FUNCTIONAL POLYMORPHISM OF THE PRO-INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINE GENES IN PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS

In the present time, incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) becomes broader, due to spreading resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) to anti-tuberculosis drugs and infection with highly virulent strains of M. tuberculosis. The MBT antigens can cause dysfunction of the receptors and modulate the cytokine secreting function of immunocompetent cells. Polymorphic genes of pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in the mechanisms of defense responses of innate immunity, determine the degree of resistance to individual mycobacterial infection, as well as severity and duration of the disease in cases of clinical manifestations. The aim of the study was to investigate the connections between allelic polymorphisms of IL2, IFNG and TNFA genes and changes in secretion of the corresponding pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-2, IFNγ, and TNFα in vitro in patients with the newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), depending on the clinical form of the disease.A total of 334 patients (220 men and 114 women) aged 23 to 50 years with newly diagnosed infiltrative and disseminated TB were enrolled into the study. The control group consisted of 183 healthy donors (130 men and 53 women) of corresponding age. The material of the research included DNA extracted from the whole blood and supernatants of culture suspensions of mononuclear leukocytes isolated from venous blood in healthy volunteers and patients with TB. The evaluation of cytokines secretion was performed by measuring their concentration in the blood mononuclear cell culture supernatants. using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). To study polymorphic regions of cytokine genes, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was applied. Analysis of the obtained data was carried out by means of the program Statistica for Windows Version 6.0 (StatSoft Inc., USA).It was found that the imbalance of secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in TB patients was associated with the polymorphic variants of genes of these cytokines. It was found that the hypo-secretion of IL-2 is determined by the carriage of the G allele and genotype GG (T-330G) of the IL2 gene in both the control group and in patients with TB, regardless of the clinical form. In patients with DTB carriers of the homozygous genotype TT (T-330G) of the IL2gene, increased protein secretion was established. The maximum secretion of TNFб was recorded in patients with the AA genotype (G-308A) of the TNFA gene in the control group and in ITB patients; the minimum concentration of TNFα was associated with the carrier of the homozygous GG genotype (G-308A) of the TNFA gene in all the examined groups. In patients with ITB and DTB, an increase in IFNγ secretion by mononuclear blood leukocytes is not associated with the carrier of polymorphism +874A/T of the IFNG gene.Reduced secretion of IL-2 and TNFα in TB patients is associated with polymorphisms of their genes – (T-330G) of IL2 gene and (G-308A) of TNFA gene, respectively. The polymorphism (+874A/T) of the IFNG gene does not have a modulatory effect on the secretion of IFNγ in patients with TB, regardless of clinical form of the disease

Bio-nanotechnology application in wastewater treatment

The nanoparticles have received high interest in the field of medicine and water purification, however, the nanomaterials produced by chemical and physical methods are considered hazardous, expensive, and leave behind harmful substances to the environment. This chapter aimed to focus on green-synthesized nanoparticles and their medical applications. Moreover, the chapter highlighted the applicability of the metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) in the inactivation of microbial cells due to their high surface and small particle size. Modifying nanomaterials produced by green-methods is safe, inexpensive, and easy. Therefore, the control and modification of nanoparticles and their properties were also discussed

Evolution of Sex-Specific Traits through Changes in HOX-Dependent doublesex Expression

Analysis in Drosophila suggests that evolutionary changes in the spatial regulation of the transcription factor doublesex play a key role in the origin, diversification, and loss of sex-specific structures

Monte Carlo Simulations of Metal-Poor Star Clusters

Metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) can provide a probe of the earliest epoch of star formation in the Universe, being the oldest stellar systems observable. In addition, young and intermediate-age low-metallicity GCs are present in external galaxies. Nevertheless, inferring their evolutionary status by using integrated properties may suffer from large \emph{intrinsic} uncertainty caused by the discrete nature of stars in stellar systems, especially in the case of faint objects. In this paper, we evaluate the \emph{intrinsic} uncertainty (due to statistical effects) affecting the integrated colours and mass--to--light ratios as a function of the cluster integrated visual magnitude ($M_V^{tot}$), which represents a quantity directly measured. Our approach is based on Monte Carlo techniques for randomly generating stars distributed according to the cluster's mass function. Integrated colours and mass--to--light ratios in different photometric bands are checked to be in good agreement with the observational values of low-metallicity Galactic clusters. We present integrated colours and mass--to--light ratios as a function of age for different assumptions on the cluster total $V$ magnitude. We find that the emph{intrinsic} uncertainty cannot be neglected. In particular, in models with $M_V^{tot}=-4$ the broad-band colours show an \emph{intrinsic} uncertainty so high as to prevent precise age evaluation of the cluster. Finally, the present predictions are compared with recent results available in the literature, showing in some cases non-negligible differences.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, A&A accepte

