[THE CONTENT OF MERCURY IN SEDIMENTS AND THE CLAMS UNIO PICTORUM FROM THE URAL RIVER].

There was investigated the mercury total content in bottom sediments and some bodies of clams from the area of the middle reach of the Ural river near the Orenburg city. In bottom sediments there was revealed an excess of the ecological standard for mercury. There was noted the uneven distribution of toxicant in bodies of clams: the maximal contents was detected in hepatopancreas, minimal--in "foot", that apparently is determined by the unequal metabolitic activity of these tissues. The highest concentration of mercury in the tissues of clams was noted at the station "Ural river above the camp" Dubki".

[A possible association of fatal pneumonia with mutations of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 sw1 virus in the receptor-binding site of the HA1 subunit].

The paper gives the results of sequence analysis of 150 positive samples in real-time RT-PCR, including 47 autopsy materials from patients (including 10 pregnant women), who died from fatal pneumonia mainly in November-December 2009, in whom the lifetime etiological diagnosis had not been made and hence no early etiotropic therapy performed. 70% of the primary materials from the deceased patients were found to have pandemic influenza A(H1N1) v mutants in the lung tissue with D222G (15%), D222N (15%), D222E (2%) substitutions, as well as a mixture of mutants (38%). Nasopharyngeal lavages from 3 Chukotka deceased patients exhibited only consensus (nonmutant) D222 virus variants; there was a mixture of consensus and mutant virus variants in the trachea and a mixture of mutant ones in the lung. Preliminary data from the study of the interaction of the hemagglutinin of two strains having D222G and D222N mutations with 9 oligosaccharides imitating the variants of cell receptors for influenza A virus suggest that there is a double receptor specificity for alpha2'-3' and alpha2'-6'-sialosides with a preponderance of alpha2'-3'-specificity. Further spread of the mutants that have acquired a high virulence and preserved their capacity for the respiratory route of human infection may lead to the situation similar to that seen in the 1918-1919 pandemic. Another scenario for evolution of the virus is to preserve its receptor specificity for alpha2'-3'-sialosides and high virulence with losses of alpha2'-6' specificity and capacity for aerosol transmission, by damping the pandemic.

[Detection of amino acid substitutions of asparaginic acid for glycine and asparagine at the receptor-binding site of hemagglutinin in the variants of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus from patients with fatal outcome and moderate form of the disease].

The paper analyzes the amino acid sequence of the receptor-binding site of hemagglutinin (HA) in the variants of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 swl from 18 patients with moderate (n=1) and fatal (n=17) forms of the disease in 2009. Nine samples contained asparaginic acid at position 222 of HA1 (D). This site exhibited mutations in 9 samples: D222G (n=3), D222N (n=3), and D222G/D222N (n=3). In one patient with the moderate form of the disease, D222G mutation was revealed after the second passage in the developing chick embryos; this mutation was not found in the primary sample from the patient. The findings suggest the mutant variants of the virus start to circulate among the population, which requires, firstly, continuation of molecular virological monitoring of the pandemic situation and, secondly, further study of the impact of amino acid substitutions at the receptor-binding site of HA1 on the increased virulence of influenza A virus.

[The specific features of the prevalence of thyroid malignancies in an iodine-deficiency area].

The trends in iodine-deficiency morbidity and thyroid malignancy morbidity and mortality in the Orenburg Region have been analyzed over many years. The analysis revealed a significant rise in the incidence of thyroid malignancies with high death rates among the subjects, first registered and died within a year after their diagnosis, in the central geographical zone as compared with the western and eastern ones. There was evidence for rather high morbidity rates among the region's women, with their tendency being noted for an increase.

[Assessment of the contribution of environmental factors to the formation of the demographic situation at the regional level].

The most informative priority environmental, social, and economic factors reflecting with the highest significance demographic processes in the urbanized and rural areas have been substantiated from the results of analyzing the data of the Regional Information Fund of sociohygienic monitoring by multivariate (correlation, factor, and regression) analysis methods. Models were obtained, which were used to define quantitative correlations between the demographic indices and the environmental-socioeconomic ones and to identify priority criteria for urbanized and rural areas while predicting their development and taking a managerial decision.

[Hygienic assessment of ambient air pollution in rural localities in the area exposed to effluents of the Orenburg gas-field complex]. / Gigienicheskaia otsenka zagriazneniia atmosfernogo vozdukha sel'skikh naselennykh punktov v zone vliianiia vybrosa Orenburgskogo gazopromyslovogo upravleniia.

A complex analysis suggests that there has been an increase in airogenic load on the population living in an area exposed to gas waste from the Orenburg gas-field complex at the expense of nitrogen dioxide, which may be associated with its higher levels in the waste from 1058.3 tons/year in 1996 to 2084.89 tons/year in 2000 and with the maximum effluent of 2550.79 tons/year in 1999. The study has revealed that the rural locality with the greatest aerogenic load is the village of Dedurovka.

Immune and interferon status in schoolchildren living in cities with different anthropogenic load.

Examinations of 6-11-year healthy children living in industrial cities of the Orenburg region revealed a close relationship between ecological status of the territory and some immunity parameters such as immune deficiency, interferon content, and formation of postvaccinal immunity with live measles vaccine. The most pronounced changes in the immune status and decreased postvaccinal immunity were found in a city with the greatest anthropogenic load. Changes in interferon status were similar in all cities: a 2-fold increase of serum interferon and suppressed production of interferon-alpha and interferon-gamma.

[Radio-ecological and genetic assessment of late consequences of Totsk nuclear explosion]. / Radioékologicheskaia i geneticheskaia otsenka otdalennykh posledstvii Totskogo iadernogo vzryva.

Radio-ecological and cytogenetic assessments were made in the vicinity of Totsk nuclear explosion in the Orenburg Region. Increased contents of radioactive isotopes Cs and Pu were detected in the soil. A comparative cytogenetic analysis indicated that the population continued to be exposed to radioactive agents.

Antibodies to the HFRS virus in the human population of European RSFSR as detected by radioimmunoassay.

Natural immunity to the causative agent of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) has first been studied using radioimmunoassay (RIA) in the human population of the Bashkir ASSR with the highest incidence of this infection and of five other regions of the RSFSR with lower incidence of HFRS. The antigen was prepared as a suspension of lungs of rodent from natural HFRS foci and contained a high concentration of virus protein. 12,000 sera from the population of 6 areas of the RSFSR were examined. In the Bashkir ASSR antibodies were detected in 13.7 per cent of the subjects examined, this figure varying in different districts from 4.0 to 41.5 per cent. In the other areas the portion of immune subjects varied from 6.7 per cent in Kuybyshev region to 1.6 per cent in Vladimir region. No correlation between the size of the immune portion of the population and average incidence rates for 5 years was observed. In Bashkiriya, immunity was found in 14.9 per cent of men and 11.8 per cent of women. In other regions, the per cent of women with antibodies to HFRS virus was also lower. In the age-group under 40 the percentage of immunity was lower (11.4 per cent) than in older age-groups (17.4 per cent). The portion of immune subjects varied in different occupation groups. In HFRS convalescents the antibody was found to persist in high titre for 20 years (the observation period).