[Promising races of baker's yeast for the production of food ingredients enriched with selenium and chromium].

It is known, that Saccharomycetes can accumulate mineral substances with targeted enrichment of the growth medium. However, the influence of the genetic affiliation of the culture and the technological factors of yeast strains, the composition of growth media on the efficiency of essential trace elements incorporation into the biomass and on the change of theirs intracellular components content have hardly been investigated. In this regard, the aims of this work was to select promising races of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, develop a biotechnological method for obtaining food ingredients enriched with selenium and chromium on their basis, and study their trace element composition. Material and methods. Industrial strains of baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) were used: RCAM 01137, Y-3439 and Y-581. Yeast were grown on malt wort (pH 4.6) with a dry matter content of 12% with the addition of mineral salts in stationary conditions at a temperature of 30 °C for 18 h, after which the yeast biomass was separated by centrifugation. A method for enriching yeast with trace elements has been selected, which consists in the process of culturing cells on malt growth media containing chromium chloride or selenium dioxide in various concentrations. The total protein content was determined by the Kjeldahl method, polysaccharides and ergosterol - by spectrofluorometric method, selenium - by fluorimetric method. The content of trace elements in yeast biomass enriched with chromium was studied by mass spectrometric method with inductively coupled plasma. Results. It was shown that the highest specific growth rate was demonstrated by the yeast strains RCAM 01137 and Y-3439, and the highest level of maltase activity was in the Y-581 strain. It was found that the amount of biomass after cultivation of the yeast S. cerevisiae RCAM 01137 and Y-3439 was 6.00 и 5.42 g/100 cm3, respectively. It was noted, that the yeast S. cerevisiae Y-581 had capability of high synthesis of ergosterol (1.08±0.04%), the level of which was 2 fold higher than other strains. S. cerevisiae RCAM 01137 yeast showed the greatest ability to selenium enrichment, its content in biomass increased 137 fold and amounted to 2740 µg% when cultivated on a medium containing 800 µg/dm3. S. cerevisiae Y-581 yeast strain showed the highest capability to chromium sorption. The chromium concentration in its biomass was 8340 µg% in case of cultivating on a medium containing 750 µg/dm3. The usage of about 2.7 g of selenium enriched yeast biomass, or 1.0 g chromium enriched one, satisfies the daily requirement for these trace elements. Conclusion. Cultivation of S. cerevisiae cells on growth media containing trace elements makes it possible to obtain yeast biomass samples that can be used to obtain food ingredients for creating food products that contribute to the maintaining human health and improve the quality and duration of life.

[Biodegradation of proteins of grain raw materials for the production of new bakery products].

The effect of enzyme systems on the degree of protein destruction of grain crops to obtain new types of bakery products has been studied. Protein and amino acid composition of triticale grain crop in comparison with wheat and rye one has been studied. The high biological value of triticale proteins containing 38.75% of essential amino acids while in wheat - 34.93% has been shown. The influence of different enzyme systems (ES) with proteolytic action on the efficiency of catalytic modification of triticale proteins has been investigated. It was found that the highest activity was shown by the enzymatic system ES-1, synthesized by the mycelial fungus Aspergillus oryzae, as a result of which at a concentration of 5 u/g, the level of accumulation of amine nitrogen in triticale enzymatic hydrolysates was 125 mg%; the degree of hydrolysis of proteins was 90%. Enzyme preparations of bacterial origin, as well as alkalase and papain had a lower ability to hydrolyze triticale proteins. The fractional composition of modified proteins obtained by ES-1 showed a decrease in their molecular weight (to 35 kDa). Analysis of amino acid composition in grain enzymatic hydrolysates showed that as a result of exposure to FS-1, about 50% of the total number of amino acids passed into the free state, of which 38.8 to 43.6% were essential amino acids. The recipes of breads, containing composition of wheat flour and fermentolizates of the whole-grain triticale flour in the ratio 1:1 have been tested. The amino acid composition of the bread showed that the test samples contained 6.2 fold more free amino acids than the control. The use of fermented triticale in the recipes of bread allowed to increase the content of essential amino acids such as methionine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and lysine in 2.0-5.0 times. It was shown that the developed technology allowed baking bread containing peptides with reduced molecular weight and free amino acids, which by its organoleptic and physic-chemical parameters corresponded to classic bakery products.

