29 research outputs found
Архитектурно-художественный регламент улицы Карла Маркса
The architecture and art regulations for Karl Marx Street and adjoining territories have been worked out for the Committee for town planning of the Irkutsk city administration. Basic provisions: facades of buildings and structures, outdoor advertising and information facilities, artistic illumination of buildings, elements of land improvements. The main principle is to preserve historical appearance and to create a contemporary and comfortable environment.В Иркутске разработан архитектурно-художественный регламент улицы Карла Маркса и прилегающих к ней территорий. Заказчик – комитет по градостроительной политике администрации города Иркутска. Основные положения регламента – фасады зданий и сооружений, объекты наружной рекламы и информации, художественная подсветка зданий, элементы внешнего благоустройства территории. Основной принцип – сохранение исторического облика и создание современной комфортной среды
COVID-19 at War: The Joint Forces Operation in Ukraine
The ongoing pandemic disaster of coronavirus erupted with the first confirmed cases in Wuhan,
China, in December 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV2) novel coronavirus, the disease referred to as coronavirus disease 2019, or
COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the outbreak and determined
it a global pandemic. The current pandemic has infected nearly 300 million people and killed
over 3 million. The current COVID-19 pandemic is smashing every public health barrier,
guardrail, and safety measure in underdeveloped and the most developed countries alike, with
peaks and troughs across time. Greatly impacted are those regions experiencing conflict and
war. Morbidity and mortality increase logarithmically for those communities at risk and that
lack the ability to promote basic preventative measures. States around the globe struggle to unify
responses, make gains on preparedness levels, identify and symptomatically treat positive cases,
and labs across the globe frantically rollout various vaccines and effective surveillance and therapeutic mechanisms. The incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 may continue to increase globally
as no unified disaster response is manifested and disinformation spreads. During this failure in
response, virus variants are erupting at a dizzying pace. Ungoverned spaces where nonstate actors
predominate and active war zones may become the next epicenter for COVID-19 fatality rates.
As the incidence rates continue to rise, hospitals in North America and Europe exceed surge capacity, and immunity post infection struggles to be adequately described. The global threat in previously high-quality, robust infrastructure health-care systems in the most developed economies are
failing the challenge posed by COVID-19; how will less-developed economies and those healthcare infrastructures that are destroyed by war and conflict fare until adequate vaccine penetrance in
these communities or adequate treatment are established? Ukraine and other states in the Black Sea
Region are under threat and are exposed to armed Russian aggression against territorial sovereignty daily. Ukraine, where Russia has been waging war since 2014, faces this specific dual threat:
disaster response to violence and a deadly infectious disease. To best serve biosurveillance, aid in
pandemic disaster response, and bolster health security in Europe, across the North Atlantic Treaty
Alliance (NATO) and Black Sea regions, increased NATO integration, across Ukraine’s disaster
response structures within the Ministries of Health, Defense, and Interior must be reinforced and
expanded to mitigate the COVID-19 disaster
Antigenic Site Variation in the Hemagglutinin of Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 Viruses between 2009–2017 in Ukraine
The hemagglutinin (HA) is a major influenza virus antigen, which, once recognized by antibodies and substitutions in HA genes, helps virus in escaping the human immune response. It is therefore critical to perform genetic and phylogenetic analysis of HA in circulating influenza viruses. We performed phylogenetic and genetic analysis of isolates from Ukraine, the vaccine strain and reference strains were used to phylogenetically identify trends in mutation locations and substitutions. Ukrainian isolates were collected between 2009–2017 and clustered in the influenza genetic groups 2, 6, 7, and 8. Genetic changes were observed in each of the antigenic sites: Sa – S162T, K163Q, K163I; Sb – S185T, A186T, S190G, S190R; Ca1 – S203T, R205K, E235V, E235D, S236P; Ca2 – P137H, H138R, A141T, D222G, D222N; Cb – A73S, S74R, S74N. In spite of detected mutations in antigenic sites, Ukrainian isolates retained similarity to the vaccine strain A/California/07/09 circulated during 2009–2017. However, WHO recommended a new vaccine strain A/Michigan/45/2015 for the Southern Hemisphere after the emergence of the new genetic groups 6B.1 and 6B.2. Our study demonstrated genetic variability of HA protein of A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses isolated in 2009–2017 in Ukraine. Influenza surveillance is very important for understanding epidemiological situations
Genotypic Variants of Pandemic H1N1 Influenza A Viruses Isolated from Severe Acute Respiratory Infections in Ukraine during the 2015/16 Influenza Season
Human type A influenza viruses A(H1N1)pdm09 have caused seasonal epidemics of influenza since the 2009–2010 pandemic. A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses had a leading role in the severe epidemic season of 2015/16 in the Northern Hemisphere and caused a high incidence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) in Ukraine. Serious complications of influenza-associated severe ARI (SARI) were observed in the very young and individuals at increased risk, and 391 fatal cases occurred in the 2015/16 epidemic season. We analyzed the genetic changes in the genomes of A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza viruses isolated from SARI cases in Ukraine during the 2015/16 season. The viral hemagglutinin (HA) fell in H1 group 6B.1 for all but four isolates, with known mutations affecting glycosylation, the Sa antigenic site (S162N in all 6B.1 isolates), or virulence (D222G/N in two isolates). Other mutations occurred in antigenic site Ca (A141P and S236P), and a subgroup of four strains were in group 6B.2, with potential alterations to antigenicity in A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses circulating in 2015/16 in Ukraine. A cluster of Ukrainian isolates exhibited novel D2E and N48S mutations in the RNA binding domain, and E125D in the effector domain, of immune evasion nonstructural protein 1 (NS1). The diverse spectrum of amino-acid substitutions in HA, NS1, and other viral proteins including nucleoprotein (NP) and the polymerase complex suggested the concurrent circulation of multiple lineages of A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza viruses in the human population in Ukraine, a country with low vaccination coverage, complicating public health measures against influenza
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RNA Polymerase Inhibitor Enisamium for Treatment of Moderate COVID-19 Patients: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Multicenter, Double-Blind Phase 3 Clinical Trial.
