Trajectory of age-associated changes in small intestinal microbial community of healthy person metaorganism

The study of the small intestinal microbiota in humans is complicated due to the low availability of biomaterial. Non-invasive methods of metabolomics and bioinformatic data analysis can expand our understanding of the small intestinal microbiota structure and its role in maintaining body homeostasis. Here we assess the trajectory of age-related changes in the small intestinal microbial community of healthy individuals in the context of metaorganism-wide interaction between cytokine and neuroendocrine systems, by using the methods of gas chromatography mass spectrometry of microbial markers (GCMS MM) and optimal scaling. 110 apparently healthy children, adults and elderly individuals were enrolled to the study. The main types of the small intestine microbiota (Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Fusobacteria) were quantified in peripheral blood by the GCMS MM method. To construct age-related trajectories of changes in the small intestinal microbiota and parameters of cytokine and neuroendocrine systems, the optimal scaling technique based on the multivariate Gifi transformation (CATPCA method) was used. It was found, that the small intestinal bacterial community of both children and seniors contained significantly lowered total number of microorganisms due to the low number of bacteria of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria types along with high number of members of Proteobacteria and Fusobacteria types compared with adults. Assessment of the trajectory of age-associated changes in microbiota of the small intestine showed that 1) children have strong dynamic fluctuations in the number and links within microbial community along with formation of links between the main regulatory immune and neuroendocrine systems of the metaorganism, 2) adults display plasticity and consistency in functioning of immune and nervous systems that determine the state of dynamic balance of the small intestinal microbiota, 3) healthy aging is characterized by high degree of cooperation between the main members of the bacterial community, which ensures system stability at new level, as one of the mechanisms of host adaptation. Thus, using methods of GCMS MM and optimal scaling, allows us to expand our understanding about age-associated trajectory of changes in the small intestinal microbiota and its cooperation with immune and neuroendocrine systems within the metaorganism, which can be used to develop new methods of therapy for infectious and non-infectious diseases

Saliva versus plasma cytokines as possible predictors of autism severity

The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are now widely accepted as a pervasive, complex, heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders with multiple etiologies, subtypes, and developmental trajectories. There are no available and effective biomarkers for them. Immune dysfunction is seen as an important risk factor contributing to the neurodevelopmental deficit in ASD, and is signified, among other things, by an imbalance of cytokines in the brain and on the periphery. In recent years, saliva has been proposed as a biological material for diagnosing ASD, due to the accessibility and non-invasiveness of the method for its production. However, the question of whether salivary cytokine levels may be used as effective early biomarkers for autism requires further research, including saliva versus plasma/serum comparisons.Aim: a comparative analysis of the levels of cytokines: IL-6, IFNγ, TNFα, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-10, in saliva and blood plasma to identify possible markers of ASD and their severity in children.The study included 11 children with typical neurodevelopment (TDC) and 55 children with ASD, among whom 37 children had mild or moderate autism (according to CARS), and 18 children had severe autism. Samples of unstimulated mixed saliva and venous blood were simultaneously collected from all children. Salivary concentrations of cytokines: IL-6, IFNγ, TNFα, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-10 were determined by multiplex Luminex™ analysis. Plasma levels of cytokines were assessed by ELISA. Differences between groups were tested using the Kruskal-Wallis U-test with post-hoc Conover-Inman comparisons, between samples (saliva/ plasma) are using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The correlation between the concentrations of cytokines in plasma and saliva was determined using linear regression by the RMA method.In all examined groups, the levels of IL-6, IFNγ and IL-10 in saliva were significantly lower, and TNFα, IL-1β and IL-4 were higher than the corresponding levels of the same cytokines in plasma. Regardless of health/ disease status, no significant correlations were found between salivary and plasma cytokine levels in children. IL-1β levels were significantly lower and IL-10 levels were higher in the saliva of both groups of children with ASD compared with TDC. No significant differences in salivary cytokine concentrations were found between children with mild and severe ASD.Thus, salivary cytokines can be used as markers of ASD in children, but not the severity of the condition. The absence of correlations in the levels of some pro/anti-inflammatory cytokines between saliva and blood plasma may probably indicate a special immunological status of an ecological niche, the oral cavity

