Effect of Molecular Weight and Degree of Acetylation on Adjuvantive Properties of Chitosan Derivatives

© 2018, Pleiades Publishing, Inc. The hemostatic and immunostimulating activity and cytotoxicity were determined for a number of chitosans differing in molecular weight (from 3 to 510 kDa) and degree of acetylation (from 1 to 25 mol%) that were used as adjuvants in inactivated poliomyelitic, influenza, and live influenza vaccines. It has been shown that the hemostatic activity of chitosan increased sharply with an increase in its molecular weight. In oligochitosan with a molecular weight of <16 kDa, it was smaller by a factor of 15–100 than in chitosan with a molecular weight of 20–510 kDa. The level of increase in the immunogenicity of vaccines containing oligochitosan as adjuvants was not lower than that for the vaccine including high-molecular chitosan. However, the immunostimulatory activity of oligochitosan depended on the degree of acetylation, reaching a maximum value at 6 mol%. It was shown that all oligochitosans and chitosans with a molecular mass below ~50 kDa showed almost no cytotoxicity at a concentration of ≤2.5 mg/mL, which enable their use as adjuvants for inactivated and live vaccines at the optimal ratio of molecular weight to the degree of acetylation

Problems in Evaluating Numbers of Ethnic Abkhazians and Georgians in Abkhazia in the Middle 2000’s

Опираясь на опыт полевых исследований 2003-2006 гг., автор критически оценивает официальные статистические сведения и мнения экспертов и политиков о количестве абхазов и грузин в Абхазии. Представлены авторские оценки их возможной численности, а также обзор вероятных причин завышения числа абхазов и занижения числа грузин при учёте населения 2003 г. Показано, что неточности последнего объяснялись в том числе объективными факторами - высокой мобильностью населения в середине 2000-х гг., обычно возвратной, но частично перераставшей в безвозвратную (из горного села в город или приморский посёлок у абхазов, трансграничные перемещения через реку Ингур у грузин)

Study of the supramolecular structure of aqueous solutions of bioregulators of animal origin in ultralow doses

We investigated the structure of aqueous solutions of bioregulyators of animal origin in ultralow doses by using low light scattering. Bioregulators were isolated by extraction from liver and lung of rats. As a result of the study size spectra and integral characteristics of the dispersion of solutions of bioregulators of different nature were obtained. It is shown that the disperse characteristics of the test solution differ from each other and from the solvent - bidistilled water. The obtained results give an opportunity to make suggestions about a possible mechanism of manifestation of activity of bioregulators in ultralow doses. © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved