variants belonging to A, B, and C serotypes were isolated from patients with mainly stage B3. At stages B2 and C2, when the majority of viruses are characterized by NSI phenotype, serotype D isolates are characterized only by SI phenotype. The spectrum of cell tropism was wide for all rapid/high strains and narrow for all slow/low ones.

[The detection of provirus in lymphocyte DNA. The monitoring of HIV infection at the genetic level]. / Detektsiia provirusa v DNK limfotsitov. Monitoring VICh-infektsii na geneticheskom urovne.

The presence of HIV provirus in the cell culture and in the patients' blood was studied by polymerase chain reaction followed by hybridization in solution. It was shown that: (i) the hybridized product could be detected both by gel electrophoresis and by binding on hydroxyapatite; (ii) the detection level achieved was no more than 10 infected lymphocytes per million; (iii) the hybridization signal and sensitivity of detection could be enhanced by the transcription of PCR product by the phage T7 RNA polymerase. The observed lack of complete correlation between the amount of provirus and of the p24 antigen in the patients' blood possibly reflects the peculiarities of HIV infection.