СHANGES OF IMMUNOREGULATORY INDEXES IN CHILDREN EXPOSED TO STRONTIUM

Evaluation of the immune system parameters can be used in order to assess capacity to adapt under conditions of increased external chemical load, including exposure to metals, which can exert either activating and inhibitory effects upon immune regulation parameters. The aim of this work was the analysis of immunoregulatory markers in a children’s population who consumed water with high strontium content (a sample from the Perm region). We carried out immunological evaluation of the children aged 7 to 12 years, living at a territory with a high strontium content in the drinking water. The comparison group included children from the conventionally clean region. We studied differential changes in cellular immunity (phagocytosis rates), humoral factors of immune defense (serum immunoglobulins), development of specific sensitization for strontium, as well as the processes of apoptosis triggering and regulation. A 3.68-fold increase in strontium levels was shown in fresh water within observation area, and the average  blood strontium content in the children of appropriate observation group was 1.55-fold higher than in children of the comparison group. At the same time, 1.2-fold increase in phagocytic activity determined as phagocytic number and phagocytic index was found, as compared to the control group. In 80% of the subjects, a reduction in serum IgG level was observed when compared to physiological norm, as well as a significant decrease in IgG and enhance in IgM production against the levels found in the comparison group. Wehave also shown an enhanced total sensitization in 55.0% of the observation group as shown by the total IgE test compared with normal age ranges, as well as excessive specific sensitization to strontium by 2.49 times, according to the IgG criterion. Disturbance in apoptosis triggering was associated with decreased number of CD95+ lymphocytes and TNFR1+ cells (2.8-fold compared to reference values), shifted balance in apoptogenic proteins, an average of 2.6-fold decrease in Bcl-2 expression, a 2.8-fold reduction of the p53 transcription factor expression relative to the reference interval. Thus, we have shown an ability of strontium excess in drinking water to influence the most important indices of immune regulation in pediatric population. These changes may serve as indices of populational health status under of external strontium exposure

FEATURES OF THE EFFECTS OF MANGANESE CNS IN CHILDREN CONSUMED DRINKING WATER UNSATISFACTORY QUALITY

According to the research found that children who consume drinking water with high content of manganese at 3.3 MAC (maximum of 8 MPC), the concentration of manganese in the blood up to 4.4 times higher than the reference level, which is dangerous for the development of adverse effects from side of the critical organs and systems, especially the CNS. Proved the dependence of the probability of deviation indicators characterizing the state of excitation and inhibition in the central nervous system (glutamate, GABA), with high content of manganese in the blood

Risk assessment for the bronchial asthma development in infants using a russian-language version of questionnaire «Asthma Prediction Tool»

The bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronical disease in the children; it has the high medical and social significance. The bronchial asthma onset is reported for 70–80% of the children in the early childhood. However, the disease in this age period is not diagnosed in many cases, and the patients are not treated efficiently. The purpose of the study is to try the Russian-language version of the questionnaire “Asthma Prediction Tool”. The questionnaire of 49 parents of the infants with the bronchial obstruction syndrome was carried out. According to the questionnaire results, it was determined that more than half of  the children (59.2%) had low risk, 36.7% – average risk and 4.1% – high risk to develop the bronchial asthma in the next 5 years. So, the questionnaire “Asthma Prediction Tool” may prove to be the convenient and useful additional tool in future to assess the risks of developing of this disease in the children for the nearest 5 years, correlating well with the usually assessed sign pattern, specifying the bronchial asthma in the patients suffered the bronchial obstruction syndrome in the early childhood

Avidity of IgG to SARS-CoV-2 RBD as a Prognostic Factor for the Severity of COVID-19 Reinfection

