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

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

Isolation and preliminary study the scorpion neurotoxins Buthus sp.

Isolation and preliminary study the scorpion neurotoxins Buthus sp

Changes in human sperm motility characteristics in the presence of protein-peptide complex

The study objective is to examine the changes in motility of human spermatozoa under the effect of a protein-peptide complex extracted from cattle testes (Bos taurus).Materials and methods. The protein-peptide complex was extracted from testes tissue obtained during butchering of cattle at meat processing plants of the Moscow Region. Human spermatozoa were obtained from the ejaculate in the usual way. From the ejaculate sample, 1 ml was collected for the experiment and control. The protein-peptide complex was added to a test tube in concentrations of 10–8, 10–9, and  10–12 mg/ml. For every concentration, 10–12 experiments were performed. General and active motility were evaluated after 30 min, 1 and 3 hours of incubation at room temperature.Results and conclusion. The experiments have shown that in the presence of the protein-peptide complex, spermatozoa motility increased  by 10–30 % relative to the initial value at 30 minutes, and this change persisted for 3 hours of observation. The change depended on the complex concentration: the largest increase was observed at 10–12 mg/ml. Higher complex concentrations did not have a positive effect  on spermatozoa motility