Geograpahic distribution of allele frequencies of alcohol metabolism genes and possible determinants of inter population diversity in human

ADH1B and ALDH2 genes are coding for key alcohol metabolism enzymes. Both allele ADH1B*Arg48His and ALDH2*504Lys are associated with lower alcohol consumption level. The allele frequencies were determined for rather few populations of Russia. The article presents аn updated review on the allele frequencies worldwide including the data for populations of Russia which were determined by our lab in recent years. Possible role of factors influencing the peculiarities of ADH1B*48His and ALDH2*504Lys allele frequencies geographic distribution are being discussed

Luminal and Tumor-Associated Gut Microbiome Features Linked to Precancerous Lesions Malignancy Risk: A Compositional Approach

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. Human gut microbiome plays important roles in protecting against it, as well as contributing to its onset and progression. Identification of specific bacterial taxa associated with early stages of colorectal cancer may help develop effective microbiome-based diagnostics. For precancerous lesions, links of their characteristics to luminal and tumor-associated microbiome composition are to be elucidated. Paired stool and tumor brush biopsy samples were collected from 50 patients with precancerous lesions and early forms of colon cancer; their microbial communities were profiled using high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing. We showed that the microbiome differences between stool and biopsy samples can be to a high extent computationally corrected. Compositionality-aware statistical analysis of microbiome composition revealed its associations with the number of lesions, lesion type, location and malignization pathway. A major determinant of precancerous lesions malignancy risk—the number of lesions—was positively associated with the abundance of H2S-producing taxa. Our results contribute to the basis for developing early non-invasive colorectal cancer diagnostics via identifying microorganisms likely participating in early stages of cancer pathogenesis

High-Energy Neutrino Follow-up at the Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope

The Baikal-GVD deep underwater neutrino experiment participates in the international multi-messenger program to detect the astrophysical sources of high- and ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray particles, being at the stage of array deployment and a step-by-step increase of the telescope’s effective volume to the scale of a cubic kilometer. At present, the telescope consists of seven clusters containing 2016 photodetectors. The effective volume of the detector has reached 0.35 km${}^{3}$ for the selection of shower events from neutrino interactions in Baikal water. The experimental data have been accumulated in a continuous exposure mode since 2015, allowing a prompt data analysis and a celestial-sphere monitoring program to be implemented in real time. We discuss the structure of the data acquisition system, describe the physical event reconstruction procedure in the mode of fast response to alerts, and present the results of our analysis of nine alerts from the polar IceCube telescope from early September to late October 2020