The avidity index (AI) of IgG to the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 was determined for 71 patients with a mild (outpatient) course of COVID-19, including 39 primarily and 36 secondarily reinfected, and 92 patients with a severe (hospital) course of COVID-19, including 82 primarily and 10 secondarily infected. The AI was shown to correlate with the severity of repeated disease. In the group of outpatients with a mild course, the reinfected patients had significantly higher median AIs than those with primary infections (82.3% vs. 37.1%, p 0.05). This suggests that the presence of low-avidity IgG to RBD during reinfection is a negative prognostic factor, in which a patient’s risk of developing COVID-19 in a severe form is significantly increased. Thus, patients with IgG of low avidity (AI ≤ 40%) had an 89 ± 20.5% chance of a severe course of recurrent COVID-19, whereas the detection of high-avidity antibodies (AI ≥ 50%) gave a probability of 94 ± 7.9% for a mild course of recurrent disease (p < 0.05). © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Revaccination in Age-Risk Groups with Sputnik V Is Immunologically Effective and Depends on the Initial Neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 IgG Antibodies Level

Vaccination against COVID-19 has occurred in Russia for more than two years. According to the Russian official clinical guidelines to maintain tense immunity in the conditions of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to use booster immunization six months after primary vaccination or a previous COVID-19 contraction. It is especially important to ensure the maintenance of protective immunity in the elderly, who are at risk of severe courses of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the immunological effectiveness of the booster doses has not been sufficiently substantiated. To investigate the immunogenicity of Sputnik V within the recommended revaccination regimen and evaluate the effectiveness of booster doses, we conducted this study on 3983 samples obtained from individuals previously vaccinated with Sputnik V in Moscow. We analyzed the level of antibodies in BAU/mL three times: (i) six months after primary immunization immediately before the booster (RV), (ii) 3 weeks after the introduction of the first component of the booster (RV1), and (iii) 3 weeks after the introduction of the second component of the booster (RV2). Six months after the primary vaccination with Sputnik V, 95.5% of patients maintained a positive level of IgG antibodies to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2. The degree of increase in the specific virus-neutralizing antibodies level after revaccination increased with a decrease in their initial level just before the booster dose application. In the group of people with the level of antibodies up to 100 BAU/mL six months after the vaccination, a more than eightfold increase (p p p p < 0.05), regardless of the previous COVID-19 infection. Thus, revaccination is most effective in individuals with an antibody level below 500 BAU/mL, regardless of the vaccinee age and COVID-19 contraction. For the first time, it has been shown that a single booster dose of the Sputnik vaccine is sufficient to form a protective immunity in most vaccinees regardless of age and preexisting antibody level

Automatic Text Processing and Linguistic Modeling as Instruments for Solving Problems of Text Attribution

This paper focuses on the approbation of an integrative method of attribution text analysis in Russian, based on a combination of the results of an interpretive study of the material and objectification of these results through mathematical statistics.В статье рассматривается апробация интегративной методики атрибуционного анализа текста на русском языке

Post-Vaccination and Post-Infection Immunity to the Hepatitis B Virus and Circulation of Immune-Escape Variants in the Russian Federation 20 Years after the Start of Mass Vaccination

A neonatal vaccination against the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was initiated in Russia 20 years ago, with catch-up immunization for adolescents and adults under the age of 60 years launched in 2006. Here, we have assessed the humoral immunity to HBV in different regions of Russia, as well as the infection frequency following 20 years of a nationwide vaccination campaign. We have also evaluated the role of immune-escape variants in continuing HBV circulation. A total of 36,149 healthy volunteers from nine regions spanning the Russian Federation from west to east were tested for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), antibodies to HBV capsid protein (anti-HBc), and antibodies to HBsAg (anti-HBs). HBV sequences from 481 chronic Hepatitis B patients collected from 2018–2022 were analyzed for HBsAg immune-escape variants, compared with 205 sequences obtained prior to 2010. Overall, the HBsAg detection rate was 0.8%, with this level significantly exceeded only in one study region, the Republic of Dagestan (2.4%, p p > 0.05). The population dynamics of immune-escape variants predicted by Bayesian analysis have remained stable over the last 20 years, indicating the absence of vaccine-driven positive selection. In contrast, the wild-type HBV population size experienced a rapid decrease starting in the mid-1990s, following the introduction of mass immunization, but it subsequently began to recover, reaching pre-vaccination levels by 2020. Taken together, these data indicate that it is gaps in vaccination, and not virus evolution, that may be responsible for the continued virus circulation despite 20 years of mass vaccination

