A new role for PGRP-S (Tag7) in immune defense: lymphocyte migration is induced by a chemoattractant complex of Tag7 with Mts1

PGRP-S (Tag7) is an innate immunity protein involved in the antimicrobial defense systems, both in insects and in mammals. We have previously shown that Tag7 specifically interacts with several proteins, including Hsp70 and the calcium binding protein S100A4 (Mts1), providing a number of novel cellular functions. Here we show that Tag7–Mts1 complex causes chemotactic migration of lymphocytes, with NK cells being a preferred target. Cells of either innate immunity (neutrophils and monocytes) or acquired immunity (CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ lymphocytes) can produce this complex, which confirms the close connection between components of the 2 branches of immune response.     

Morbidity in acute virus hepatitis B on the territory of Kabardin-Balkaria

Morbidity in acute virus hepatitis B (AVHB) in Kabardin-Balkaria during the period of 1992 to 2003 was analyzed. The dynamics of changes in the age groups of AVHB patients, as well as in the structure of the transmission routes of the disease, was analyzed. The level of AVHB morbidity in the Kabardin-Balkar Republic was lower in recent years than the average level of such morbidity in the whole of Russia. The sharply defined irregularity in the territorial distribution of AVHB cases was established. The highest morbidity rates in AVHB were registered in Nalchik, as well as in Chegem and Prokhladnensk regions. The leading role in the formation of the morbidity in acute virus hepatitis B on the territory of Kabardin-Balkaria belongs to Nalchik, where 56.8% of AVHB cases were registered. In the structure of the transmission routes of AVHB the prevalence of artificial paths was noted; among them, the highest proportion belonged to parenteral medical manipulations in outpatient clinics (32.9%). The proportion of AVHB cases associated with the intravenous use of drugs was 6.9%. In the age structure of AVHB patients adults prevailed, and among them the highest number of cases was registered in the age groups of 20 - 29 years and 30 - 39 years. In 2002 the total proportion of AVHB cases among the patients of these age groups reached 68.3%.     

Allelic Combinations of Immune Response Genes and Risk of Development of Myocardial Infarction

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a multifactorial polygenic disease. It develops because of the complex interaction between many environmental and genetic factors. In this paper, we have studied associations of MI and allele combinations of 17 polymorphic markers of immune response genes in an ethnically homogeneous group of Tatars. The material for analysis was DNA samples of patients (286 men) with onset of MI at the age of 30 to 60 years and 301 essentially healthy men of the control group. Using the APSampler algorithm, we obtained allele combinations with the increased risk of MI in which allele variants CX3CR1*M (rs3732378), VCAM1*C (rs3917010), ICAM1*E (rs5498), LTA*A (rs909253), and TNFRSF1B*M (rs1061622) occurred the most often.     

Survival of amphibian embryos after continuous ultrasound treatment

The influence of continuous ultrasound on the embryonic development of grass frog Rana temporaria has been investigated. Intact embryos at the blastula stage were treated by ultrasound of different frequency (0.88 and 2.64 MHz), intensity (0.05-1.0 W/cm2), and duration (1-15 min). The treatment with ultrasound of frequency 0.88 MHz and intensity 0.05 W/cm2 for 1-5 min tended to increase the proportion of normally developing embryos up to hatch (10-25% of control). Increasing the intensity of ultrasound (0.88 MHz) to 0.7-1.0 W/cm2 and the duration of its action to 5-15 min induced the death of almost all of treated embryos. No significant differences were found between the development of control embryos and embryos treated with ultrasound of middle intensity (0.2-0.7 W/cm2) for 1-5 min. The exposure of amphibian embryos to ultrasound of frequency 2.64 MHz and intensity 0.05-0.7 W/cm2 for 1-5 min did not change their survival. Increasing the intensity of ultrasound (2.64 MHz) to 1.0 W/cm2 and the duration of its action to 5 min decreased the number of normal developing embryos (by 35%).     

Evaluation of the system for controlling the quality of the HBsAg detection in the system of screening laboratories

The two-stage control system, ensuring the high quality of serological investigations in the network of screening laboratories in Moscow was developed and introduced into practice. At the first stage the entry control of the quality of the test system for the detection of HbsAg, coming to the screening laboratories, is made in the reference laboratory with the use of specially developed "representative" panels, as well as the test systems for comparison ("reference" test systems). Then "minipanels" are formed from specimens included into the "representative" panels, which are used for the evaluation of the quality of laboratory investigations made in the screening laboratories. The high quality of such system for controlling the quality of the detection of HBsAg in the screening laboratories of Moscow is shown.     

Influence of lipids on ice formation during the freezing of cryoprotective medium

The influence of lipids on ice formation during the freezing of cryoprotective medium for the semen of rainbow trout has been studied by the cryomicroscopy technique. It was shown that the lipids extracted from marine vertebrates and liposomes from the lipids of trout sperm effectively inhibit the ice formation in cryoprotective solutions during freezing, fundamentally changing the form and size of ice crystals. At high concentrations of lipids, either the crystallization does not occur in the cryoprotective medium or, even if ice crystals are formed, they have a broken shape and blurred borders. The addition of egg yolk sligthly increases the size and essentially changes the shape of ice crystals during the freezing of solution.     

Prevalence of HBV and HCV markers in patients of specialized medical institutions

240 medical histories of patients admitted to Moscow clinical narcological hospital No. 17 with "opium addiction" diagnosis in 2000 and 2003 (120 histories for each year) were analyzed. From 1997 to 2003 4220 patients registered in narcological dispensary of Cherepovets city (Vologda region) were tested for HBsAg and anti-HCV. It has been shown that in new injection opiate drug users young patients (15 - 19 y.o.) predominated (41.7%). Tendency to development of drug addiction in younger age was revealed - in 2003 compared to 2001 percent of new injection drug users aged 11 - 14 years admitted to hospital raised in 1.5 times. In 2000 and 2003 in Moscow markers of HIV and/or HBV/HCV infection were detected in 84.2 and 91.7% of injection drug users respectively. Maximal rates of HBV and HCV infection in injection drug users in Cherepovets city were detected in 2001 - 11.7 and 83.1% respectively. Leading role of injection drug users in maintenance of HBVand HCV epidemic process activity in Russia was established.     

AmylPepPred: Amyloidogenic Peptide Prediction tool

We present an efficient computational architecture designed using supervised machine learning model to predict amyloid fibril forming protein segments, named AmylPepPred. The proposed prediction model is based on bio-physio-chemical properties of primary sequences and auto-correlation function of their amino acid indices. AmylPepPred provides a user friendly web interface for the researchers to easily observe the fibril forming and non-fibril forming hexmers in a given protein sequence. We expect that this stratagem will be highly encouraging in discovering fibril forming regions in proteins thereby benefit in finding therapeutic agents that specifically aim these sequences for the inhibition and cure of amyloid illnesses.

Availability

AmylPepPred is available freely for academic use at www.zoommicro.in/amylpeppred