[Enzyme preparations and biocatalytic processes in the food industry].

Enzyme preparations are essential to biotechnological processes for the production of food. Classification of enzymes, the specificity of their action on various substrates and processes of obtaining enzyme preparations based on various microorganisms-producers of enzymes are presented. Overview of the world and internal market of enzyme preparations used in the food industry is provided. The issues of efficient bioconversion of different plant materials to improve the quality of juices, fruit drinks, reducing the viscosity and increasing the productivity of biologically valuable components for functional products are considered; microbial raw materials - to produce protein or amino acid and vitamin enriched foods, as well as food ingredients; animal raw materials - for intensification of technological processes, for processing of wastes of meat, dairy industry, as well as in cheese making to improve the quality of products. The review is of scientific and practical interest for specialists in the field of biotechnology of food production of high quality food obtained by the enzymatic conversion of different types of agricultural raw materials.

[The identification and sensitivity to antibiotics of clostridia, including Clostridia difficile isolated under infectious complications in oncologic patients.]

The 76 strains of Clostridium related to 14 species including 28 strains of C.difficile, were isolated from 74 samples of biological material taken out of oncologic patients. The species identification of strains was implemented by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry using technique of direct application without extraction. The 74 strains (97.4%) were identified up to specie with reliability evaluation 2.0-2.5. Among C.non-difficile the most frequently were separated C.perfringens (42%), group of C.clostridioforme (24%). The sensitivity of separated strains to anti-microbial preparations was established with E-tests technique. The different species of Clostridia had different sensitivity to antibiotics. The strains C.perfringens are sensitive to all testing antibiotics whereas species related to group C.clostridioforme are resistant to fluoroquinolones (100%)б penicillin (67%). The resistance to fluoroquinolones was observed in C.scindens, C.ramosum, C.symbiosum. The strains C.scindens, C.tertium are resistant to penicillin. Among C.difficile, 93% of strains were resistant to penicillin, 57% - to imipenem and 100% - to fluoroquinolones.

[Prophylaxis of wound infection in patients with head and neck tumors with an account of the pathogen taxonomic pattern].

The most important problem of onkology, i. e. antibiotic prophylaxis and treatment of postoperative infectious complications is touched upon in the paper. The current publications on the problem are discussed and the autors' experience on the treatment is described. The spectrum of the main pathogens of wound infections in patients with head and neck tumors is considered.

[Efficacy of moxifloxacin (Avelox) in prophylaxis of infection in patients with profound neutropenia]. / Effektivnost' ispol'zovaniia moksifloksatsina (Aveloks) dlia profilaktiki infektsii u bol'nykh s glubokoi neitropeniei.

Comparative efficacy of moxifloxacin and ciprofloxacin as prophylactics of infection in cancer patients with severe neutropenia after the chemotherapy was studied. The study included 40 patients with malignant lymphomas and solid tumore who received 52 courses of the aggressive chemotherapy. Twenty four patients (30 courses) received oral moxifloxacin in a dose of 400 mg once a day from the first day of the neutrophil count decrease below 1.0 x 10(9)/l until its recovery to > 1.0 x 10(9)/l or when the signs of infection appeared. In the control group 16 patients (22 courses) received oral ciprofloxacin in a dose of 500 mg twice a day. The patients in both the groups were compatible by the diagnosis, age and neutropenia duration. The median of the days of the febrile neutropenia duration in the patients prophylactically treated with moxifloxacin was statistically lower (2.1 vs 3.6 in the control group, p < 0.05). The incidence of febrile neutropenia in the moxifloxacin group was significantly lower than that in the control group (73 and 100% respectively, p = 0.01). The incidence of bacteriologically confirmed infection in the moxifloxacin group was also lower (6% vs 27.2%, p = 0.04). Therefore, moxifloxacin proved to be a more efficient agent vs ciprofloxacin (standard prophylactic) in prevention of febrile neutropenia and neutropenic infection in cancer patients, which is likely due to its higher activity against grampositive organisms.