Peer reviewed: TrueAcknowledgements: The authors thank Stefano Elli, Federico Sala, Cesare Cosentino, and Marco Guerrini for the docking and molecular dynamic simulations and for contributions to structural analysis and in silico analyses reported elsewhere, which were invaluable for the design of this study. In addition, the authors would like to thank Alexander Walker, Haitian Fan, Jeremy Keown, Denisa Bojkova, Marco Bechtel, Xinjian Peng, Jindrich Cinatl, Jonathan Grimes, and Ervin Fodor for contributions to in vitro experiments reported elsewhere, which were invaluable for making this study possible. The authors would also like to thank Bill Johnson, Miguel Muzzio, and David Boltz for valuable results and discussions regarding toxicology studies performed at their facility, as well as Juergen Richt for helpful discussions regarding the antiviral efficacy of the test compound.Publication status: PublishedEnisamium is an orally available therapeutic that inhibits influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2 replication. We evaluated the clinical efficacy of enisamium treatment combined with standard care in adult, hospitalized patients with moderate COVID-19 requiring external oxygen. Hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were randomly assigned to receive either enisamium (500 mg per dose, four times a day) or a placebo. The primary outcome was an improvement of at least two points on an eight-point severity rating (SR) scale within 29 days of randomization. We initially set out to study the effect of enisamium on patients with a baseline SR of 4 or 5. However, because the study was started early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and COVID-19 had been insufficiently studied at the start of our study, an interim analysis was performed alongside a conditional power analysis in order to ensure patient safety and assess whether the treatment was likely to be beneficial for one or both groups. Following this analysis, a beneficial effect was observed for patients with an SR of 4 only, i.e., patients with moderate COVID-19 requiring supplementary oxygen. The study was continued for these COVID-19 patients. Overall, a total of 592 patients were enrolled and randomized between May 2020 and March 2021. Patients with a baseline SR of 4 were divided into two groups: 142 (49.8%) were assigned to the enisamium group and 143 (50.2%) to the placebo group. An analysis of the population showed that if patients were treated within 4 days of the onset of COVID-19 symptoms (n = 33), the median time to improvement was 8 days for the enisamium group and 13 days for the placebo group (p = 0.005). For patients treated within 10 days of the onset of COVID-19 symptoms (n = 154), the median time to improvement was 10 days for the enisamium group and 12 days for the placebo group (p = 0.002). Our findings suggest that enisamium is safe to use with COVID-19 patients, and that the observed clinical benefit of enisamium is worth reporting and studying in detail
Cerium dioxide nanoparticles increase immunogenicity of the influenza vaccine
We have demonstrated the influence of cerium dioxide nanoparticles on the immunogenicity of the influenza vaccine on an example of liquid split inactivated Vaxigrip vaccine. Antibody titers were analyzed using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. Seroprotection, seroconversion, the geometric mean titers (GMTs) and the factor increase (FI) in the GMTs were calculated. The effect of nano-ceria surface stabilizer on the enhancement of immunogenicity was shown. The vaccine modified by citrate-stabilized nano-ceria, in contrast to a non-modified Vaxigrip vaccine, did not provide an adequate level of seroprotection, and seroconversion after vaccination was 66.7% on days 49–63 for virus strain А(H1N1) and 100% on day 49 for virus strain B/Yamagata. For the low immunogenic influenza B virus, the rise in antibody titers (GMT/IF) was 24.38/3.28 after the first injection and 50.40/6.79 on day 49. For the vaccine modified by non-stabilized nano-ceria, for all virus strains under study, on day 63, upon immunization notable levels of seroprotection, seroconversion and GMT/IF were registered (higher than for the non-modified Vaxigrip vaccine). The successful attempt to modify the influenza vaccine demonstrates the possible ways of increasing the specific activity of vaccines using nano-ceria
Cerium dioxide nanoparticles increase immunogenicity of the influenza vaccine