Similarity analysis of silage, rumen and milk microbiota in dairy cows

Diseases that occur in such a multifactorial system as animal husbandry are determined not only by internal factors of the body, for example, the composition of the microflora of the digestive system, but also by external factors, such as feed. The aim of the study was to analyze the similarity of the microbiota of silage fed to cows with the composition of the microflora of their rumen and milk using the NGS sequencing method. The experiment was carried out on one of the commercial farms of the Leningrad region. The bacterial community of the contents of rumen, milk and silage from perennial cereals and legumes was evaluated by NGS sequencing on the MiSeq platform (Illumina, Inc., USA) with primers for the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. As a result of the study, 22 phylum of attributed microorganisms were found in the microflora of silage, 24 to 30 phylum of rumen, 18 phylum of milk. Similar taxa of microorganisms were identified in silage, rumen and milk, the main difference was noted in quantitative ratios (P≤0.05). For example, the amount of Firmicutes in silage was 52.9 ± 3.45%, in milk - 11.8 ± 0.78%. This suggests that there may be some relationship between the studied biotopes. Pathogenic microorganisms, including the causative agents of mastitis, were present in many samples. The genera Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, Streptococcus and Fusobacterium were identified by us as the most represented (P≤0.05) in the composition of the milk microflora. Their content was 0.24±0.023, 1.8±1.23, 1.0±0.06 and 0.35±0.031%, respectively. Probably, the microflora of the rumen can influence the formation of the milk microbiota

Methodological issues of research on the relationship between mental health and quality of life

The methodology and methodological approaches to research on mental health in relation to quality of life and data of subjective health status assessment are presented. The research was performed over a period of 2004-2011. Medical social monitoring data were obtained for a total of 3975 people living in the protective actions zones of chemical weapons storage and destruction facilities in three administrative regions. Qualitative assessment of satisfaction with various aspects of life, taking into account the specificity of potentially facilities was performed. Correlations of the quality of life and the self-rating of health with the factors affecting human health are established. Almost half of the population under study (47.1 %) wasfound to require supervision and treatment by specialists in boundary psychiatry and mental medicine. It was found that negative effects of human health are multifactorial, and the contribution of each individual factor in the immediate and delayed the deterioration of somatic and mental health, associated with the quality of life, is quite difficult to quantify

All-sky limits on Sterile Neutrino Galactic Dark Matter obtained with SRG/ART-XC after two years of operations

Dark matter sterile neutrinos radiatively decay in the Milky Way, which can be tested with searches for almost monochromatic photons in the X-ray cosmic spectrum. We analyse the data of SRG/ART-XC telescope operated for two years in the all-sky survey mode. With no significant hints in the Galactic diffuse X-ray spectrum we explore models with sterile neutrino masses in 12-40 keV range and exclude corresponding regions of sterile-active neutrino mixing.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Published in Phys. Rev.

X-ray line formation in the spectrum of SS 433

The mechanisms for the formation of X-ray lines in the spectrum of SS 433 are investigated by taking into account the radiative transfer inside the jets. The results of Monte Carlo numerical simulations are presented. The effect of a decrease in line intensity due to scattering inside the jet turns out to be pronounced, but it does not exceed 60% in magnitude on the entire grid of parameters. The line broadening due to scattering, nutational motion, and the contribution of satellites can lead to overestimates of the jet opening angle $\Theta$ from the line widths in Chandra X-ray observations. The fine structure of the lines turns out to be very sensitive to the scattering effects. This makes its investigation by planned X-ray observatories equipped with high-resolution spectrometers (primarily Astro-H) a powerful tool for diagnosing the parameters of the jets in SS 433.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, to be published in Astronomy Letters, v. 38, n. 7, p. 443 (2012

PREVALENCE OF HIGH CARCINOGENIC RISK HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS IN THE REPUBLIC OF SAKHA (YAKUTIA), ST. PETERSBURG AND THE REPUBLIC OF KARELIA

Results of the study in three regions of the Russian Federation have shown widespread of high carcinogenic human papillomavirus among patients of dermatovenerological and gynecological profile. Detection of viral DNA in the material from the cervix and urethra ranged from 25,2 (Karelia) to 42,5 (Sakha Republic (Yakutia) per 100 examined patients. In all areas in 2010-2011 first place was occupied by 16-th virus genotype - from 11,5 (Sakha Republic (Yakutia) to 15,9 (St. Petersburg) per 100 patients. Prevalence of 11 other types differs. In the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) the second rank place was occupied by types 31 and. 51 (8,0 per 100 examined patients), in St. Petersburg - by 56 and 31 types (9,7 and. 7,6 per 100 patients). Age risk group contains patients of the age of 20-29 years. Information on circulating genotypes of the virus is a necessary part of surveillance to validate vaccination against human papillomavirus infection and evaluation of its efficiency

