[Staphylococcal toxic shock exotoxin (its isolation and characteristics)]. / Stafilokokkovyi ékzotoksin toksicheskogo shoka (vydelenie i kharakteristika).

The method for obtaining the preparation of toxic shock exotoxin (TSE) has been developed. This method comprises the following operations: the sorption of the toxin from the culture fluid on Amberlite CG-50, elution, dialysis, gel chromatography in a column with biogel P-2, isoelectric focusing, and gel chromatography in a column with Sephadex G-75. TSE is a relatively thermostable protein with a molecular weight of 24,000. Its isoelectric point is 7.2. Monospecific antiserum to TSE with precipitating antibody titer equal to 1:16, identical to the reference serum (M. S. Bergdoll), has been prepared. This antiserum has shown no cross reactions with the homogeneous preparations of staphylococcal enterotoxins.

[Patterns in the biosynthesis and action of human gamma-interferon]. / O nekotorykh zakonomernostiakh biosinteza i deistviia chelovecheskogo gamma-interferona.

The highest yields of gamma-interferon activity were obtained by using a fraction of mononuclears recovered from freshly collected donor blood in ficoll-verografin density gradient without using hemolysis. Unification of mononuclears from individual donors into a common pool stimulated interferon production. Staphylococcal enterotoxins A and B, concanavalin A, and lentyl-lectin were found to be the most effective inducers. Immobilization of inducers on neutral carriers reduced their effectiveness. Upon induction with lectin the synthesis was complete within 24 hours, and with enterotoxin in 3 days. In the latter instance the synthesis dynamics was of a two-phase nature. Gamma-interferon produced the antiviral condition later (in 10 hours) than alpha-interferon.

[Classification and biological characteristics of coagulase-positive Staphylococci isolated from animals]. / Klassifikatsiia i biologicheskaia kharakteristika koagulazo-pozitivnykh stafilokokkov, vydelennykh ot zhivotnykh.

A total of 165 coagulase-positive staphylococcal strains of different origin (142 S. aureus strains and 23 S. intermedius strains) were subjected to biological typing in accordance with the schemes of Hajek-Marsalek and Meyer-Witte. The former of these schemes permitted to identify 68% and the latter 18% of S. aureus strains. The cultures isolated from swine and chickens had the most uniform composition: 85-86% of the strains belonged to biotype B. 44% of the strains isolated from cows and sheep belonged to biotypes C (ecovars bovis and ovis) and A (ecovar hominis); the rest of the strains could not be identified. 96% of the strains isolated from minks were made up of S. intermedius, more than a half of them belonging to biotype E (ecovar canis). In 80% of S. aureus strains and 48% S. intermedius cultures protein A was detected. Only 9% of S. aureus strains of animal origin were found capable of producing enterotoxins (A-D). The expediency of working out a unified scheme for the biotyping of coagulase-positive staphylococci is discussed.

[Distribution of enterotoxinogenic strains among Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various sources]. / Rasprostranennost' énterotoksinogennykh shtammov sredi zolotistykh stafilokokkov, vydelennykh iz raznykh istochnikov.

A total of 406 S. aureus strains isolated from wound and mammal secretions in patients with wound infections and mastitis, from the throat of healthy children and those with respiratory disease, as well as during an outbreak of alimentary toxicoinfection, were studied. The capacity of these strains for the production of enterotoxins A, B, C, D, E, as well as the phage groups and phage types of these strains were determined. 34.2% of the strains were enterotoxigenic; the occurrence of this characteristic in staphylococci did not depend on the source of their isolation, but correlated with the results of their phage typing. Enterotoxigenic strains were detected most frequently (56.5--68.0%) in phage groups III, I/III and among staphylococci lyzed by additional phages (Nos. 88--96). Almost half of these strains produced enterotoxin A, each of other enterotoxins was produced by 12--14% of the strains. The isolated from the patients were found to produce mostly enterotoxins A and D, and those from healthy persons B and C. The relatively frequent production of enterotoxin D was found to be characteristic of staphylococci belonging to epidemic phagotype 80/81 isolated in mastitis.