Ground Beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) Assemblages Features Formation in Large and Medium Industrial Cities of Russia (The Case Study in Kazan, Kemerovo and Grozny)

The article presents the results of the analysis of the Carabid fauna of three cities: Grozny, Kemerovo, Kazan. It was established that communities of ground beetles clearly respond to varying degrees of recreation by changing the biotopic distribution and ecological structure: the emergence of super dominant species, a decrease in the abundance of zoophages, an increase in the share of stratobionts, and the presence of indicator species

Effect of particle properties of powders on the generation and transmission of raman scattering

Transmission Raman measurements of a 1 mm thick sulfur-containing disk were made at different positions as it was moved through 4 mm of aspirin (150-212 mu m) or microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel) of different size ranges (<38, 53-106, and 150-212 mu m). The transmission Raman intensity of the sulfur interlayer at 218 cm(-1) was lower when the disk was placed at the top or bottom of the powder bed, compared to positions within the bed and the difference between the sulfur intensity at the outer and inner positions increased with Avicel particle size. Also, the positional intensity difference was smaller for needle-shaped aspirin than for granular Avicel of the same size. The attenuation coefficients for the propagation of the exciting laser and transmitted Raman photons through the individual powders were the same but decreased as the particle size of Avicel increased; also, the attenuation coefficients for propagation through 150-212 mu m aspirin were almost half of those through similar sized Avicel particles. The study has demonstrated that particulate size and type affect transmitted Raman intensities and, consequently, such factors need to be considered in the analysis of powders, especially if particle properties vary between the samples

Acute febrile illness is associated with Rickettsia spp infection in dogs

BACKGROUND: Rickettsia conorii is transmitted by Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks and causes Mediterranean Spotted Fever (MSF) in humans. Although dogs are considered the natural host of the vector, the clinical and epidemiological significance of R. conorii infection in dogs remains unclear. The aim of this prospective study was to investigate whether Rickettsia infection causes febrile illness in dogs living in areas endemic for human MSF. METHODS: Dogs from southern Italy with acute fever (n = 99) were compared with case–control dogs with normal body temperatures (n = 72). Serology and real-time PCR were performed for Rickettsia spp., Ehrlichia canis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum/A. platys and Leishmania infantum. Conventional PCR was performed for Babesia spp. and Hepatozoon spp. Acute and convalescent antibodies to R. conorii, E. canis and A. phagocytophilum were determined. RESULTS: The seroprevalence rates at first visit for R. conorii, E. canis, A. phagocytophilum and L. infantum were 44.8%, 48.5%, 37.8% and 17.6%, respectively. The seroconversion rates for R. conorii, E. canis and A. phagocytophilum were 20.7%, 14.3% and 8.8%, respectively. The molecular positive rates at first visit for Rickettsia spp., E. canis, A. phagocytophilum, A. platys, L. infantum, Babesia spp. and Hepatozoon spp. were 1.8%, 4.1%, 0%, 2.3%, 11.1%, 2.3% and 0.6%, respectively. Positive PCR for E. canis (7%), Rickettsia spp. (3%), Babesia spp. (4.0%) and Hepatozoon spp. (1.0%) were found only in febrile dogs. The DNA sequences obtained from Rickettsia and Babesia PCRs positive samples were 100% identical to the R. conorii and Babesia vogeli sequences in GenBank®, respectively. Febrile illness was statistically associated with acute and convalescent positive R. conorii antibodies, seroconversion to R. conorii, E. canis positive PCR, and positivity to any tick pathogen PCRs. Fourteen febrile dogs (31.8%) were diagnosed with Rickettsia spp. infection based on seroconversion and/or PCR while only six afebrile dogs (12.5%) seroconverted (P = 0.0248). The most common clinical findings of dogs with Rickettsia infection diagnosed by seroconversion and/or PCR were fever, myalgia, lameness, elevation of C-reactive protein, thrombocytopenia and hypoalbuminemia. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates acute febrile illness associated with Rickettsia infection in dogs living in endemic areas of human MSF based on seroconversion alone or in combination with PCR

Клинико-эпидемиологическая характеристика зарегистрированных в Российской Федерации в 2015–2019 гг. случаев острого вялого миелита у детей

