[Intensive protein synthesis in neurons and phosphorylation of beta-amyloid precursor protein and tau-protein are triggering factors of neuronal amyloidosis and Alzheimer's disease].

Recently the studies of Alzheimer's disease have become particularly actual and have attracted scientists from all over the world to this problem as a result of dissemination of this dangerous disorder. The reason for such pathogenesis is not known, but the final image, for the first time obtained on microscopic brain sections from patients with this disease more than a hundred years ago, is well known to clinicists. This is the deposition of Abeta amyloid in the brain tissue of senile plaques and fibrils. Many authors suppose that the deposition of beta-amyloid provokes secondary neuronal changes which are the reason of neuron death. Other authors associate the death of neurons with hyperphosphorylation oftau-proteins which form neurofibrillar coils inside nerve cells and lead to their death. For creation of methods of preclinical diagnostics and effective treatment of Alzheimer's disease novel knowledge is required on the nature of triggering factors of sporadic isoforms of Alzheimer's disease, on cause-effect relationships of phosphorylation of amyloid precursor protein with formation of pathogenic beta-amyloids, on the relationship with these factors of hyperphosphorylation of tau-protein and neuron death. In this review we analyze the papers describing the increasing of intensity of biosynthesis in neurons in normal conditions and under the stress, the possibility of development of energetic unbalanced neurons and activation of their protective systems. Phosphorylation and hyperphosphorylation of tau-proteins is also tightly connected with protective mechanisms of cells and with processes of evacuation of phosphates, adenosine mono-phosphates and pyrophosphates from the region of protein synthesis. Upon long and high intensity of protein synthesis the protective mechanisms are overloaded and the complementarity of metabolitic processes is disturbed. This results in dysfunction of neurons, transport collapse, and neuron death.

[Anticancer properties of flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas, 1909]. / Protivorakovye potentsii zhgutikovogo prosteishego Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas, 1909.

The anticancer activity of Trypanosoma cruzi has been confirmed by the example of seven strains. Five virulent strains induced the infection, which inhibited sarcoma-180 growth 1.5-22.0 times. The parasites featured tumortropism; i.e., the successfully developed in cancer cells and even preferred them to normal cells. This taxis-based phenomenon was particularly pronounced at cocultivation of the normal and cancer cells. Cultures of the seven (avirulent and virulent) strains can produce an anticancer agent that selectively damages human cancer cells in vitro. The long-term anticancer effect of T. cruzi or preparations from it, as well as possible its cancer preventing effect, has been demonstrated. Three problems are discussed on the basis of the obtained and recently published data: (1) the mechanism of T. cruzi anticancer effect; (2) the nature of the anticancer agent; and (3) the distribution of the considered phenomenon among trypanosomatides. The anticancer activity of T. cruzi may be due to a combination of surface cellular antigens and an inhibiting or lysing factor.

[Effects of amiridin and tacrine, drugs effective in Alzheimer's disease, on the activity of monoamine oxidase A and B]. / Vliianie amiridina i takrina--preparatov éffektivnykh pri bolezni Al'tsgeimera na aktivnost' monoaminoksidazy A i B.

In vitro comparative studies of effects of amiridin (9-amino-2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8-hexahydro-1H-cyclopentane (b) choline monohydrate hydrochloride) and tacrine physostigmine and piracetam on monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) and B (MAO-B) activity in the rat brain were carried out. Piracetam (1 x 10(-4)-1 x 10(-3) M) dose-dependently increased MAO-A and MAO-B activity. At all concentrations used (1 x 10(-7)-5 x 10(-4) M) physostigmine had no effect on MAO-A and MAO-B activity. Amiridin was found to inhibit MAO-B activity at 5 x 10(-4) M concentration only. Tacrine inhibited MAO-A activity at 5 x 10(-4) M concentration. The therapeutical effects of amiridin and tacrine in treatment of Alzheimer disease were not related to their action on MAO-A and -B activity.

[Modification of the mitochondrial membrane from the rat liver by synthetic phospholipids]. / Modifikatsiia mitokhondrial'noi membrany iz pecheni krys sinteticheskimi fosfolipidami.

Reconstruction of rat liver mitochondrial membrane by means of synthetic phospholipids enabled to improve the conception on the role of lipids in formation of monoamine oxidase multiple forms as well as elucidated the functions of mitochondrial membrane itself, which contains a tightly-mounted MAO, in regulation of biogenic amines enzymatic oxidation. The data obtained excluded the deciding importance of phospholipids in formation of two types of monoamine oxidases and corroborated the hypothesis on the active role of mitochondrial membrane in enzymatic reactions of tightly-mounted MAO as well as these data suggest that alterations in conformational mobility of the membrane hydrophobic sites shifted distinctly the kinetics of the enzymatic reaction.

Congenital rubella in the USSR.

The results of a comprehensive study of the problem of congenital rubella in Moscow and other cities of the USSR are presented. The highest rubella incidence was found among children 1-7 years of age; but 20-25 rubella cases were also recorded annually per 100 000 adults. Specific antihaemagglutinins were found in 36-70% of children and in 91-99% of adults. Investigation of the rubella foci revealed clinical rubella, confirmed by laboratory methods, in children and adults who had low initial titres of specific antihaemagglutinins. Serological screening of 1661 apparently healthy pregnant women detected antihaemagglutinins in 98.4%; however, low (1:8-1:16) titres were found in 53.3% and high (postinfection) titres and specific IgM in only 8.8% of cases.A study of 523 pregnant women who had been in contact with a source of infection revealed clinical rubella in 10.9% and inapparent infection in 0.7% of cases. A virological study of fetuses from infected pregnant women showed that there was intrauterine viral infection in 73% of cases; 38% of rubella-infected fetuses had congenital defects (unilateral or bilateral cataract, absence of one cerebral hemisphere, adhesion of the upper and lower eyelid, or diffuse damage of the crystalline lens); in one woman rubella virus was isolated from the fetuses and abortion materials received from two abortions with an interval of 6 months. Serological investigation of 519 mothers who had given birth to children with congenital defects showed that there were more frequent indications of rubella infection in the mothers of the children with CNS and cardiovascular defects, as well as in the children with congenital cardiovascular and CNS defects, than in the control groups. These data confirmed the teratogenic nature of rubella strains found in the USSR. This study indicates the need to improve rubella surveillance in pregnant women and to consider the prophylaxis of congenital rubella in the USSR. (See also Addendum.)

[Alloplasty of dura mater defects with identical tissue prepared and transported in formalin-containing gel media]. / Alloplastika defektov tverdoi mozgovoi obolochki odnoimennoi tkan'iu, zagotovlennoi i transportirovannoi v formalinsoderzhashchikh gel'-sredakh.

The storage of dura mater transplants in formalin-containing gel media which allow the entire process of preparation of the biological material to be conducted in non-sterile conditions is substantiated experimentally and clinically. A formalinized allogenous tissue of the same name transplanted in experiments and in the clinic into a defect in the dura mater undergoes active reorganisation and is replaced within a year with a newly-formed connective tissue which does not differ in architectonics from the dura mater of the recipient. When transplants of the dura mater stored in formalin-containing gel media were used in the clinic (172 operations) no complications of the type of liquorrhea, prolapse of the cerebral tissue or coarse subdural adhesions were noted. Suppuration developed in 3 patients (1.7%). The cause of the suppuration, however, was not associated with the transplant. All this makes it possible to recommend allogenous transplants of dura mater stored in formalin-containing gel media for wide use in the practice.