Vol 77, No 3 (2022)

Background. The intestinal microbiota, on the one hand, protects a person from pathogens, on the other hand, it itself may be one of the triggers and/or mediators of progression in inflammatory bowel diseases. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) predominantly affects young people of working age. It noted a steady increase in the incidence of IBD in recent decades throughout the world and in Russia. Inflammatory bowel diseases significantly affect quality of life and lead to complications of having to perform surgery, which significantly reduces the quality of life. Aims — of the study was to investigate the composition of the microbiota of the colon, the search features of the microbial spectrum of patients with inflammatory bowel disease patients compared with control patients. Materials and methods. A prospective study was carried out between patients with inflammatory bowel disease and patients without inflammatory bowel disease for the period 2018–2019. The study included 157 IBD patients and 150 patients without IBD. All patients studied stool, which have been subjected to microbiological and metagenomic study. Results. Most often, facultative anaerobic microorganisms were present in the stool of patients with IBD (in 60%, 103–109 CFU/g) and in patients without IBD (69%, 103–109 CFU/g), the share of gram-negative bacteria accounted for 52%, in mostly represented by bacilli belonging to the order Enterobacteriales, only 7% of isolated gram-negative facultative aerobic microorganisms were gram-negative non-fermenting bacteria represented by 5 genera: Acinetobacter, Burkholderia, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Ralstonia. Gram-positive facultative anaerobic microorganisms in 89% were represented by cocci of the genus Enterococcus, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Gemella, Globicatella, Granulicatella. Conclusions. According to the results of our study, special attention should be paid to the presence of rare microaerophilic and obligate anaerobic microorganisms in the fecal microbiota of patients with IBD (Arcobacter butzleri, Gardnerella vaginalis, Aromatoleum aromaticum, Terrisporobacter glycolicus (Clostridium glycolicum), Solobacterium moorei, Alloscardovia omnicolens, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Fusobacterium ulcerans, Dialister micraerophilus), that have not been isolated from patients without IBD. A timely adequate assessment of the composition and functional characteristics of the microbiota in terms of key biomarkers will make it possible to carry out targeted diagnostics and prevention of the immediate and long-term consequences of inflammatory bowel diseases.

The outbreak of a new coronavirus disease,COVID-19, started in December 2019 in China continues to be one of the most important realities of our time influencing all spheres of human activity March 11, 2022 marks two years since the WHO declared a pandemic it is expected that the number of cases by this time may reach the mark 500 million. Taking into account the widespread spread of infection, spontaneous appearance during the natural evolution of the pathogen new highly pathogenic variants of the COVID-19 pathogen for humans the most important is the implementation of anti-epidemic measures representing a set of measures, aimed at preventing the importation and spread of infection. The purpose of the presented article is a analysis of the anti-epidemic measures carried out in the Russian Federation in the context of a COVID-19 pandemic. Anti-epidemic measures include the implementation of measures, directed towards all links of epidemic: on the source, on the transmission path and on the receptive collective. From a wide range of sanitary and anti-epidemic measures carried out nationwide (including organizational and administrative, socio-economic, isolation and quarantine and others) the development of various methods of detection and identification of the COVID-19 pathogen, methods of serodiagnostics with which you can predict indicator of herd immunity, means of prevention and treatment of the disease, means and methods of disinfection is considered. As such measures, the development of means for detecting and identifying the pathogen, means of prevention and treatment of the disease, methods of serodiagnostics, with the help of which it is possible to predict indicator of herd immunity, means and methods of disinfection are considered. An assessment of the effectiveness of the developed tools of diagnostics, prevention and treatment in relation to new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was carried out. The creation of a laboratory model to study an experimental infection which increases efficiency and reliability of ongoing preclinical studies of medical protective equipment is also important.