Acute flaccid myelitis is a syndrome characterized as the development of acute flaccid paralysis of one or more limbs due to lesions of the anterior horns of the spinal cord, which occurs against the background of a viral infection. More than 300 acute flaccid paralysis cases are registered in the Russian Federation annually, most of them are of a non-infectious etiology. In some cases, patients develop a complex of symptoms similar to poliomyelitis, but without isolation of polioviruses from stool samples. Clinical characteristics of such cases include acute onset, fever, persistent peripheral asymmetric paresis/paralysis of predominantly proximal parts of the limbs, and absence of pathological reflexes, pelvic disturbances, or pyramidal symptoms. In literature, such complex of symptoms is referred as acute flaccid myelitis. We provide an analysis of 18 cases of acute flaccid myelitis detected in the Russian Federation in the period from 2015 to 2019. A clear seasonality of the disease from July to November was noted. Studies of faecal samples, cerebrospinal fluid and blood samples did not reveal the pathogen. In all patients, regardless of therapy, there was a positive trend, but complete recovery was not achieved: paresis of varying severity persisted, mainly in the proximal extremities Therefore, acute flaccid myelitis cases as acute flaccid paralysis cases of unknown etiology require an additional observation and an expanded algorithm of laboratory investigation aimed to finding a possible pathogen.Острый вялый миелит – синдромокомплекс, характеризующийся развитием острого вялого паралича одной или нескольких конечностей вследствие поражения передних рогов спинного мозга, возникающего на фоне вирусной инфекции. Ежегодно в РФ регистрируется &gt;300 случаев острого вялого паралича, подавляющее большинство из них имеют неинфекционную этиологию. В ряде случаев у пациентов развивается комплекс симптомов, сходных с полиомиелитом, но без выделения полиовирусов из образцов стула. Клинические характеристики таких случаев включают острое начало заболевания, лихорадку, наличие стойкого периферического асимметричного пареза/паралича преимущественно проксимальных отделов конечностей при отсутствии патологических рефлексов, тазовых нарушений или пирамидных симптомов. В зарубежной литературе этот симптомокомплекс получил название «острый вялый миелит».В статье приводится анализ 18 случаев острого вялого миелита, выявленных в РФ в период с 2015 по 2019 г. Отмечена четкая сезонность болезни с июля по ноябрь. Исследования образцов фекалий, цереброспинальной жидкости и крови не выявили возбудителя. У всех пациентов независимо от терапии отмечалась положительная динамика, но полного восстановления добиться не удалось: сохранялись парезы разной степени выраженности, преимущественно проксимальных отделов конечностей.Таким образом, случаи острого вялого миелита, определяемые как случаи острого вялого паралича неизвестной этиологии, требуют дополнительного наблюдения и расширенного алгоритма лабораторных исследований, направленных на поиск возможного этиологического агента

Rickettsia Phylogenomics: Unwinding the Intricacies of Obligate Intracellular Life

BACKGROUND: Completed genome sequences are rapidly increasing for Rickettsia, obligate intracellular alpha-proteobacteria responsible for various human diseases, including epidemic typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In light of phylogeny, the establishment of orthologous groups (OGs) of open reading frames (ORFs) will distinguish the core rickettsial genes and other group specific genes (class 1 OGs or C1OGs) from those distributed indiscriminately throughout the rickettsial tree (class 2 OG or C2OGs). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We present 1823 representative (no gene duplications) and 259 non-representative (at least one gene duplication) rickettsial OGs. While the highly reductive (approximately 1.2 MB) Rickettsia genomes range in predicted ORFs from 872 to 1512, a core of 752 OGs was identified, depicting the essential Rickettsia genes. Unsurprisingly, this core lacks many metabolic genes, reflecting the dependence on host resources for growth and survival. Additionally, we bolster our recent reclassification of Rickettsia by identifying OGs that define the AG (ancestral group), TG (typhus group), TRG (transitional group), and SFG (spotted fever group) rickettsiae. OGs for insect-associated species, tick-associated species and species that harbor plasmids were also predicted. Through superimposition of all OGs over robust phylogeny estimation, we discern between C1OGs and C2OGs, the latter depicting genes either decaying from the conserved C1OGs or acquired laterally. Finally, scrutiny of non-representative OGs revealed high levels of split genes versus gene duplications, with both phenomena confounding gene orthology assignment. Interestingly, non-representative OGs, as well as OGs comprised of several gene families typically involved in microbial pathogenicity and/or the acquisition of virulence factors, fall predominantly within C2OG distributions. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Collectively, we determined the relative conservation and distribution of 14354 predicted ORFs from 10 rickettsial genomes across robust phylogeny estimation. The data, available at PATRIC (PathoSystems Resource Integration Center), provide novel information for unwinding the intricacies associated with Rickettsia pathogenesis, expanding the range of potential diagnostic, vaccine and therapeutic targets

