[Experience of microbiologic diagnostics of acute pneumonia cases arose in town Verkhnyaya Pyshma in July-August 2007].

Bacteriologic, serologic, and PCR tests of blood, sputum, serum and autopsy samples from 91 patients were performed during outbreak of pneumonia in town Verkhnyaya Pyshma in July-August 2007. Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated from 20% of diagnostically meaningful samples of sputum and from 50% of autopsy samples. Diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease was confirmed in 48% of cases. It was shown that association of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Legionella pneumophila determined the affect during such pneumonia. Need for establishment of diagnostic procedure for patients with pneumonia including those caused by atypical agents was revealed.

[Specific features of humoral immunity in cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis patients]. / Osobennosti gumoral'nogo immuniteta u bol'nykh kriptogennym fibroziruiushchim al'veolitom.

Cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (CFA) is a severe autoimmune disease of unclear etiology and prognostically unfavorable. The complexity of the diagnostics of this disease makes it necessary to search for new methods; for this reason immunity in CFA patients must be studied. The study of humoral organ-specific, organ-unspecific and antibacterial immunity of CFA patients revealed that the latter differed from the members of the groups used for comparison by a higher frequency of positive reactions in EIA determinations of IgG antibodies to cytokeratin-8 and Moraxella catarrhalis antigens. In addition, only in CFA patients a high degree of correlation (r=0.88) between these results was established. This made it possible to propose to use these reactions for confirming the diagnosis of CFA and suggested the probable role of M. catarrhalis in triggering autoimmune reactions characteristic of this disease.

[Cross-reactions between the antigens of healthy pulmonary tissue and Moraxella catarrhalis]. / Perekrestnye vzaimodeistviia mezhdu antigenami zdorovoi legochnoi tkani i Moraxella catarrhalis.

The study of cross-reactions between healthy pulmonary tissue antigens and Moraxella catarrhalis with the use of SDS-electrophoresis and immunoblotting revealed that in the component of healthy pulmonary tissue with a mol. wt. of 40 kD epitopes existed to which antibodies were produced, capable of cross reaction with the components of M. catarrhalis with a mol. wt. of 35 kD and 70 kD. In addition, the presence of cross-reactions between cytokeratin-8, protein contained in healthy pulmonary tissue, and M. catarrhalis antigens was established.

[Antibodies to cytokeratin-8 in patients with different lung pathology]. / Antitela k tsitokeratinu-8 u bol'nykh pri razlichnoi legochnoi patologii.

Antibodies to cytokeratin-8 were detected by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) in sera of 135 patients with cryptogenic fibrosing alveiolitis, different rheumatic diseases, sarcoidosis and exogenous allergic alveolitis, 109 patients with inflammatory lung diseases and 74 donors of the Moscow Blood Transfusion Station. The results revealed that The frequency of positive EIA reactions among the donors was 7%, while in the group of patients with rheumatic diseases--from 5.9% (scleroderma) to 42.9% (fibrosing alveolitis). Positive reactions also occurred in patients with exogenous allergic alveolitis and sarcoidosis. In the group of patients with chronic inflammatory lung diseases, i.e. in pathologies of non-autoimmune origin, positive reactions occurred in 13.3-33.3% of cases. To improve diagnostics and to disclose the mechanisms of pathogenesis, more detailed study of anticytokeratin antibodies in cases of interstitial lesions and chronic inflammatory lung diseases are necessary.

[Autoantibodies in children with chronic inflammatory lung diseases]. / Autoantitela u detei s khronicheskimi vospalitel'nymi zabolevaniiami legkikh.

124 sera of children with chronic bronchitis, chronic pneumonia, bronchial asthma, exogenic allergic alveolitis, congenital developmental defects of the lungs and the syndrome of the situs inversus of organs were examined with a view to study the state of humoral immunity to tissues. The study was carried out by means of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with the use of collagen, elastin, DNA (native and denaturated), membrane antigens of the lung, the liver, the small intestine and the large intestine. Among all groups of patients autoimmune disturbances, manifested by a rise in the level of autoantibodies of different specificity, were registered. The degree of manifestation of autoimmune disturbances depended on the kind of pathology. After treatment a decrease in the level of autoantibodies was registered in the examinees.

[The use of a modified complement fixation reaction for the rapid diagnosis of viral infections in children]. / Ispol'zovanie modifitsrovannoi reaktsii sviazyvaniia komplementa dlia ékspresssnoi diagnostiki virusnykh infektsii u detei.

A system of diagnostic tests (complement enzyme assay) is developed, detecting viral and other antigens, toxins, antibodies, and specific immune complexes in liquid enzyme immunoassay based on the complement fixation test. The system is simple and economic, the results can be transferred into digital data, and the above factors can be detected individually in biological materials from patients. The system is effective, and in many cases (for example, in the diagnosis of enteroviral diseases) is the only method for rapid isolation and typing of the infection agents.

[Effect of the flavonoid quercetin on the detoxication function of the liver]. / Vplyv flavonoïdu kvertsetynu na dezintoksykatsii funktsiiu pechinky.

Experiments in vivo have shown that introduction of quercetin leads to the decrease of microsomal oxidation intensity and makes more active the enzymes responsible for creation of conjugates in cytosolic and microsomal fractions of the animal liver. It is supposed that such an action of flavonoid is justified for the latter to be used as a method for correction of harmful substances metabolism under various deviations from the detoxication process connected with the proceeding of pathological processes in the organism.