The historical experience and practice of fight against tuberculosis in country which is one of the high drug resistant-tuberculosis (DR-TB) burden countries in European Union (EU)

Despite considerable efforts and quite early initiated anti-tuberculosis (TB) actions, Lithuania still remains one of the European Union countries with the highest tuberculosis rates. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, an estimated number of 323 000 new TB cases and relapses occurred in countries of the World Health Organization European Region in 2015, equivalent to 35.5 cases per 100000 population. About 85 % of incident TB cases in 2015 occurred in the 18 high-priority countries including Lithuania. Multidrug-resistant TB was reported in 4.1 % of 32721 cases with drug susceptibility testing results and continues to be highest in the three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.In this article we present the Lithuanian anti-tuberculosis action history review and comparison with other countries in this area of action.Literature review was performed by using documents available in the Martynas Mazvydas Library‘s resource, articles of foreign authors and archival materials.According to archaeological studies, tuberculosis was common in Europe including Lithuania in the Middle Ages. Tuberculosis reporting has started in Lithuania in 1926. The first tuberculosis sanatorium in Lithuania was opened in 1891. Patients were treated with sun bathing procedures, fresh air, and sunlight. Later the treatment included pneumothorax, toracocaustic, toracoplastic, treatment with gold products and other procedures. Lithuania has introduced DOTS in 1999, and from 2007 it has been working in accordance with the requirements of this strategy

Correction: a method to estimate cell cycle time and growth fraction using bromodeoxyuridine-flow cytometry data from a single sample

BACKGROUND: Presently available flow cytometric methods of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) labelling do not provide information on the cell cycle time (T(C)) and the growth fraction (GF). In this paper, we describe a novel and simple method to estimate T(C )and GF from flow cytometric analysis of a single tumour sample after BrdUrd labelling. METHODS: The proposed method is based on two assumptions: (1) the number of labelled cells traversing the cell cycle per unit time is constant and (2) the total number of labelled cells is constant throughout the cycle, provided that cells produced after division are excluded. The total numbers of labelled divided G(1 )cells, labelled divided S cells, labelled undivided S cells, and labelled undivided G(2 )cells were obtained for DNA histograms of BrdUrd-positive cells in a collected sample. These cell numbers were used to write equations to determine the durations of cell cycle phases, T(C )and GF. To illustrate the application of the proposed formulae, cell cycle kinetic parameters were analysed in solid SL2 tumours growing in DBA/2 mice and in human T-leukaemia Jurkat cells in culture. RESULTS: The suitability of the proposed method for estimating durations of the cell cycle phases, T(C )and GF was demonstrated. T(C )in SL2 tumours was found to be relatively constant at 4 and 10 days after tumour implantation (20.3 ± 1.1 h and 21.6 ± 0.9 h, respectively). GF in tumours at day 10 was lower than GF at day 4 (54.2 ± 7.7% vs. 79.2 ± 5.9%, p = 0.0003). Approximate values of T(C )and GF of cultured Jurkat cells were 23.9 h and 79.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The proposed method is relatively simple and permits estimation of the cell cycle parameters, including T(C )and GF, from a single tumour sample after labelling with BrdUrd. We have shown that this method may be useful in preclinical studies, allowing estimation of changes in GF during growth of murine tumours. Experiments with human Jurkat cells suggest that the proposed method might also prove suitable for measurement of cell kinetics in human tumours. Development of suitable software enabling more objective interpretation of the DNA profile in this method would be desirable

Mycobacteria produce proteins involved in biofilm formation and growth-affecting processes

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of mycobacterial proteins on mycobacterial biofilm formation and growth processes. We separated growth-affecting proteins (GEPs) from wild type of Mycobacterium bovis and ATCC strain of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium. Our results showed that these mycobacteria-secreted GEPs are involved in biofilm formation, growth stimulatory, and inhibitory processes. Our findings suggest that GEP stimulated M. avium subsp. avium growth in vitro. Stimulation process was observed in mycobacteria affected with GEP extracted from M. avium subsp. avium. We found that both GEPs inhibited the growth of the M. bovis. Optical density measurement and visual analysis confirm that GEP plays an important role in biofilm formation process. Most of M. bovis GEP are associated with the type VII secretion and general secretion pathways. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying mycobacterial biofilm formation and growth-affecting processes and better characterization of mycobacterial proteins and their functions. It is noteworthy that this finding represents the first demonstration of GEP-mediated growth effects on a solid and liquid medium

GB virus C infection among Lithuanian population with hepatitis C (HCV) virus infection

