Effect of brain antibodies on the lipid peroxidation process in the brain

The authors studies the effects of blood serum and IgG fraction from dogs immunized with brain and blood sera from patients with multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia on lipid peroxidation in rat brain homogenates. Measured the content of diene conjugates (DC) and malonic dialdehyde (MDA) in the rat brain after administering the IgG fraction. It was established that antioxidant activity of blood sera and IgG fraction from control animals and donors was significantly higher as compared to experimental. Administration of the IgG fraction brought about an increase in the content of DC and MDA in the brain of experimental animals. It is concluded that complement-dependent brain antibodies present in the blood serum of patients with schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis potentiate lipid peroxidation in the cerebral tissue and that the unsophisticated and informative method for antibody determination may be used in clinical practice.     

Structural Organization and Specificity of Territorial Links among Birds of Inner Mountain and High-Mountain Dagestan

Biology Bulletin - Abstract—The results of our bird counts carried out in 1996–2017 in inner mountain and high-mountain Dagestan are analyzed. The bird specific composition, average...     

Changes in the strategy of migration of gulls (Laridae) along the western coast of the Caspian Sea as a result of environmental changes in space and time

This paper generalizes the data obtained in 1995–2014 in the regions of the Sulak and Turali lagoons of Dagestan (the western coast of the Middle Caspian). The lagoons are located in a “bottleneck” that is a narrow migration corridor traversed by one of the largest migration routes of trans-palearctic species in Russia. This route is a part of the West Siberian–East African migration range. The migration traffic and territorial localization of the Laridae populations participating in the total migratory flow along the western coast of the Caspian Sea have been determined. The present-day migratory range of Laridae that covers the space from West Europe to the Baikal Lake and West India is specified. It is determined that Dagestan is crossed not by one but two independent and stable migration flows of Laridae, which fly across the transit region in different migration routes, but at the same periods of time. Three types of migration intensity of Laridae across the study area are defined: weak, average, and mass migration. Both spring and autumn migrations include five peaks of migration activity (migratory waves). Migratory timing, taxonomical composition, and abundance of different Laridae species vary for each degree type of migratory waves. The key determinants of migratory wave intensities are the abundance of migratory populations and weather conditions of a year. Over the last 5–7 years there has been a steady decrease in the abundance of some Laridae species on the western coast of the Middle Caspian that takes place under the impact of a set of regulating factors, which act across the whole migration range. The decrease in the abundance of migratory Laridae leads to a “blurring” of clear boundaries between migratory waves and migration intensity, changing migration routes of some Laridae populations, which now have shifted from traditional wintering routes along the western coast of the Caspian Sea and countries of the Middle East and northeastern Africa to India.     

Characterization of purified c-type heme-containing peptides and identification of c-type heme-attachment sites in Shewanella oneidenis cytochromes using mass spectrometry

We describe methods for mass spectrometric identification of heme-containing peptides from c-type cytochromes that contain the CXXCH (X=any amino acid) sequence motif. The heme fragment ion yielded the most abundant MS/MS peak for standard heme-containing peptides with one amino acid difference for both 2+ and 3+ peptide charge states; both sequence and charge affect the extent of heme loss. Application to Shewanella oneidenis demonstrated the utility of this approach for identifying c-type heme-containing peptides from complex proteome samples.     

Protective action of antioxidant preparations on the development of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in guinea pigs

The authors studied the action of combined tocopherol, lithium hydroxybutyrate and pyridoxal phosphate on the development of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in guinea-pigs. The use of the combined drug from the first days of immunization with encephalitis-inducing material prevented the development of EAE, activation of lipid peroxidation (LPO), and the appearance of the blood serum neurotropic activity. Administration of the combined drug starting from the 7th day after immunization appeared ineffective as was the administration of each drug alone, starting from the first days of immunization. The data obtained support an important role of LPO activation for the pathogenesis of the neuroallergic process.     

Dipeptide interactions with Zn(II)–cyclen artificial model for molecular recognition

The Zn(II)–cyclen–dipeptide ternary systems (where cyclen is abbreviated as L and dipeptide is glycylglycine (HL¹) or glycyl‐(S)‐alanine (HL²)) were investigated by potentiometry applying both “out‐of‐cell” and direct titrations and by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. Especially, the ¹H NMR study was found to be very efficient to estimate speciation in the systems. The results obtained under full equilibria indicated two main species, [Zn(L)(HL^1,2)]²⁺ and [Zn(L)(L^1,2)]⁺, in both the systems. In the [Zn(L)(HL^1,2)]²⁺ complex, presence of carbonyl‐carboxylate chelate was confirmed, and in the [Zn(L)(L^1,2)]⁺ species, the peptide coordination is re‐organized to carbonyl‐amine chelate or only terminal amino group is coordinated. Equilibrium constants describing [Zn(L)]²⁺–dipeptide interaction are relatively low, log K = 3.4 for Gly‐Gly and 4.1 for Gly‐(S)‐Ala, respectively. Nevertheless, the values are slightly higher than stability constants for interaction of Zn(II) with the dipeptides (i.e. [Zn(L^1,2)]⁺ species) where a chelate formation is expected. It indicates that interaction between Zn(II) ion in [Zn(L)]²⁺ and the dipeptides should be supported by some additional interactions. Potentiometry carried out under non‐equilibrum condition showed different species where these additional stabilizing forces play more important role. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acoustic thermometry of the patient brain with traumatic brain injury

Non-invasive deep brain acoustic thermometry is carried out for two patients at Burdenko Neurosurgery Institute. This method is based on the measurements of the own thermal acoustic radiation of the investigated object. These two patients have got the brain injury. Some of their skull bones are absent. Infrared thermometry was also used to measure the surface temperature of the forehead skin. On the basis of the experimental data the temperatures deep within the brain were reconstructed. The values for the two patients are equal to 37.3 ± 0.7 and 37.0 ± 0.3°C.     

Simulation of individual risk based on the results of exercise tests and analysis of risk factors

The materials of a cross-sectional and prospective Russian-US population study (the Russian Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Study) have been used to develop models intended for estimating the probability of death from coronary heart disease, all cardiovascular disease, and all causes over 10 and 20 years. The prediction was performed by constructing artificial neural networks. Testing on an independent sample has shown an accuracy of 66–73%.