Geographic and Temporal Variability of Hepatitis E Virus Circulation in the Russian Federation

The factors influencing hepatitis E virus (HEV) circulation remain largely unexplored. We investigated HEV seroprevalence in humans and the prevalence of infection in farm pigs and rabbits in different regions of the Russian Federation, as well as the genetic diversity and population dynamics of the HEV. The anti-HEV IgG antibody detection rates in the general population increase significantly with age, from 1.5% in children and adolescents under 20 years old to 4.8% in adults aged between 20 and 59 years old to 16.7% in people aged 60 years and older. HEV seroprevalence varies between regions, with the highest rate observed in Belgorod Region (16.4% compared with the national average of 4.6%), which also has the country’s highest pig population. When compared with the archival data, both increases and declines in HEV seroprevalence have been observed within the last 10 years, depending on the study region. Virus shedding has been detected in 19 out of the 21 pig farms surveyed. On one farm, the circulation of the same viral strain for five years was documented. All the human and animal strains belonged to the HEV-3 genotype, with its clade 2 sequences being predominant in pigs. The sequences are from patients, pigs, and sewage from pig farms clustered together, suggesting a zoonotic infection in humans and possible environmental contamination. The HEV-3 population size that was predicted using SkyGrid reconstruction demonstrated exponential growth in the 1970s–1990s, with a subsequent decline followed by a short rise around the year 2010, the pattern being similar to the dynamics of the pig population in the country. The HEV-3 reproduction number (Re) that was predicted using birth–death skyline analysis has fluctuated around 1 over the past 20 years in Russia but is 10 times higher in Belgorod Region. In conclusion, the HEV-3 circulation varies both geographically and temporally, even within a single country. The possible factors contributing to this variability are largely related to the circulation of the virus among farm pigs

Dynamic Changes in Hepatitis A Immunity in Regions with Different Vaccination Strategies and Different Vaccination Coverage

The data on hepatitis A virus (HAV) seroprevalence are critical for the implementation of a universal mass vaccination (UMV) strategy. The latter has not been implemented in Russia; however, regional child vaccination programs have been adopted in some parts of the country. The aim of this study is to assess changes in HAV immunity within the last decade in regions of Russia with different vaccination strategies and different vaccination coverage rates. In regions where UMV has not been implemented and HAV vaccination coverage rates do not exceed the national average, the 50% seroprevalence threshold has shifted in the Moscow region from people aged under 40 years in 2008 to people aged over 59 years in 2020, and from people aged under 30 years to people aged over 40 years in the Khabarovsk region. In two regions (Yakutia and Sverdlovsk), a two-dose-based UMV scheme has been in place since 2011 and 2003, respectively, and in Tuva single-dose child immunization was launched in 2012. These regional programs have resulted in a significant increase in HAV seroprevalence in children and adolescents. In Yakutia, 50% herd immunity had been achieved by 2020 in age groups under 20 years, compared to 20&ndash;30% seroprevalence rates in 2008. In the Sverdlovsk region, HAV immunity has increased to &gt;65% over the decade in children aged over 10 years, adolescents and young adults, whereas it declined in older age groups. However, a three-fold drop in HAV immunity has occurred in children under 10 years of age, reflecting a significant decline in vaccination coverage. In Tuva, HAV immunity rates in children under 10 years old increased two-fold to exceed 50% by 2020. These data suggest that UMV should be implemented on a national level. Measures to control vaccination coverage and catch-up vaccination campaigns are recommended in order to maintain the effectiveness of existing HAV vaccination programs