[Identification of potential causative infectious agents of chronic prostatitis].

Analysis of the data on etiology and pathogenesis of inflammatory processes in prostate including acute and chronic prostatitis as well as chronic pelvic pain syndrome is presented. It has been noted that about 50% of men of fertile age had clinical signs of chronic prostatitis at least once in life and that more than 60% of admissions to urologists in outpatient practices are related with clinical signs of chronic prostatitis. An appreciable decrease in quality of life similar to that due to myocardial infarction or Crohn's disease is observed in patients with chronic prostatitis. Prostatitis often has a chronic cyclic course with exacerbation and remission phases. Not rarely the disease has primary chronic course--without an apparent beginning as acute prostatitis. This leads to late diagnostics and difficulties with identification of etiologic factor, which commonly is a conditionally pathogenic microorganisms and mixed infections. Such difficulties can be a reason for inadequate treatment and complications of chronic prostatitis such as abscess, paraprostatitis, impotence, and infertility.

[Use of the bioluminescent method for the determination of bacterial adenosinetriphosphate (ATP-metry) in microbiology]. / Primenenie bioliuminestsentnogo metoda opredeleniia bakterial'nogo adenozintrifosfata (ATF-metrii) v mikrobiologii.

The attention of a wide circle of specialists has recently been attracted by different methods for rapid determination of pathogenic microorganisms in biological specimens, environmental objects and foodstuffs, as well as in cases of possible acts of bioterrorism. In this respect the bioluminescent method for determination of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) contained in microbial cells is of interest. The method is based on the interaction ATP, luciferase and luciferin, accompanied by giving off energy in the form of light emission. When compared with routine methods, the use of this method considerably reduces the duration of the analysis, and its high sensitivity is comparable with that of the polymerase chain reaction. In this review the data on the prospects of the practical use of the bioluminescent method of ATP-metry are presented.

[The characteristics of the caseinolytic activity of the contents of the large intestine in dysbiotic states]. / Osobennosti kazeinoliticheskoi aktivnosti soderzhimogo tolstoi kishki pri disbioticheskikh sostoianiiakh.

In the course of the study of the biochemical rapid method for the evaluation of microecological changes in the intestine by means of the test for the caseinolytic activity of fecal supernatants, the simultaneous presence of several enzymes in the samples under test was shown. Different degrees of the thermal inactivation of the active principle, linked with the expression of the positive caseinolytic sample, were established. The manifestations of caseinolytic activity, differing in their thermal stability, were found to have the proteolysis zone of equal size. The study showed the stability of this sign and its preservation during 1.5-2 years of storage of fecal supernatants in a refrigerator. Some details of making tests according to this method and the conditions ensuring the standard reproducibility of results were ascertained.

[Method of setting up the bacterial lysis reaction of Neisseria meningitidis strains]. / Metodika postanovki reaktsii bakterial'nogo lizisa shtammov Neisseria meningitidis.

A new method for making the reaction of the bacterial lysis of N. meningitidis strains has been developed, this method differing insignificantly from that recommended by the World Health Organization. The article presents the detailed descriptions of the preparation of Dulbecco's solution to be used in this reaction; the techniques of testing the sera of baby rabbits for the absence of antimeningococcal activity (the sera without such activity are used as the source of complement); the preparation of the meningococcal culture and the human sera under test for making the reaction; the techniques of making the controls and evaluating the results. This investigation has revealed that the reaction is highly sensitive and sero-group-specific. It has also confirmed the data on the presence of inherent bactericidal activity in some human sera after thermal inactivation and on the prozone phenomenon in the sera with high titers. This reaction has been used for the characterization of the sera of volunteers immunized with meningococcal bivalent vaccine A+C manufactured in the USSR.

[Protective somatic antigen of Corynebacterium diphtheriae]. / Zashchitnyi somaticheskii antigen Corynebacterium diphtheriae.

Deoxycholate C. diphtheriae extract was separated into fractions differing in the size of their molecules. Correlation between the molecular weight of each fraction, its specific protein content and its immunogenicity was observed. The high-molecular fraction (mol. wt. exceeding 300,000 daltons) was shown to be the protective somatic antigen of C. diphtheriae.