[Prophylaxis of fungal infection in patients with hematologic neoplasms and severe neutropenia after high-dose chemotherapy]. / Profilaktika gribkovoi infektsii u bol'nykh s gematologicheskimi novoobrazovaniiami i glubokoi neitropeniei, razvivsheisia posle provedeniia vysokodoznoi khimioterapii.

Infection is one of the main causes of death in patients with hemoblastoses. Within the last years there was observed an increase in the ratio of fungal infections in the structure of mortality among hematologic patients with neutropenia. The present study was aimed at comparative estimation of the efficacy of the prophylactic use of various azole antifungal agents in patients with hematologic neoplasms and severe neutropenia. The trial enrolled 88 patients comparable by the diagnosis and chemotherapy characteristics, in whom severe neutropenia developed after intensive therapy. Antifungal drugs were used prophylactically when the neutrophil count lowered below 1.0 x 10(9)/l until its increasing above 1.0 x 10(9)/l or when the signs of fungal infection were evident. Itraconazole was used in cyclodextrin solution in 30 patients in a dose of 0.2 g orally twice a day and fluconazole was used in capsules in 24 patients in a dose of 0.2 g orally once a day. The results were compared with those of the ketoconazole use in a dose of 0.2 g orally twice a day (n = 34). The frequency of fungal infection proved by the clinical documentation was 20.5% in the ketoconazole group (k) (7 out of 34 patients), 8.3% in the fluconazole group (f) (2 out of 24 patients) and 6.6% in the itraconazole group (i) (2 out of 30 patients), p (k-f) = 0.21, p (k-i) = 0.11 and p (f-i) = 0.74. The frequency of fungal infection proved by the microbiological documentation was statistically much higher in the ketoconazole group (38.2%) vs. the fluconazole group (8.3%) (p = 0.013) and the itraconazole group (6.6%) (p = 0.004). The prophylactic use of itraconazole and fluconazole was efficient in preventing development of invasive mycoses in the patients with hemoblastoses and severe neutropenia. Their efficacy was much higher than that of ketoconazole.

[Long-term memory, neurogenesis and novelty signal]. / Dolgovremennaia pamiat', neirogenez i signal novizny.

In accordance with the advanced hypothesis the long-term memory is a collection of "gnostic units" selectively tuned to experienced events. The long-term memory is continuously supplemented by new neurons differentiated from stem cells during neurogenesis (particularly, in adults). The transformation of neuronal progenitors into event-selective gnostic units is accomplished with participation of hippocampal "novelty neurons" emphasizing information inputs to be stored in the long-term memory. The formation of the gnostic units is preceded by informational processes occurring in the ventral ("what?") and dorsal ("where?") systems. The formation of a new gnostic unit selectively tuned to a particular event is a result of combination of feature-detector excitation and novelty signal generated by hippocampal novelty neurons.

["Augmentin" in the antibiotic prevention of postoperative infections complications in gynecological cancer patients]. / Augmentin v antibiotikoprofilaktike posleoperatsionnykh infektsionnykh oslozhnenii u onkoginekologicheskikh bol'nykh.

Hysterectomies are arbitrarily pure operations and thus require antibiotic prevention. A great risk for postoperative infections is particularly high after Wertheim's operation. This study evaluated the efficiency of infection prevention in 19 cancer gynecological patients by using the antibiotic augmentin (amoxicillin/clavulanic acid). The first dose was administered 30 minutes before surgery in order to achieve the maximum drug concentration in blood and tissue at surgery. There was no wound suppuration. One patient (5.3%) undergone Werthein's operation was diagnosed to have retroperitoneal hematoma suppuration. One more patient (5.3%) had fever of unknown genesis. Urinary infections that are not considered to be a sign of inefficiency of antibiotic prevention and that were due to long-term catheter placement developed in 4 (21.1%) of the 19 patients. The postoperative period was smooth in 14 (73.7%) of the 19 patients. The perioperative Augumentin administration regimen used by the authors was easy-to-use and beneficial and the drug shows a low toxicity so it may be used for antibiotic prevention in cancer gynecological patients.