Создание коллекции МСКТ-изображений и клинических данных при острых нарушениях мозгового кровообращения

Background The use of neuroimaging methods is an integral part of the process of assisting patients with acute cerebrovascular events (ACVE), and computed tomography (CT) is the «gold standard» for examining this category of patients. The capabilities of the analysis of CT images may be significantly expanded with modern methods of machine learning including the application of the principles of radiomics. However, since the use of these methods requires large arrays of DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine)-images, their implementation into clinical practice is limited by the lack of representative sample sets. Inaddition, at present, collections (datasets) of CT images of stroke patients, that are suitable for machine learning, are practically not available in the public domain.Aim of study Regarding the aforesaid, the aim of this work was to create a DICOM images dataset of native CT and CT-angiography of patients with different types of stroke. Material and meth ods The collection was based on the medical cases of patients hospitalized in the Regional Vascular Center of the N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine. We used a previously developed specialized platform to enter clinical data on the stroke cases, to attach CT DICOMimages to each case, to contour 3D areas of interest, and to tag (label) them. A dictionary was developed for tagging, where elements describe the type of lesion, location, and vascular territory.Results A dataset of clinical cases and images was formed in the course of the work. It included anonymous information about 220 patients, 130 of them with ischemic stroke, 40 with hemorrhagic stroke, and 50 patients without cerebrovascular disorders. Clinical data included information about type of stroke, presence of concomitant diseases and complications, length of hospital stay, methods of treatment, and outcome. The results of 370 studies of native CT and 102 studies of CT-angiography were entered for all patients. The areas of interest corresponding to direct and indirect signs of stroke were contoured and tagged by radiologists on each series of images.Conclusion The resulting collection of images will enable the use of various methods of data analysis and machine learning in solving the most important practical problems including diagnosis of the stroke type, assessment of lesion volume, and prediction of the degree of neurological deficit.Актуальность Применение методов нейровизуализации является неотъемлемой частью процесса оказания помощи больным с острыми нарушениями мозгового кровообращения (ОНМК), при этом золотым стандартом обследования данной категории больных является компьютерная томография (КТ). Значительно расширить возможности анализа КТ-изображений возможно с помощью современных методов машинного обучения, в том числе на основе применения принципов радиомики. Однако, так как использование этих методов требует наличия больших массивов DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine)-изображений, их внедрение в клиническую практику ограничено проблемой набора репрезентативных выборок. Кроме того, в настоящее время в открытом доступе практически не представлены коллекции, содержащие КТ-изображения больных c ОНМК, которые были бы пригодны для машинного обучения.Цель В связи с вышесказанным, целью данной работы являлось создание коллекции DICOM-изображений нативной КТ и КТ-ангиографии у пациентов с различными типами ОНМК.Материал и методы Основой для создания коллекции стали истории болезни пациентов, госпитализированных в региональный сосудистый центр НИИ СП им. Н.В. Склифосовского. Для формирования коллекции использовалась разработанная нами ранее специализированная платформа, позволяющая вводить клинические данные о случаях ОНМК, прикреплять к каждому случаю DICOM-изображения проведенных исследований, а также оконтуривать и тегировать (размечать) 3D-области интереса. Для тегирования был разработан словарь, элементы которого описывают тип патологического образования, локализацию и бассейн кровоснабжения.Результаты В ходе работы была сформирована коллекция клинических случаев и изображений, включающая анонимизированную информацию о 220 пациентах, из них 130 - с ишемическим инсультом, 40 - с геморрагическим инсультом, а также 50 человек без цереброваскулярной патологии. Клинические данные включали сведения о типе ОНМК, наличии сопутствующих заболеваний и осложнений, длительности госпитализации, способе лечения и исходе. Всего для пациентов были введены результаты 370 исследований нативной КТ и 102 исследования КТ-ангиографии. На каждой серии изображений врачом-экспертом были оконтурены и протегированы области интереса, соответствующие прямым и косвенным признакам ОНМК.Вывод Сформированная коллекция изображений позволит в последующем применить различные методы анализа данных и машинного обучения в решении важнейших практических задач, в том числе диагностики типа ОНМК, оценки объема поражения, прогноза степени неврологического дефицита