Evaluation of amyxin effect in prophylaxis of acute respiratory viral infections

The results of the evaluation of the oral inductor of endogenic interferon (amyxin), manufactured in Russia are presented. The use of amyxin was found to produce a drop in morbidity in acute respiratory virus infections (ARVI) among medical workers 3.4 times, i.e. the preparation exhibited a pronounced prophylactic effect with respect to ARVI. The use of the preparation was accompanied by a decrease in the number of manifest forms of ARVI. Persons given the preparation often had ARVI in a mild or asymptomatic form.     

Epidemiologic features of acute viral respiratory infections in familial foci]

A study was made of the epidemiological peculiarities of viral respiratory infections of various etiology in the familial foci with the use of a methodical approach permitting to detect the true spread of infection in the familial foci, with consideration to the subclinical forme fruste of the disease and "carrier state". It appeared that in the familial foci the infectiousness of the majority of respiratory viral infections was greater than in the closed collective bodies uniting persons of the same age. The age composition of the family influences the manifestness (particularly in parainfluenza infection) and the intensity of the epidemic process characterized by the coefficient of the secondary affections. The type of the apartment, the floor on which it is located, and the number of persons residing in it had no significant influence on the spread of the viral infections in the familial foci. A definite role in this process is played by the level of specific serum antibodies in the members of the family surrounding the patient. The association of morbidity level with the antibody level proved to be the most distinct in children with influenza and adenoviral infection; this association was less significant in adults.     

Etiology of acute pneumonia occurring against a background of influenza and other acute respiratory viral infections

The etiology of acute pneumonia (AP) was studied in 229 patients who had the disease simultaneously with influenza (106 patients), other viral and mycoplasmal infections (48 patients), and without concomitant acute viral infections (75 patients). The use of the quantitative microbiological method and the indirect immunofluorescence test with autostrains or Streptococcus pneumoniae strains of serotypes 2, 3, and 6, prevailing in Leningrad in patients with acute inflammatory diseases of the lungs, made it possible to find out the pneumococcal etiology of AP in 95% of patients irrespective of the presence of acute respiratory viral infections. The etiological role of opportunistic bacteria was revealed in 13 AP patients (5.7%); in 2 of them the causative agent of AP was Staphylococcus aureus and in 11, various species of Gram-negative enterobacteria. The latter were the cause of complications in 8 cases of pneumococcal pneumonia.     

Preventive measure of massive spreading of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections

Influenza and acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) continue to be one of the most actual medical and social-economic problem. But problem of high incidence of ARVI often regarded as problem of influenza only. Information about methods of prognosis of massive spreading of ARVI complex and universal system of their prophylaxis including influenza is presented in the article.     

Intratracheal double-stranded RNA plus interferon-gamma: a model for analysis of the acute phase response to respiratory viral infections

Double-stranded (ds)RNA is made as a by-product of viral replication. Synthetic dsRNA induces virtually all of the same systemic symptoms as acute viral infections, such as fever and malaise. In order to develop a model of respiratory viral infections (such as influenza) suitable for use in gene knockout mice (where the deleted gene may affect viral replication), we examined C57BL/6 mouse body temperature and locomotor activity responses to the synthetic dsRNA polyriboinosinic.polyribocytidylic acid (poly[rI.rC]) introduced via the intratracheal (IT) route. We compared the IT poly[rI.rC] responses to the well-characterized intraperitoneal (IP) poly[rI.rC] responses. IT poly[rI.rC] failed to induce an acute phase response (APR) in mice, in contrast to IP poly[rI.rC]. However, addition of interferon (IFN)gamma to the IT poly[rI.rC] inoculum induced sustained hypothermia and suppressed locomotor activity responses with similar kinetics to those responses seen in acute mouse influenza. We further examined cytokine, antiviral, muscarinic M2 receptor and inducible nitric oxide synthase gene expression at 5 hr in the lungs of IT challenged mice. These studies suggested that priming the lung with IFNgamma could enhance proinflammatory (IL1beta, IL6, TNFalpha) cytokine gene expression and suppress interferon gene expression compared to IT poly[rI.rC] alone. No differences were detected for the other genes examined. While further molecular characterization of the model is required, we demonstrate that IT challenge with combined poly[rI.rC] and IFNgamma closely simulates the APR to an acute respiratory virus, and may serve as a suitable model for analyzing the molecular basis of the viral APR in gene knockout mice.     

Prophylactic efficacy of reaferon in viral hepatitis A and acute respiratory infections in children

Reaferon, the analog of human alpha 2-interferon obtained by gene engineering techniques, was studied with a view to its use for the prevention of hepatitis A. The study involved children of preschool age in Tashkent. In a strictly controlled trial children aged 2-6 years received the preparation orally in a dose of 1 X 10(6) I. U. or the diluent alone used as placebo. The preparation was administered to 1,100 children and the placebo to 1,078 children. The preparation and placebo were administered twice a week for two months. On the whole, during that period hepatitis A morbidity in both test and control groups of children was the same (5.1% and 4.9% respectively), but among children of nursery age receiving Reaferon the incidence of hepatitis A and acute respiratory viral infections was lower than among those receiving the placebo, though this difference was statistically significant only for cases of acute respiratory infections.     