Background: GB virus C (GBV-C), also known as hepatitis G virus (HGV), is an enveloped virus with about 9,4Kb genome-length single-strand RNA. Based on similarity in genome structure with HCV, the GBV-C virus is classified as the Flaviviridae family virus. The GBV-C virus has a worldwide distribution and virus infections are common among healthy blood donors as well as among immunocompromised individuals. Previous studies showed the high GBV-C co-infection rate in hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive individuals. Based on genetic differences between the 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) sequences of GBV-C isolates, virus is classified into seven major genotypes and in several subtypes. The distribution of GBV-C genotypes varies geographically and information is still incomplete. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency the frequency of GBV-C and the GBV-C genotypes among the HCV positive individuals in Lithuania. Methods: In this study, GBV-C RNA was isolated from serum samples of 170 patients with known HCV infection. The nested reverse transcriptase reaction was used to synthesize the complementary DNA (cDNA) and the fragment of 210 bp from 5′UTR region was amplified by nested RT PCR. The PCR products were sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic analysis by using reference sequences from each genotype obtained from GenBank (n=46). The analysis was computed using CLC bio version 6.6.5 and MEGA 5.2. Results: Among 170 HCV positive patients, 36 (21.17%) were positive for GBV-C. Based on phylogenetic analysis of a short region (210 bp) in 5′UTR region two genotypes, 2a and 3 were classified. Conclusions: In this study it was found a high frequency of the GBV-C genotype 2a in Lithuanian HCV positive patients. The presence of the genotype 3 may be correlated to the geographical location and history of Lithuania

A Rapid ELISA Test for Detection of Human Paraproteins

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BCG masking phenomena might depend on the species of Mycobacterium

This study investigated BCG masking dependency on the species of Mycobacterium through the immune response to the mycobacterial region of deletion 1 (RD-1) associated growth affecting proteins (GEP). To evaluate the effects of GEP, 8-week old female BALB/c mice were immunized with either the wild type Mycobacterium bovis (MBGEP) or the ATCC Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium (MAGEP) strain and then subjected to further exposure with Mycobacterium terrae or M. avium sub. avium. Mice immunized with MAGEP and those mice further exposed to M. avium subsp. avium had increased granulocytes (GRA) and monocytes to lymphocytes rate (MLR) compared to control mice. Immunization of mice with GEP induced an antibody response one month after primary immunization, as observed by cross-reactivity. Our findings suggest that MAGEP is related to a latent hypersensitivity reaction and an increased risk of mycobacterial infection susceptibility. According to the results of the present study, previous sensitization with NTM antigens results in varying immune reactions after contact with different NTM argued that masking phenomena may be dependent on the species of Mycobacterium

Salmonella Incidence in Broiler and Laying Hens with the Different Housing Systems

This study was intended to investigate a contamination of Salmonella in broilers (intensive production system) and laying hens with different housing system (conventional and enriched (furnished) cages, aviary) in Lithuania. In total 470 samples, including faeces, dust, water and caecum contents (during slaughtering of broilers) were taken from 6 broiler and 8 laying hen farms for the estimation of the prevalence of Salmonella. The results of investigations of Salmonella spp. indicated that the most infected broiler samples were faeces and caecum (32.9% and 23.1%, respectively) as to compare with dust and water (14.7% and 10.0%, respectively). No significant differences could be found in prevalence of Salmonella between laying hens reared in conventional and enriched cages and aviary. In most cases the prevalence of Salmonella in broilers was spring; in laying hens - winter, spring and autumn. The prevalent Salmonella serovars found in broilers and laying hens were Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium

Increased Numbers of CD4+CD25+ and CD8+CD25+ T-Cells in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis with Parvovirus B19 Infection

Aim: To investigate T-cell subpopulations in peripheral blood of human parvovirus B19 DNA-positive (B19+) and-negative (B19-) patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and healthy persons. Patients and Methods: Blood samples were collected from 115 patients with RA and 47 healthy volunteers; 27 patients with RA and nine controls were B19+. Cluster of differentiation (CD) 4, 8, 25 and 45RA were analyzed on blood cells. CD25 expression on CD4+CD45RA+, CD4+CD45RA-, CD8+CD45RA+, CD8+CD45RA- subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry. Results: The percentage of CD25low and CD25hi cells was increased on CD4+CD45RA+, CD4+CD45RA-T-cells and the percentage of CD25+ cells was increased on CD8+CD45RA+, CD8+CD45RA-T-cells of B19+ patients with RA in comparison with B19- patients and controls. Conclusion: Raised levels of CD4 and CD8 regulatory T-cells in B19+ RA patients could cause downregulation of antiviral clearance mechanisms and lead to activation of persistent human parvovirus B19 infection in patients with RA.publishersversionPeer reviewe