Role of Interferon-Gamma (Ifn-γ) in Immune Response Regulation in HIV-1 and HIV-1 + Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (Tb) Infected Patients

Publisher Copyright: © 2016 by Inga Januškevica. Copyright: Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.The aim of this research was to investigate the role of IFN-γ in interaction between IL-10, IL-18, IL-1b, CD4 cell counts and HIV-1 RNA viral load in the development of HIV-1 in patients co-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). The study was conducted by Rīga East Clinical University Hospital with data from the HIV-1 register, in collaboration with the RSU Joint Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Immunogenetics. 200 HIV-1 infected patients and 184 HIV-1 with TB co-infection patients divided in four groups were included in the study. IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-18, IL-1b levels were measured in serum with commercially enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA Vector-Best Corporation, Novosibirsk, Russia). CD4 cell counts were measured by flow Partec IVD cytometry (USA). HIV-1 RNA quantification was performed using the COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS Taqman HIV-1 Test (Germany). All groups were compared with each another. IFN-γ production was significantly lower, and IL-10 and CD4 cell counts were significantly higher, in HIV-1 patients without TB compared with the other groups. The group with HIV-1 and TB had significantly elevated IL-18 production. HIV patients with primary TB had significantly elevated IFN-γ production and HIV-1 RNA viral load and significantly lower IL-10 production.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Social work in the digital age

The article is devoted to the problem of changing the content and formats of social work in the digital age. The authors analyze the topic in the context of changing content of the concept of “social well-being”. In modern times, this concept has subjective and objective aspects, so the quality of life is assessed not only by economic quantitative indicators, but also by the degree of satisfaction with life, which includes emotional fulfillment, the level of happiness, inclusion in network streams. The problems of providing social services to the population today are determined by digital technical parameters, as well as the level of competence of social workers in the transition to a digital format of work. However, the state of modern society is characterized by a digital divide, in which older people are not always able to use all the opportunities that digitalization provides. And this, in turn, leads to an intergenerational (functional and ideological) gap not only in the situation of using digital services, but also in the formation of common ideas about the life of different generations

Semantic and Stylistic Features of Kant’s Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime: The Art of Seeing and Describing an Object

Immanuel Kant’s Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime is examined in the context of the emergence of the epistemological practice of scientific observation. By focusing on the genre-stylistic and semantic-structural features of the text the authors demonstrate the mechanisms of observation as well as the methods of describing the results characteristic of mid-eighteenth century science. The authors consider Kant’s treatise to be a hybrid text: on the one hand, it attests to the importance of the natural science paradigm and the degree of its influence on the humanities in the modern period; and, on the other hand, it bears witness to the multi-genre character of philosophical treatises, combining as they do the considered and serious wisdom of philosophy, the precision of scientific terminology and the figurativeness of a work of fiction. Kant is perceived not only as a researcher and philosopher capable of bringing out the essence of the particular and changeable captured in observation, but as a writer with a consummate command of the apparatus for keeping the reader’s attention through linguistic devices and practices of image-creating. The authors demonstrate how the categories of the “beautiful” and “sublime” become a general framework for the description of the moral and mental properties of human nature. The authors show that Kant’s use of “aesthetic” wording in the title of his treatise does not announce that his aim is analysis of artistic perception and practices, but mainly refers to the form of his anthropological study and conceptualisation of scientific knowledge. Kant has transferred the technique of visualisation from natural sciences to the objects of philosophical inquiry, thus contributing to the development in the humanities of representative practices, the scientific method of observation as well as the corresponding epistemic and literary genre

Social work in the digital age

The article is devoted to the problem of changing the content and formats of social work in the digital age. The authors analyze the topic in the context of changing content of the concept of “social well-being”. In modern times, this concept has subjective and objective aspects, so the quality of life is assessed not only by economic quantitative indicators, but also by the degree of satisfaction with life, which includes emotional fulfillment, the level of happiness, inclusion in network streams. The problems of providing social services to the population today are determined by digital technical parameters, as well as the level of competence of social workers in the transition to a digital format of work. However, the state of modern society is characterized by a digital divide, in which older people are not always able to use all the opportunities that digitalization provides. And this, in turn, leads to an intergenerational (functional and ideological) gap not only in the situation of using digital services, but also in the formation of common ideas about the life of different generations

Social work in the digital age

The article is devoted to the problem of changing the content and formats of social work in the digital age. The authors analyze the topic in the context of changing content of the concept of “social well-being”. In modern times, this concept has subjective and objective aspects, so the quality of life is assessed not only by economic quantitative indicators, but also by the degree of satisfaction with life, which includes emotional fulfillment, the level of happiness, inclusion in network streams. The problems of providing social services to the population today are determined by digital technical parameters, as well as the level of competence of social workers in the transition to a digital format of work. However, the state of modern society is characterized by a digital divide, in which older people are not always able to use all the opportunities that digitalization provides. And this, in turn, leads to an intergenerational (functional and ideological) gap not only in the situation of using digital services, but also in the formation of common ideas about the life of different generations

Lipoic Acid Exacerbates Oxidative Stress and Lipid Accumulation in the Liver of Wistar Rats Fed a Hypercaloric Choline-Deficient Diet

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently estimated as the most prevalent chronic liver disease in all age groups. An increasing body of evidence obtained in experimental and clinical data indicates that oxidative stress is the most important pathogenic factor in the development of NAFLD. The study aimed to investigate the impact of α-lipoic acid (LA), widely used as an antioxidant, on the effects of a hypercaloric choline-deficient diet. Male Wistar rats were divided into three groups: control diet (C); hypercaloric choline-deficient diet (HCCD), and hypercaloric choline-deficient diet with α-lipoic acid (HCCD+LA). Supplementation of HCCD with LA for eight weeks led to a decrease in visceral adipose tissue/body weight ratio, the activity of liver glutathione peroxidase and paraoxonase-1, plasma, and liver total antioxidant activity, as well as an increase in liver/body weight ratio, liver total lipid and triglyceride content, and liver transaminase activities compared to the HCCD group without LA. In conclusion, our study shows that α-lipoic acid detains obesity development but exacerbates the severity of diet-induced oxidative stress and lipid accumulation in the liver of male Wistar rats fed a hypercaloric choline-deficient diet