Etiological structure of acute respiratory viral infections in children hospitalized in 1981-1999

The role of influenza and parainfluenza viruses, respiratory syncytial viruses and adenoviruses in the etiological structure of morbidity in acute respiratory virus infections (ARVI) in children hospitalized during the 19 year period is analyzed. As the result of examination of 56,287 patients by direct immunofluorescent test, respiratory viruses were detected in 21% of cases. The seasonal character, periodicity and level of ARVI morbidity were established. According to medical records, in the 1990s ARVI took a more severe course in children than that observed in the 1980s. In addition, the data on morbidity among children regarding rotavirus infection and ARVI were found to be similar.     

Acute respiratory viral infections and bronchial asthma. Cellular and molecular aspects of the problem

In this review information on relationships between acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) and attacks of bronchial asthma is presented. The mechanisms of the appearance of virus induced attacks and bronchial hyperreactiveness have been analyzed. The role of the immune response of the body as well as anti-inflammatory and chemotaxic cytokines in the development of bronchial obstruction and hyperreactiveness has been substantiated. The conclusion on the role of ARVI especially induced by respiratory syncytial virus and rhinoviruses, in the development of immune response facilitating allergic sensitization and provoking attacks of bronchial asthma has been made.     

Characteristics of acute respiratory viral infections in children under conditions of technogenic environmental pollution

The results of observations on children with acute virus respiratory infections (ARVI) and who had long been residents of zones with different levels of technogenic pollution of the atmospheric air are presented. The technogenic pollution of the environment has been found to exert influence on the spread and clinical course of ARVI in children, this influence being the more pronounced, the higher is the level of xenobiotics in the atmospheric air. The severity of the disease is noted to depend on the development of a number of syndromes, aggravating the course of ARVI, such as the neurotoxic and bronchoobstructive syndromes. Bronchical and ENT lesions are the most frequent complication of the main disease. The child population residing under the conditions of high technogenic environmental pollution should be regarded as a group of risk subject to the aggravated course of ARVI, and the examination of sick children should be made with due regard to this circumstance.     

Directional biases in phylogenetic structure quantification: a Mediterranean case study

Recent years have seen an increasing effort to incorporate phylogenetic hypotheses to the study of community assembly processes. The incorporation of such evolutionary information has been eased by the emergence of specialized software for the automatic estimation of partially resolved supertrees based on published phylogenies. Despite this growing interest in the use of phylogenies in ecological research, very few studies have attempted to quantify the potential biases related to the use of partially resolved phylogenies and to branch length accuracy, and no work has examined how tree shape may affect inference of community phylogenetic metrics. In this study, we tested the influence of phylogenetic resolution and branch length information on the quantification of phylogenetic structure, and also explored the impact of tree shape (stemminess) on the loss of accuracy in phylogenetic structure quantification due to phylogenetic resolution. For this purpose, we used 9 sets of phylogenetic hypotheses of varying resolution and branch lengths to calculate three indices of phylogenetic structure: the mean phylogenetic distance (NRI), the mean nearest taxon distance (NTI) and phylogenetic diversity (stdPD) metrics. The NRI metric was the less sensitive to phylogenetic resolution, stdPD showed an intermediate sensitivity, and NTI was the most sensitive one; NRI was also less sensitive to branch length accuracy than NTI and stdPD, the degree of sensitivity being strongly dependent on the dating method and the sample size. Directional biases were generally towards type II errors. Interestingly, we detected that tree shape influenced the accuracy loss derived from the lack of phylogenetic resolution, particularly for NRI and stdPD. We conclude that well‐resolved molecular phylogenies with accurate branch length information are needed to identify the underlying phylogenetic structure of communities, and also that sensitivity of phylogenetic structure measures to low phylogenetic resolution can strongly vary depending on phylogenetic tree shape.     

Cycloferon--a new domestic preparation for the prophylaxis of influenza and other acute respiratory viral infections

The results of the placebo-controlled multicenter study of the epidemiological efficiency of the preparation Cycloferon for the prophylaxis of acute respiratory viral infections in children and adolescents are presented. A total of 16,000 children and adolescents were selected for the study. The epidemiological efficiency of the preparation manifested in 1.5- 2.9-fold decreased morbidity level with a protection index equal to 41 - 90%, was demonstrated.     

