Seroimmunotyping of African swine fever virus

The extreme genetic and immunobiological heterogeneity exhibited by the African swine fever virus (ASFV) has been a significant impediment in the development of an efficacious vaccine against this disease. Consequently, the lack of internationally accepted protocols for the laboratory evaluation of candidate vaccines has become a major concern within the scientific community. The formulation of such protocols necessitates the establishment of a consensus at the international level on methods for the determination of homologous and heterologous isolates/strains of ASFV. The present article provides a comprehensive description of biological techniques employed in the classification of ASFV by seroimmunotypes. These techniques involve a holistic evaluation of ASFV isolates/strains based on their antigenic properties as determined by the hemadsorption inhibiting test (HAdI) using type-specific sera and an immunological test (IT) conducted on pigs inoculated with attenuated strains. The article outlines the methods for setting up the HAdI test, an IT on pigs, and the processes involved in the acquisition of type-specific serums for the HAdI test. It is pertinent to note that the definitive classification of seroimmunotype can only be ascertained after conducting an IT on pigs. The findings from the HAdI test or the phylogenetic analysis of the EP402R gene should be considered preliminary in nature

Current State of Knee Arthroplasty in Russia: Analysis of 36,350 Сases from the Register of the Vreden National Medical Research Center of Traumatology and Orthopedics

Background.Nowadays the knee arthroplasty register of the Vreden National Medical Research Center of Traumatology and Orthopedics (hereinafter referred to as the Vreden Center) contains clinical and statistical data on more than 39,000 primary and revision knee replacements, that mimics current state of this kind of surgery in Russia. Aimofthestudy to analyze the last decade trends in primary knee arthroplasty in largest Russian arthroplasty center. Methods.Data were obtained from the register of the Vreden Center for the period from 2011 to 2022. Information on knee arthroplasty included epidemiologic and numerous peri-operative data including type of surgery and implant, degree of constrain, primary patella resurfacing etc. Resultsanddiscussion.From 2011 to 2022, 36,350 (92.3%) primary arthroplasties performed at the Vreden Center. The number of interventions increased more than twice: from 1,678 in 2011 to 3,924 in 2022. Similar trends observed in Australia and Sweden, where the number of knee arthroplasties increased by 8.2% and 8% in 2021 compared to 2020, respectively. The frequency of primary patellar resurfacing at the Vreden Center was 2.2% over the entire period of observation. On the contrary, the rate of patella replacement increased from 41% in 2005 to 76.1% in 2021 in Australia and from 24.4% in 2015 to 31.9% in 2020 in Switzerland. The partial knee arthroplasty showed enormous growth more than 14 times: from 0.3% in 2011 to 4.3% in 2022 at the Vreden Center. Worldwide unicompartmental knee replacement is still less popular than total and its number widely varies: 4.2% in the USA, 6.9% in Australia, 9.2% in Canada, 11.9% in Norway, 12.8% in Sweden, and 18.4% in Switzerland. Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) retaining total knee arthroplasties (TKA) prevailed at the Vreden Center: 68.3%, while in other countries it utilize even more widely: 70.5% in Norway, 75% in New Zealand and 93.5% in Sweden. The total length of hospital stay (LOS) decreased dramatically from 19.6 in 2011 to 8.6 in 2022 at the Vreden Center. Nevertheless, there are still opportunities to improve it: by the way in Canada the average LOS for TKA is 2.3 and the USA 0.8 and 1.7 for partial and total arthroplasty, respectively. Conclusion.The main current trends of knee arthroplasty in Russia are the following: increase the number of surgeries, reduced LOS, TKA without patella resurfacing and with PCL retention, finally the growth of partial knee arthroplasties

Follow-Up After Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: a Review of the Literature and a Report on a Pilot Project at the Vreden National Medical Research Center of Traumatology and Orthopedics

Background. Today in our country, the follow-up of patients after arthroplasty is carried out in accordance with clinical guidelines, the wording of which is based on monographs from 2006, 2008, and 2014, in addition, clinical guidelines for follow-up do not take into account the results of treatment assessed by the patient himself. The purpose of this study was to examine existing systems and develop a proprietary follow-up system for patients after hip and knee arthroplasty. Results. A review of the literature revealed that follow-up of patients after arthroplasty is an unsolved problem, within which there is low coverage, reluctance or forgetfulness of the asymptomatic patient, the problem of accessibility of medical examinations, and an excessive financial burden on the health care system. Since 2022, fixed recommendations for follow-up after arthroplasty have been used in the clinical practice of our center in discharge epicrisis. Recommendations for the frequency of follow-up were formulated by experts based on a comprehensive review of the literature and their own experience. In the first three months, 221 hip and 235 knee evaluation questionnaires were collected through the proposed mechanism, with a progressive increase in the number of questionnaires based on weekly monitoring data. Conclusion. Unfortunately, the outpatient clinic system is not always able to provide qualitative monitoring of patients after arthroplasty due to various reasons, therefore, in our opinion, the implementation of the mechanism of remote monitoring of patients will allow detecting various complications at the stage of early diagnosis, which will contribute to prompt solution of these problems. The remote monitoring system is also an important source of scientific data

Waste management peculiarities in far north from the perspective of environmental hazard and emergency prevention

