Psychopathological and hormonal manifestations of alcoholic intoxication and emotional stress in monkeys

Ethological approach to studying mature P. hamadryas and M. mulatta males has revealed a wide spectrum of changes in individual and zoosocial behaviour in response to the administration of different alcohol doses and stress stimuli. It has been established that neuroendocrine basis for the depression of psychic and locomotor activities developing in conditions of alcohol intoxication and emotional stress is an extremely high release of catecholamines and the increase of glucocorticoid secretion accompanied by a sharp decrease in androgen products. It should be noted that the exposure to stress stimuli during consumption of small alcohol doses intensifies depression-like stress-induced behaviour of monkeys.     

Formalin-free method of preserving endocrine glands of the branchiogenous group (thyroid, parathyroid and thymus)]

The authors propose a conservation method developed at the Department of Normal Anatomy of the Pavlov First Medical Institute. The conservation is performed by simultaneous using of chemicals upon which the method is based: conservant and latex. The conservant is a mixture of glycerine, potassium acetate and water in proportion 45% : 10% : 45%. The latex is industrial artifical rubber.     

Predicting the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy in the treatment of gonorrhea

A complex method is suggested to prognosticate the efficiency of treating gonorrheal urethritis in men with allowance for a preliminary determination of the cell respiration activity in agents. In the case of low indices of these processes, it is possible to stimulate aerobic processes in gonococci if applying for 4 days before the specific treatment daily subcutaneous injections of plasmol (a biostimulator) by the ascending scheme and local irrigation of the urethra by oxygen cocktails through irrigators of special design. The developed method has the author certificate (A. c. 1107867 USSR). Application of the method shortens significantly the terms of treatment, the number of the infection recurrences being considerably decreased. To accelerate the determination of the sensitivity to antibiotics the procedure of genococcus microcultivation in special chambers is applied which permits observing the growth and reproduction of microorganisms in the phase-contrast microscope.     

Preoperative [131I]metaiodobenzylguanidine therapy of neuroblastoma at diagnosis ("MIBG de novo").

The observed response of [131I]metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG) therapy in advanced neuroblastoma after conventional therapy had failed, the noninvasiveness of the procedure, and the high metabolic activity of untreated tumors led to a new protocol to use 131I-MIBG therapy in newly diagnosed patients instead of combination chemotherapy prior to surgery. The objectives of this study are to improve the overall outcome of patients with neuroblastoma by introducing 131I-MIBG therapy as the first therapy in the treatment schedule, in order to reduce the tumor volume, enabling adequate surgical resection and avoiding toxicity and the induction of early drug resistance. The advantages of this approach are that the child's general condition is unaffected before surgical resection is performed and that chemotherapy is reserved to treat minimal residual disease. So far, 13 patients with inoperable neuroblastoma (stage III and IV) were treated with 131I-MIBG initially and then submitted to surgery. More than 50% decrease of the volume of the primary tumor was noted in 7 of 10 evaluable patients; 8 patients have so far been operated with complete resection in 2, greater than 95% resection in 5 and 80% resection in one patient. Three patients are still undergoing 131I-MIBG treatment. The toxicity of 131I-MIBG de novo is in contrast with the previous experience of 131I-MIBG therapy after conventional therapy: only 4 patients had thrombocytopenia and only 1 of 7 patients with bone marrow involvement developed bone marrow depression.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Advances in Hydrogel-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Parkinson's Disease

Neurochemical Research - Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common central nervous system disorder (CNS) characterized by cell loss in the substantia nigra. Severe loss of dopaminergic neurons and...     

Mechanism of enzymatic catalysis. Quantum chemistry study of models of serine proteases

The results of molecular orbital calculations for reactions in the active site of serine proteases are outlined. The agreement and disagreement between these results and the theories of enzyme catalysis are discussed.     

Enzymatic synthesis of 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine by free and immobilized Citrobacter freundii cells

The Citrobacter freundii 62 cells immobilized in PAAG and possessing the tyrosine-phenol-lyase (TPL) activity catalyse the synthesis of 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine (DOPA) from pyrocatechol and ammonium pyruvate. The synthesis of DOPA was studied using both free and immobilized bacterial cells. When the concentration of pyrocatechol is over 0.1 M the TPL activity of the cells is inhibited. The concentration of pyrocatechol can be increased up to 0.3 M by using an equimolar mixture of pyrocatechol and boric acid. The addition of ascorbic acid as an antioxidant results in a lower TPL activity of both free and immobilized bacterial cells.