Background. The severe acute respiratory syndrome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus-mediated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) highlighted the central role of immunothrombosis. Severe endothelial damage with the release of unusually large multimers of von Willebrand factor (vWF) and subsequent consumption of ADAMTS-13 is described during severe COVID-19. The activation of innate immune cells among which neutrophils contribute to the formation of extracellular neutrophil traps (NETs) and to the release of myeloperoxidase (MPO) potentially contributing to the spread of inflammation and microvascular thrombosis. Objective — to evaluate the ability of vWF, ADAMTS-13 and MPO to predict in-hospital mortality in severe COVID-19 patients needing mechanical ventilation. Methods. We performed a one-center observational study of 79 severe COVID-19 patients entering intensive care unit for mechanical ventilation, examining vWF, ADAMTS-13 and MPO among other potential predictors for in-hospital death. Results. After multivariate analysis, vWF antigen (vWF:Ag) and MPO antigen (MPO:Ag) were finally the single two parameters which increasing values were independently associated with non-survival; vWF:Ag (U/dL): adjusted OR 3.360, 95% CI 1.562–7.228, p = 0.0019; MPO:Ag (ng/ml): adjusted OR 1.062, 95% CI 1.024–1.101, p = 0.0011. From these results a simplified mortality score was derived and patients categorized as having a score value higher or lower that the median value of the score: a high score value was associated with a lower cumulative survival rate (p < 0.0001), 50% of the cases being dead at day 13 post-hospital admission. Conclusions. In severe COVID-19 necessitating mechanical ventilation, increasing values of MPO activity and of vWF antigen tested at admission are associated with poor survival.

New chemotherapy agents of haematological malignancies in children often lead to adverse drug reactions, including vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy (VIPN). The incidence of this pathology ranges from 22 to 72%. The clinic and instrumental evaluation of children with VPN, including questionaries, scales, electrodiagnostic examinations, do not provide an opportunity for prognosis and early detection of chemotherapy-related neurologic complications. Consequently, identifying biomarkers associated with VIPN is urgently warranted that discussed in this review. PubMed and Scopus were browsed based on the keywords that allowed us to select 55 articles (4 systemic reviews, 14 scientific reviews, 37 original articles) between 2017 and 2021. Reports from the included studies clearly emphasize that vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy is associated with changes in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of the nerve growth factor (NGF) light chains of neurofilaments (NfL) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that are biomarkers of axonal damage. However, none of them do have criterion validity — sensitivity and specificity. One of the most promising prognostic biomarkers is CХCL10 and CXCL12 that detect children with or without VIPN (sensitivity — 79%, specificity — 78%). The next task is finding an optimal profile of these cytokines. These cytokines together with axonal biomarkers can be used for the diagnosis and prevention of chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity in children.

Genetic information, both inherited and tumor-specific, is becoming an increasingly important factor in the implementation of therapeutic strategies in oncology, providing an individual approach to each patient. Every year, an increasing number of achievements in medical genetics are introduced into oncological practice in the form of laboratory tests, diagnostic panels and practical recommendations. The article provides a brief overview of the results of genetic studies performed at the Federal National Medical Research Centre for Oncology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation from the beginning of their implementation in 2013 to the present day. We have demonstrated not only testing data within the framework of clinical recommendations, but also an analysis of the search for new genetic, epigenetic and proteomic markers, which seem promising for the development of new target drugs, diagnostic and prognostic test systems. We believe that the model of interaction between a researcher and an oncologist used in our center allows us to shorten the path from a scientific hypothesis to the creation and implementation of innovative technologies.

In the submitted message the process of historical formation of epidemiology and the prospect of development of this preventive discipline in its cross-disciplinary interaction with a pathophysiology on new, post-nonclassical, a stage of formation of science is considered. These two fundamental medical sciences are engaged in any diseases (pathological states) irrespective of their origin and have identical approaches to their study which in the most generalized view can be reduced to identification of the causes, mechanisms of development and outcomes of pathological states at the level of generalizations. In both scientific disciplines also an object of researches — a disease of the person (sick organism) is identical. Fundamental differences take place only for the main subject of studying these sciences which pathological processes for a pathophysiology and population morbidity, including its consequences, for epidemiology are. But and these categories in many respects are an essence one and too, but only at various levels of the organization of live. Therefore, the nature of transformations of both scientific disciplines in philosophical and methodological sense completely keep within a framework of modern transformations of science during formation of its post-nonclassical stage. It in turn assists formation of the next (cross-disciplinary) period in epidemiology which continues and develops basic provisions of its third stage defining population approach when studying various pathology. Thus, in the period of post-nonclassical science there is a process of cross-disciplinary formation of epidemiology that brings her to higher level of development and generalizations.

June 03, 2022 70th years have passed since the birth of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Scientific Director of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution Research “I. Mechnikov Institute of Vaccines and Serums”.