The paper considers the peculiarities of waste management in the system of housing and communal services of the northern regions of Russia in the conditions of permafrost and harsh climatic conditions. The authors have studied the topical issues from the point of view of preventing environmental hazards and emergencies of manmade character. Thus, the aim of the present study was to develop scientifically substantiated proposals for the prevention of environmental hazards and emergencies in the regions of the Arctic zone, as well as adjacent territories of the subjects of the Russian Federation, caused by man-made impact of waste. The conducted research with conclusions and recommendations according to its results are carried out on the basis of the developed forecast and within the framework of the chosen scenarios of development of the situation with waste management on ecologically vulnerable territories. In order to achieve the goal of the research, the following scientific and applied tasks have been solved: a systematic analysis of the hazardous waste management situation in the Far North; identification of dangerous environmental factors and threats, which may contribute to emergencies with irreversible consequences for the environment, population and economic development of the Arctic; scientific justification of proposals for the prevention of technospheric impact of waste through the transition of regions to resource-saving The results of the study can be used in the development and updating of concepts, federal target, regional programs in the field of environmental security, prevention of man-made emergencies in the process of life support regions of the Far North, the northern part of Siberia, the Urals, the Far East

Search for additional tests for immunobiological evaluation of the candidate vaccines against African swine fever.

The spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Eurasia has forced a return to the development of live vaccines based on naturally or experimentally attenuated strains of the virus including those resulting from genetic manipulations. This process includes evaluation of the immunomodulating properties of the vaccines. In this report we provide our assessment of two tests for immunobiological evaluation of a candidate live vaccine against ASF from the attenuated ASF virus (ASFV) strain KK-202: (i) investigation of the effect of the attenuated ASFV strain KK-202 on the protectiveness of the vaccine ASFV strain FK-32/135 and a vaccine against classical swine fever (CSF) from the strain LK-VNIIVViM; (ii) determination of the phagocytic activity of blood neutrophils in pigs inoculated with ASFV strains differing in virulence. A simultaneous or sequential inoculation of attenuated strain KK-202 (seroimmunotype II) and vaccine strain FK-32/135 (seroimmunotype IV) into pigs resulted in the loss of protection against the virulent strain France-32 (seroimmunotype IV). Following the simultaneous or sequential inoculations of the ASFV strain KK-202 and the CSF virus (CSFV) vaccine produced from the strain LK-VNIIVViM, the neutralizing antibody titers against the CSFV observed in the experimental groups (after vaccination and after the challenge infection with the virulent CSFV strain Shimen) were not different from those found in animals of the control group. The phagocytic activity of blood neutrophils was shown to increase from 30% in the norm to 50%-94% depending on the virulence of the ASFV strains inoculated into pigs. The results of this work demonstrate the ability of the attenuated ASFV strains to modulate the development of the cellular link of protective immunity without negative impact on the humoral immune response. The informative value of the described immunobiological tests in vivo and in vitro seems to be a more preferable alternative in comparison to the commonly used in vitro tests, which do not always correlate with the development of protection against ASF

Structural differences between Sb- and Nb-doped tin oxides and consequences for electrical conductivity

Sb- and Nb-doped tin oxides have been prepared by a co-precipitation method. Whilst X-ray powder diffraction and EDX mapping indicate similar dopant distributions, more detailed characterisation by variable high-temperature XRD, 119Sn MAS NMR and Nb K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy reveal clear differences in the oxide structures. This detailed structural information is used to validate the measured differences in electrical conductivity.ISSN:1144-0546ISSN:0398-9836ISSN:1369-926

Comparative Analysis of African Swine Fever Virus Genotypes and Serogroups

African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes highly lethal hemorrhagic disease among pigs, and ASFV’s extreme antigenic diversity hinders vaccine development. We show that p72 ASFV phylogenetic analysis does not accurately define ASFV hemadsorption inhibition assay serogroups. Thus, conventional ASFV genotyping cannot discriminate between viruses of different virulence or predict efficacy of a specific ASFV vaccine

The attenuated ASFV strains MK-200 and FK-32/135 as possible models for investigation of protective immunity by ASFV infection.

African swine fever (ASF) is an infectious disease of domestic and wild pigs of all breeds and ages, with the acute form of the disease being characterized by high fever, hemorrhages in the reticuloendothelial system and a high mortality rate. Registered safe and efficacious ASF vaccines are not available. The development of experimental ASF vaccines, particularly live attenuated, have considerably intensified in the last years. There is much variability in experimental approaches undertaken by laboratories attempting to develop first generation vaccines, rendering it difficult to interpret and make comparisons across trials. ASF virus (ASFV) genotyping does not fully correlate with available cross-protection data and may be of limited value in predicting cross-protective vaccine efficacy. Recently, ASFV strains were assigned to a respective nine groups by seroimmunotype (from I to IX): in vivo the grouping is based on results of cross protection of pigs survived after their infection with a virulent strain (bioassay), while in vitro this grouping is based on hemadsorption inhibition assay (HADIA) data. Here we demonstrate the antigenic and protective properties of two attenuated ASFV strains MK200 and FK-32/135. Pronounced differences in the HADIA and in immunological test in animals allow us to consider them and the corresponding reference virulent strains of the ASFV of Mozambique-78 (seroimmunotype III, genotype V) and France-32 (seroimmunotype IV, genotype I) as useful models for studying the mechanisms of protective immunity and evaluation of the candidate vaccines