[Antibiotic prophylaxis with amoxicillin/clavulinate (Augmentin) in extended and combined operations in gynecologic cancer patients]. / Antibiotikoprofilaktika amoksitsillinom/klavulanatom (Augmentinom) pri rasshirennykh i kombinirovannykh operatsiikh u onkoginekologicheskikh bol'nykh.

Frequency of postoperation complications at oncological patients deviates in the range from 10 to 70 per cent. The highest frequency of infectious complications is registered after extended and complex operations (cervical carcinoma, cancer of vulva, ovarian cancer). The most frequent aerobic pathogens in oncology are enterococci, staphylococci and streptococci, in the case of urinary tract operations--enterococci and Erscherichia coli. Perioperation prophylaxis with amoxycillin/clavulanate (Augmentin) effective against this microorganisms and also against anaerobic bacteria (usual pathogens of post operation infections in oncogynecology) resulted with lower frequency of wound infections. Demonstrated prophylaxy efficacy was more potent than that of cefotaxime (p < 0.05) or when compared to results of other antibiotics administration after operations only.

[Benzylpenicillin efficacy for neutropenic infection prophylaxis in patients with cancer and postcytostatic neutropenia]. / Effektivnost' naznacheniia benzilpenitsillina dlia profilaktiki neitropenicheskoi infektsii u bol'nykh s opukholevymi zabolevaniiami i posttsitostaticheskoi neitropeniei.

Evaluation of benzylpenicillin (penicillin G) effect for infection prophylaxis at the oncological patients with severe postcytostatic neutropenia was performed. All the patients with neutrophils levels lower than 0.5 x 10(9)/L were recommended to use antibiotics for infection prophylaxis. Test-group (n = 40) used ciprofloxacin (0.5 g twice daily, per os) combined with benzylpenicillin (1.0 g four times daily, i/v); control group was treated by ciprofloxacin in the same dose only. Combination with benzylpenicillin resulted in statistically significant reduction of infections frequency among oncological patients.

[The microbiological aspects of infectious complications in the oncology clinic]. / Mikrobiologicheskie aspekty infektsionnykh oslozhnenii v onkologicheskoi klinike.

At present 10 to 30 per cent of the microbial strains from cancer patients are problem ones: oxacillin resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase negative strains of Staphylococcus spp., aminoglycoside resistant strains of Escherichia coli, 3rd generation cephalosporin resistant strains of Klebsiella spp. and fungi of Candida which requires development of more rational approaches to antibacterial chemotherapy and prophylaxis of infectious complications. The infectious processes in the cancer patients proved to be highly polyetiological. Therefore, the study is significant for epidemiologic and therapeutic measures. Such an analysis in oncological clinic should be regular.

[Cefepime in the treatment of infection in neutropenic patients]. / Tsefepim pri lechenii infektsii u bol'nykh s neitropeniei.

Cefepime, a fourth-generation cephalosporin, was used in the treatment of 11 febrile episodes in 8 patients with profound neutropenia. The patients were neutropenic because of high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell rescue or second-line salvage chemotherapy for malignant lymphomas (5 patients) or solid tumors (3 patients). The median duration of grade-IV neutropenia (according to the WHO classification) was 11 days (7 to 14). Cefepime was used as the monotherapy in a dose of 2 g thrice daily. Disappearance of the infection signs was recorded in 8 episodes (73 per cent). In 3 episodes (23 per cent) cefepime was replaced by another drug. The tolerability of cefepime was good and no adverse events were observed with the exception of 1 event of an allergic reaction.

[Etiologic structure of infectious complications in the urogenital tract of oncologic patients]. / Etiologicheskaia struktura infektsionnykh oslozhnenii v urogenital'nom trakte onkologicheskikh bol'nykh.

