Comprehensive Screening for COVID-19 at St. Petersburg Oncology Centre

Background. Clinical reports on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) suggest its higher incidence and worse outcomes in cancer patients. Considering a rapid pace of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, more data on the risk of contagion and syndrome course is required with this patient group.Aim. Estimation of the infection rate in cancer patients managed at the Oncology Centre.Materials and methods. This retrospective study included cancer patients managed at the Oncology Centre between 9 April 2020 and 27 May 2020 and routinely tested for SARS-CoV-2 in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays and/or COVID-19 in chest computed tomography (CT).Results and discussion. A total of 2,628 patients were included in the study, with 119 (4.5 %) confirmed to have COVID-19; 45/119 were PCR-positive, 95/119 had viral pneumonia in CT, 21/119 were positive for both tests. A total of 47.9 % cases were asymptomatic, 11.8 % revealed a mild single-symptom disease. COVID-19 ended in death in 2 (2.5 %) of 80 cases with a known outcome. In PCR results of both patient and staff screening, the virus detection rate was 3.0 % and 2.4 %, respectively (p = 0.33).Conclusion. A COVID-19 screening revealed no significant difference in the risk of contagion between cancer patients and staff of the Oncology Centre. PCR tests may perform false negative for COVID-19 in cancer patients and should be coupled with CT scanning. The infection is asymptomatic or clinically mild in most other cases

Mathematics and biology: a Kantian view on the history of pattern formation theory

Driesch’s statement, made around 1900, that the physics and chemistry of his day were unable to explain self-regulation during embryogenesis was correct and could be extended until the year 1972. The emergence of theories of self-organisation required progress in several areas including chemistry, physics, computing and cybernetics. Two parallel lines of development can be distinguished which both culminated in the early 1970s. Firstly, physicochemical theories of self-organisation arose from theoretical (Lotka 1910–1920) and experimental work (Bray 1920; Belousov 1951) on chemical oscillations. However, this research area gained broader acceptance only after thermodynamics was extended to systems far from equilibrium (1922–1967) and the mechanism of the prime example for a chemical oscillator, the Belousov–Zhabotinski reaction, was deciphered in the early 1970s. Secondly, biological theories of self-organisation were rooted in the intellectual environment of artificial intelligence and cybernetics. Turing wrote his The chemical basis of morphogenesis (1952) after working on the construction of one of the first electronic computers. Likewise, Gierer and Meinhardt’s theory of local activation and lateral inhibition (1972) was influenced by ideas from cybernetics. The Gierer–Meinhardt theory provided an explanation for the first time of both spontaneous formation of spatial order and of self-regulation that proved to be extremely successful in elucidating a wide range of patterning processes. With the advent of developmental genetics in the 1980s, detailed molecular and functional data became available for complex developmental processes, allowing a new generation of data-driven theoretical approaches. Three examples of such approaches will be discussed. The successes and limitations of mathematical pattern formation theory throughout its history suggest a picture of the organism, which has structural similarity to views of the organic world held by the philosopher Immanuel Kant at the end of the eighteenth century

Culturation of Hedysarum Alpinum L. Cell Culture Under in Vitro Conditions

The purpose of the research is to develop a process for the continuous cultivation of Alpine Hedysarum cells in larger vessels (fermenters). The studies were carried out in the laboratory of biotechnology of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution VILAR in 2016–2022. As a result of the experiments, a cell line was obtained from the cotyledon of a seedling of the alpine hedysarum plant, labeled as the Hedysarum alpinum (C) 2016 strain. both physiologically and morphologically. The duration of growth of the suspension culture of Hedysarum alpinum (C) 2016 corresponded to 16-20 days of cultivation, the maximum growth of the culture was 3.4 g/l of the nutrient medium, which corresponds to 24% of the growth of the cell culture in flasks on a shaker. The cell culture grown in the fermenter does not develop uniformly, as evidenced by the two peaks of biomass growth on the graph of the absolute growth rate. The factor of physiological heterogeneity of the suspension culture of Hedysarum alpinum (C) 2016 was noted, which can affect the final results on the accumulation of biomass and its biosynthetic activity. The isoflavone glycoside ononin, 7-O-(β-glucopyranosyioloxy)-4 methoxyisoflavone, was found in the cell culture of Alpine Hedysarum alpinum