Energic metabolism studies in pediatric cancer patients

The aim. To estimate heat capacity (C) measurements for individual dietary support of pediatric cancer patients during chemotherapy. Material and methods. 43 cancer children are examined. Group 1: 15 children, 5 children receiving polychemotherapy, 10 children – in post-BMT period (5 of them were re-examined on clinical indications). Thus we got 21 resting heat capacity measures. Group 2 includes 14 children with cancer after completing chemotherapy. Group 3 (control group) – 14 children with gastroenterological pathology. (C) is determined by indirect calorimetry, then basal metabolic rate (BMR) is calculated by formula BMR=90%C and compared with (Cf), calculated by formula WHO (1985). The results. In group 1 the average values of BMR and Еоф considerably differ: 986,5 and 1285,9 kcal accordingly (p<0,05). In group 2 BMR value is lower than Cf, however the difference is inconsiderable. The amount of children with decreased BMR in group 1 is considerably higher than in groups 2 and 3 – 76,2%; 42,9% and 28,6% accordingly (p<0,05). On the contrary group 3 includes more children with increased BMR, than group 1 (p<0,01). The marked decrease of heat capacity (C decrease) in group 1 is mainly associated with toxic effects of polychemotherapy and BMT on metabolic processes. Conclusion. The findings justify the need to monitor the pediatric cancer patients during special treatment to estimate their heat capacity to work out individual programs of dietary support with further assessment of effectiveness and correction

Fast optical variability of SS 433

We study the optical variability of the peculiar Galactic source SS 433 using the observations made with the Russian Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT150). A simple technique which allows to obtain high-quality photometric measurements with 0.3-1 s time resolution using ordinary CCD is described in detail. Using the test observations of nonvariable stars, we show that the atmospheric turbulence introduces no significant distortions into the measured light curves. Therefore, the data obtained in this way are well suited for studying the aperiodic variability of various objects. The large amount of SS 433 optical light curve measurements obtained in this way allowed us to obtain the power spectra of its flux variability with a record sensitivity up to frequencies of ~0.5 Hz and to detect its break at frequency =~2.4e-3 Hz. We suggest that this break in the power spectrum results from the smoothing of the optical flux variability due to a finite size of the emitting region. Based on our measurement of the break frequency in the power spectrum, we estimated the size of the accretion-disk photosphere as 2e12 cm. We show that the amplitude of the variability in SS 433 decreases sharply during accretion-disk eclipses, but it does not disappear completely. This suggests that the size of the variable optical emission source is comparable to that of the normal star whose size is therefore R_O \approx 2e12 cm \approx 30 R_sun. The decrease in flux variability amplitude during eclipses suggests the presence of a nonvariable optical emission component with a magnitude m_R=~13.2.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters. The original version in Russian is available at http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/rtt150/ru/ss433_pazh10/pss433_fast.pd

Optical Identification of Four Hard X-ray Sources from the Swift All-Sky Survey

We present the results of our optical identifications of four hard X-ray sources from the Swift all-sky survey. We obtained optical spectra for each of the program objects with the 6-m BTA telescope (Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnii Arkhyz), which allowed their nature to be established. Two sources (SWIFT J2237.2+6324} and SWIFT J2341.0+7645) are shown to belong to the class of cataclysmic variables (suspected polars or intermediate polars). The measured emission line width turns out to be fairly large (FWHM ~ 15-25 A), suggesting the presence of extended, rapidly rotating (v~400-600 km/s) accretion disks in the systems. Apart from line broadening, we have detected a change in the positions of the line centroids for SWIFT J2341.0+7645, which is most likely attributable to the orbital motion of the white dwarf in the binary system. The other two program objects (SWIFT J0003.3+2737 and SWIFT J0113.8+2515) are extragalactic in origin: the first is a Seyfert 2 galaxy and the second is a blazar at redshift z=1.594. Apart from the optical spectra, we provide the X-ray spectra for all sources in the 0.6-10 keV energy band obtained from XRT/Swift data.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, will be published in Astronomy Letters, 38, No.5, pp.281-289 (2012