The investigation of the microflora of infectious complications in the urogenital tract of oncological patients showed that in spite of the similarity of the microbiotypes, the microflora of the infectious complications in the patients had marked differences. The causative agents in urological patients were mainly monocultures (69.9 per cent), whereas in gynecological patients they were mainly associations (67.2 per cent), more frequently of 2 and sometimes of 3 and even 4 or 5 taxa. The taxonomic spectra of such pathogens were also different. In the urological patients a much broader spectrum of the bacterial species with the predominance of gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria was detected. In the gynecological patients the predominating taxa were Candida spp., Staphylococcus spp., Escherichia coli and S. faecalis. The other bacteria in total amounted to 13.9 per cent. In the urological patients the predominating taxa were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, Candida spp. and S. faecalis. The frequency of Staphylococcus spp. and Candida spp. was twice as low as that in the gynecological patients. Therefore, the comparative investigation of the causative agents in the urinary tract and female genitalia of the oncological patients revealed significant differences which cast doubt on the validity of empirical antibacterial therapy according to the principle of "above and below the waist" practiced by many physicians in the treatment of infectious complications in somatic hospitals.

[A trial of the use of diflucan (fluconazole) in patients with vaginal candidiasis]. / Opyt primeneniia difliukana (fliukonazol) u bol'nykh vaginal'nym kandidozom.

Fifty females with vaginitis due to Candida albicans were treated with fluconazol (diflucan) in a single dose of 150 mg administered per os. A complete elimination of the clinical signs in 42 out of 50 patients (84 per cent) and a significant improvement of the clinical picture in 4 out of 50 patients (8 per cent) were recorded. The cultures of the smears produced no fungal growth with respect to 31 out of 36 patients (86.1 per cent), while microscopically the presence of the fungus with the signs of pathomorphosis was detected. Such cells could be a source of the fungal reinfection. Therefore, diflucan proved to be a highly efficient drug in the treatment of vaginal candidiasis and might be considered as an additional agent for the therapy of the disease.

[Piperacillin in the treatment of suppurative inflammatory complications in cancer patients]. / Piperatsillin pri lechenii gnoino-vospalitel'nykh oslozhnenii u onkologicheskikh bol'nykh.

Piperacillin (Pipril, Lederle, USA) is semisynthetic penicillin highly active against aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Its high activity was demonstrated with respect to 289 strains of aerobes, 82.7 per cent of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains being susceptible to Pipril. Diverse purulent inflammatory complications were treated with Pipril in doses of 8 to 24 g a day in 27 patients with malignant tumors. The clinical effect in 84.6 per cent of the cases was recorded. Complete elimination of the pathogens was observed in 73.5 per cent of the patients. Therefore, Pipril should be considered as one of the most active antibiotics for the treatment of purulent inflammatory complications in oncological patients.

Activity and species composition of aerobic methanotrophic communities in tundra soils.

The low-temperature, methane-oxidizing activities and species composition of methanotrophic communities in various tundra bog soils were investigated by radioisotopic and immunofluorescent methods. Methanotrophic bacteria carried out the methane oxidation process through all horizons of seasonally thawed layers down to permafrost. The highest activity of the process has been observed in the water surface layer of overmoistured soils and in water-logged moss covers. Up to 40% of(14)CH4 added was converted into(14)CO2, bacterial biomass, and organic exometabolites. By immunofluoresecent analysis it was demonstrated that the representatives of I+X (Methylomonas, Methylobacter, andMethylococcus) and II (Methylosinus, Methylocystis) methanotrophic groups occurred simultaneously in all samples at 61.6% and 38.4%, respectively. The number of methane-oxidizing bacteria in the ecosystems studied was 0.1-22.9×10(6) cells per gram of soil. Methanotrophic organisms ranged from 1% to 23% of the total bacterial number.

[The regulation of protein kinase C activity in normal, immortalized and transformed rat fibroblasts]. / Reguliatsiia aktivnosti proteinkinazy C v normal'nykh, immortalizovannykh i transformirovannykh fibroblastakh krysy.

In view of recent studies showing that cell proliferation of E1Aad5+c-Ha-ras-transformed fibroblasts cannot be regulated by growth factors and phorbol eaters in contrast to normal and E1Aad5-immortalized cell lines, the present work was undertaken to examine the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in the mitogenic signal transduction machinery in rat embryonal fibroblasts. It is shown that PKC is activated by acidic growth factor and phorbol esters in all the three cell lines. These findings suggest the existence of an additional, not associated with PKC-, growth-signaling pathway in E1Aad5-Ha-ras-transformed rat embryonal fibroblasts.