2009～2010年上海地区急性呼吸道感染病毒病原谱分析

调查2009~2010年上海地区人群急性呼吸道感染(ARTI)的病毒性病原,探讨2009甲型H1N1流感暴发背景下呼吸道感染病毒病原谱的构成。采用套式多重反转录-聚合酶链反应(RT-PCR)和实时荧光定量RT-PCR方法,对来自2 044例患者的2 044份标本(包括2 005份鼻咽拭子和39份肺泡灌洗液),同时检测腺病毒(ADV)、副流感病毒(PIV)、甲型流感病毒(FluA)、乙型流感病毒(FluB)、微小核糖核酸病毒、呼吸道合胞病毒(RSV)、人偏肺病毒(hMPV)、冠状病毒(CoV)和人博卡病毒(HBoV)。其中,656(32.09%)份标本经呼吸道病毒检测为阳性,52份标本为双重感染。FluA检出率最高(13.36%),其后依次为微小核糖核酸病毒(10.23%)、FluB(4.84%)、ADV(1.96%)、PIV(1.76%)、RSV(1.32%)、CoV(0.59%)、hMPV(0.39%)和HBoV(0.20%)。但各月病毒检出率分布不均,2009和2010年呼吸道病毒检出率高峰出现在当年11月(53.07%和65.59%),低谷都出现在当年5月,且2009年5~9月的病毒检出率高于2010年同期(32.02%vs15.38%,P<0.05)。其中,2009甲型H1N1流感暴发导致2009年10月~2010年1月2009甲型H1N1流感病毒占当月检出FluA的100%,2009年6~9月也占当月检出FluA的较高比率,依次为90.91%(20/22)、75.00%(15/20)、48.00%(12/25)和56.25%(18/32)。比较甲型H3N2流感病毒和2009甲型H1N1流感病毒分别在上呼吸道感染(URTI)和下呼吸道感染(LRTI)中的检出率,无统计学差异(URTI,85.29%vs76.61%;LRTI,14.71%vs23.39%;P>0.05)。呼吸道病毒检出率还与年龄相关,0~4岁组和5~14岁组病毒检出率高于其他年龄组。在0~4岁及≥65岁组中,微小核糖核酸病毒检出率最高,FluA次之;其余年龄组中FluA检出率最高。混合感染中15岁以下儿童占50%(26/52),微小核糖核酸病毒与其他病毒混合感染占84.62%(44/52)。本研究表明,上海地区2009~2010年FluA是最常见的急性呼吸道感染病原,2009甲型H1N1流感病毒成为2009年FluA的优势亚型。微小核糖核酸病毒是混合感染中最常见的病原。结果提示,应长期监测主要呼吸道病毒的活动水平,并加强对微小核糖核酸病毒流行病学和致病性的研究。     

Role of lymphokines in immune response in respiratory viral infections

The present review deals with the analysis of lymphokine response in two main respiratory viral infections: influenza and respiratory syncytial (RS) infection. Immune response in these two diseases has great phenomenological differences. In particular, in RS infection the intensive response of macrophages and epithelial cells, accompanied mainly by the synthesis and secretion of tumor necrosis factor and interleukin 8, is observed. Due to this fact no protective immunity is formed in RS infection, in contrast to influenza. The specific features of immune and lymphokine response in RS infection make it difficult to develop protective vaccines. At the same time it is with RS infection that the development of chronic bronchopulmonary diseases is linked. The analysis of the role of lymphokine response in respiratory viral infections, particularly in influenza and RS infections, confirms the necessity of revising therapy both in the acute and subacute stages of these diseases.     

Role of genetic factors in the epidemic process in respiratory viral infections

Observations carried out during 1973-1979 indicate that persons, who are frequently ill, determine the incidence of influenza and acute respiratory diseases among various groups of adult population at all epidemic periods. In constantly observed groups of different ages such persons were the source of 60-85% of the outbreaks of acute respiratory diseases. The correlation between genotypic blood markers (the ABO and HLA systems) and susceptibility to respiratory viruses has been established.     

The development and function of memory regulatory T cells after acute viral infections

Leptospira interrogans is responsible for a zoonotic disease known to induce severe kidney dysfunction and inflammation. In this work, we demonstrate that L. interrogans induces NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent secretion of IL-1β through the alteration of potassium transport in bone marrow-derived macrophages. Lysosome destabilization also contributed to the IL-1β production upon stimulation with live, but not dead, bacteria. Using bone marrow-derived macrophages from various TLRs and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-deficient mice, we further determined that IL-1β production was dependent on TLR2 and TLR4, suggesting a participation of the leptospiral LPS to this process. Hypokaliemia in leptospirosis has been linked to the presence of glycolipoprotein, a cell wall component of L. interrogans that is known to inhibit the expression and functions of the Na/K-ATPase pump. We show in this study that glycolipoprotein activates the inflammasome and synergizes with leptospiral LPS to produce IL-1β, mimicking the effect of whole bacteria. These results were confirmed in vivo, as wild-type mice expressed more IL-1β in the kidney than TLR2/4-deficient mice 3 d postinfection with L. interrogans. Collectively, these findings provide the first characterization, to our knowledge, of bacteria-induced activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome through the downregulation of a specific host potassium transporter.