We have demonstrated the influence of cerium dioxide nanoparticles on the immunogenicity of the influenza vaccine on an example of liquid split inactivated Vaxigrip vaccine. Antibody titers were analyzed using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. Seroprotection, seroconversion, the geometric mean titers (GMTs) and the factor increase (FI) in the GMTs were calculated. The effect of nano-ceria surface stabilizer on the enhancement of immunogenicity was shown. The vaccine modified by citrate-stabilized nano-ceria, in contrast to a non-modified Vaxigrip vaccine, did not provide an adequate level of seroprotection, and seroconversion after vaccination was 66.7% on days 49–63 for virus strain А(H1N1) and 100% on day 49 for virus strain B/Yamagata. For the low immunogenic influenza B virus, the rise in antibody titers (GMT/IF) was 24.38/3.28 after the first injection and 50.40/6.79 on day 49. For the vaccine modified by non-stabilized nano-ceria, for all virus strains under study, on day 63, upon immunization notable levels of seroprotection, seroconversion and GMT/IF were registered (higher than for the non-modified Vaxigrip vaccine). The successful attempt to modify the influenza vaccine demonstrates the possible ways of increasing the specific activity of vaccines using nano-ceria
Polymer–Inorganic Coatings Containing Nanosized Sorbents Selective to Radionuclides. 2. Latex/Tin Oxide Composites for Cobalt Fixation
Colloidal tin oxide with an average
particle size of 3.5 nm, which was ex-situ synthesized by the sol–gel
method, has been attached to the surface of amino-functionalized poly(acrylate-<i>co</i>-silane) latex particles with a diameter of 100 nm to
yield a composite with selective sorption properties toward Co<sup>2+</sup> ions. Electrokinetic properties and the colloidal stability
of the synthesized latex/SnO<sub>2</sub> composites have been evaluated
in dependence on SnO<sub>2</sub> content and pH; the sorption capacity
and distribution coefficients of composites for Co<sup>2+</sup> ions
were in accordance with the SnO<sub>2</sub> content and its sorption
performance as an individual compound. Composite coatings obtained
by casting latex/SnO<sub>2</sub> dispersions on quartz sand spiked
with <sup>57</sup>Co radionuclide have efficiently eliminated radionuclides
migration from the surface when the SnO<sub>2</sub> volume fraction
in the film was 3.5–4.7%. Furthermore, at these SnO<sub>2</sub> loadings, the composite coatings retained the coherent structure
of the original latex coating with SnO<sub>2</sub> particles homogeneously
distributed over the film thickness. The presence of competing Ca<sup>2+</sup> ions in the leaching media at a concentration of above 0.01
mol/L results in a decrease of the distribution coefficients of the
latex/SnO<sub>2</sub> composite and significantly higher <sup>57</sup>Co leaching. The value of the distribution coefficient of the sorption
material to be used in latex composite coatings to prevent migration
of radionuclides shall be close to 10<sup>6</sup> mL/g
Epidemiological and virological characteristics of influenza B: results of the Global Influenza B Study
INTRODUCTION Literature on influenza focuses on influenza A,
despite influenza B having a large public health impact. The
Global Influenza B Study aims to collect information on global
epidemiology and burden of disease of influenza B since 2000.
METHODS Twenty-six countries in the Southern (n = 5) and
Northern (n = 7) hemispheres and intertropical belt (n = 14)
provided virological and epidemiological data. We calculated the
proportion of influenza cases due to type B and Victoria and
Yamagata lineages in each country and season; tested the correlation
between proportion of influenza B and maximum weekly influenzalike
illness (ILI) rate during the same season; determined the
frequency of vaccine mismatches; and described the age distribution
of cases by virus type.
RESULTS The database included 935 673 influenza cases (2000–
2013). Overall median proportion of influenza B was 22 6%, with no statistically significant differences across seasons. During seasons
where influenza B was dominant or co-circulated (>20% of total
detections), Victoria and Yamagata lineages predominated during
64% and 36% of seasons, respectively, and a vaccine mismatch was
observed in 25% of seasons. Proportion of influenza B was inversely
correlated with maximum ILI rate in the same season in the Northern
and (with borderline significance) Southern hemispheres. Patients
infected with influenza B were usually younger (5–17 years) than
patients infected with influenza A.
CONCLUSION Influenza B is a common disease with some
epidemiological differences from influenza A. This should be
considered when optimizing control/prevention strategies in different
regions and reducing the global burden of disease due to influenza.http://www.influenzajournal.comam201