Free Radical Lipid Peroxidation Induced by Reactive Halogen Species.

The review is devoted to the mechanisms of free radical lipid peroxidation (LPO) initiated by reactive halogen species (RHS) produced in mammals, including humans, by heme peroxidase enzymes, primarily myeloperoxidase (MPO). It has been shown that RHS can participate in LPO both in the initiation and branching steps of the LPO chain reactions. The initiation step of RHS-induced LPO mainly involves formation of free radicals in the reactions of RHS with nitrite and/or with amino groups of phosphatidylethanolamine or Lys. The branching step of the oxidative chain is the reaction of RHS with lipid hydroperoxides, in which peroxyl and alkoxyl radicals are formed. The role of RHS-induced LPO in the development of human inflammatory diseases (cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis) is discussed in detail.

Human gut microbiota community structures in urban and rural populations in Russia.

The microbial community of the human gut has a crucial role in sustaining host homeostasis. High-throughput DNA sequencing has delineated the structural and functional configurations of gut metagenomes in world populations. The microbiota of the Russian population is of particular interest to researchers, because Russia encompasses a uniquely wide range of environmental conditions and ethnogeographical cohorts. Here we conduct a shotgun metagenomic analysis of gut microbiota samples from 96 healthy Russian adult subjects, which reveals novel microbial community structures. The communities from several rural regions display similarities within each region and are dominated by the bacterial taxa associated with the healthy gut. Functional analysis shows that the metabolic pathways exhibiting differential abundance in the novel types are primarily associated with the trade-off between the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla. The specific signatures of the Russian gut microbiota are likely linked to the host diet, cultural habits and socioeconomic status.