Plasmids and Rickettsial Evolution: Insight from Rickettsia felis

BACKGROUND: The genome sequence of Rickettsia felis revealed a number of rickettsial genetic anomalies that likely contribute not only to a large genome size relative to other rickettsiae, but also to phenotypic oddities that have confounded the categorization of R. felis as either typhus group (TG) or spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae. Most intriguing was the first report from rickettsiae of a conjugative plasmid (pRF) that contains 68 putative open reading frames, several of which are predicted to encode proteins with high similarity to conjugative machinery in other plasmid-containing bacteria. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using phylogeny estimation, we determined the mode of inheritance of pRF genes relative to conserved rickettsial chromosomal genes. Phylogenies of chromosomal genes were in agreement with other published rickettsial trees. However, phylogenies including pRF genes yielded different topologies and suggest a close relationship between pRF and ancestral group (AG) rickettsiae, including the recently completed genome of R. bellii str. RML369-C. This relatedness is further supported by the distribution of pRF genes across other rickettsiae, as 10 pRF genes (or inactive derivatives) also occur in AG (but not SFG) rickettsiae, with five of these genes characteristic of typical plasmids. Detailed characterization of pRF genes resulted in two novel findings: the identification of oriV and replication termination regions, and the likelihood that a second proposed plasmid, pRFδ, is an artifact of the original genome assembly. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Altogether, we propose a new rickettsial classification scheme with the addition of a fourth lineage, transitional group (TRG) rickettsiae, that is unique from TG and SFG rickettsiae and harbors genes from possible exchanges with AG rickettsiae via conjugation. We offer insight into the evolution of a plastic plasmid system in rickettsiae, including the role plasmids may have played in the acquirement of virulence traits in pathogenic strains, and the likely origin of plasmids within the rickettsial tree

Сравнительная эффективность и безопасность биоаналога инфликсимаба (BCD-055) и оригинального инфликсимаба у пациентов с анкилозирующим спондилитом (результаты международных многоцентровых рандомизированных двойных слепых клинических исследований I и III фазы)

This article presents results from two clinical trials of infliximab biosimilar, BCD-055, including comparative data on the pharmacokinetics (PK), efficacy and safety of BCD-055 and innovator infliximab (IFX) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).Objective: The purpose of phase I clinical study ASART-1 was to evaluate the pharmacokinetic and safety profile of BCD-055 and to prove its equivalence with Remicade®, phase III study ASART-2 was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of BCD-055 in comparison with Remicade® in patients with active AS.Patients and methods: Both studies were conducted as international multi-center randomized double-blind studies in direct comparison with innovator IFX. Inclusion and exclusion criteria, main examination methods, and drug regimens were the same in both trials. A total of 199 patients were enrolled in the studies. After the screening, the patients were stratified by CRP and BASDAI score, randomized (1:1 ratio in ASART-1; 2:1 ratio in ASART-2) into 2 arms and received BCD-055 or innovator IFX at a dose 5 mg/kg IV at 0, 2, 6 and then every 8 weeks (up to week 54). The primary endpoint for PK profile evaluation was the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC(0-tau)), maximum serum concentration of infliximab at steady state Cmax,ss. Efficacy was assessed by achieving ASAS20 at week 30, the endpoints for safety profile were the incidence of adverse events and serious adverse events during the maintenance-dosing phase and withdrawals from the study due to the safety reasons.Results: A total of 81 patients (ASART-1 study) were included in PK analysis, 199 patients were in efficacy and safety analysis. AUC(0-tau) value were 25,420,996.25±11,635,015.74 (ng/ml) Cmax,ss for BCD-055 and 26,114,705.71±12,102,376.9 (ng/ml)⋅h for INF innovator (p&gt;0.05). Cmax,ss for BCD-055/Remicade® was 122,752 [99,401–151,553] ng/ml and 119,844 [98,120–132,772] ng/ml, respectively (p&gt;0.05). ASAS20 was achieved at week 30 by 81.30% of the patients in the BCD-055 group, and 67.74% in the INF innovator group (p=0.061). The analysis of secondary endpoints (BASDAI, BASMI, BASFI, MASES, quality of life, chest excursion, and number of pathologically changed joints) showed no difference between the biosimilar and innovator groups. BCD-055 and innovator IFX showed highly similar safety profiles in both studies without cases of unexpected toxicity. The rates of AEs were equivalent for both drugs and were 48.48% and 58.21% of patients in the BCD-055 and Remicade®, respectively.Conclusion: BCD-055 is found to be equivalent in terms of PK, and showed the similarity in efficacy and safety profile compared with innovator IFX in patients with active AS.В статье приведены результаты международных, многоцентровых рандомизированных двойных слепых клинических исследований (КИ) I и III фазы биоаналога инфликсимаба (ИНФ) – BCD-055. Представлены сравнительные данные о фармакокинетике (ФК), эффективности и безопасности BCD-055 и оригинального препарата у пациентов с активным анкилозирующим спондилитом (АС).Цель исследования: КИ I фазы ASART-1 проводилось для доказательства фармакокинетической эквивалентности и равной безопасности препаратов BCD-055 и Ремикейд® (РЕМ), КИ III фазы ASART-2 – для установления не меньшей эффективности и равной безопасности препарата BCD-055 в сравнении с препаратом РЕМ у больных активным АС.Пациенты и методы. Критерии включения и невключения в обоих исследованиях, основные методики обследования, схема применения препаратов были аналогичными. Всего в анализ включенно 199 пациентов. В результате рандомизации (1:1 в ASART-1, 2:1 в ASART-2) пациенты были распределены на две группы и получали BCD-055 или оригинальный препарат в дозе 5 мг/кг на 0–2–6-й неделе, затем каждую 8-ю неделю. Первичной конечной точкой для оценки ФК были: площадь под кривой «концентрация – время» до достижения равновесного состояния (AUC(0-tau)), максимальная концентрация ИНФ в равновесном состоянии (Cmax,ss). Эффективность оценивалась по достижению критерия ASAS20 на 30-й неделе. Безопасность препаратов определяли по общей частоте случаев развития серьезных нежелательных явлений (СНЯ) и нежелательных явлений (НЯ), частоте случаев НЯ 3–4-й степени токсичности, случаев досрочного прекращения участия в исследовании по причине развития НЯ и СНЯ.Результаты. В анализ ФК (ASART-1) был включен 81 пациент, в анализ эффективности и безопасности (ASART-2) – 199. Значения AUC(0-tau) составляли 25 420 996,25±11 635 015,74 (нг/мл) ⋅ ч для BCD-055 и 26 114 705,71±121 02 376,9 (нг/мл) ⋅ ч для оригинального ИНФ (p&gt;0,05). Cmax,ss после введения BCD-055/РЕМ равнялась 122 752 [99 401–151 553] и 119 844 [98 120–132 772] нг/мл соответственно (p&gt;0,05). ASAS20 на 30-й неделе достигли 81,30 и 67,74% пациентов в группе BCD-055 и РЕМ соответственно (р=0,061). При анализе дополнительных конечных точек (индексы BASDAI, BASMI, BASFI, MASES, показатели качества жизни, экскурсия грудной клетки, счет патологически измененных суставов) достоверных различий в эффективности между группами биоаналога и оригинального препарата не выявлено. На протяжении исследования какие-либо НЯ зарегистрированы у 48,48 и 58,21% пациентов в группах BCD-055 и РЕМ соответственно. Инфузионная реакция развилась у 1 (0,76%) пациента в группе BCD-055 и у 1 (1,49%) в группе препарата сравнения (р=1,000). Выводы. Параметры ФК были эквивалентны для BCD-055 и оригинального ИНФ, препарат BCD-055 характеризовался не меньшей эффективностью и равной безопасностью по сравнению с оригинальным ИНФ при применении у пациентов с АС