Effect of carnosine on immunocompetent cells from alcoholic patients.

We studied the effect of natural dipeptide carnosine on phagocytosis, respiratory burst in neutrophils, and subpopulation composition of lymphocytes from healthy donors and alcoholic patients. Carnosine in vitro produced different effects on immunocompetent cells from healthy donors and patients with alcoholism. In patients with alcoholism phagocytic activity of leukocytes and generation of reaction oxygen species increased under the influence of carnosine in a concentration of 0.01 mM, but decreased after treatment with this compound in a concentration of 1 mM. Carnosine in both concentrations stimulated the respiratory burst, but had no effect on the count of phagocytic cells in healthy donors. Carnosine in a concentration of 0.01 mM increased the number of lymphocytes carrying apoptosis markers (CD95+) in patients with alcoholism not receiving therapy. Our results indicate that carnosine holds much promise for the therapy of alcoholism.

[The characteristics of the interferon system parameters in typologically different groups of patients with borderline mental disorders during treatment]. / Kharakteristika nekotorykh parametrov sistemy interferona v tipologicheski razlichnykh gruppakh bol'nykh s pogranichnymi psikhicheskimi rasstroistvami v protsesse lecheniia.

Lymphocyte gamma-interferon production and levels of serum interferon were studied in 94 patients with borderline psychiatric disorders on treatment. It was shown that parameters of interferon system in the acute disease period and their dynamics through the treatment depend on typological features of personality and initial level of interferon production. The patients with aggressive features of personality in acute disease exhibit significantly higher levels of serum interferon than those in patients with submissive features which drop after recovery. The same tendency occurred in hysterical patients (hystero-expressive and hystero-impressive types). These findings may be due to different reaction of immune system to chronic emotional stress in different types of personality.

[Cytogenetic instability, the ability to produce interferon and immunoreactivity of blood lymphocytes in patients with schizophrenia]. / Tsitogeneticheskaia nestabil'nost', sposobnost' produtsirovat' interferon i immunoreaktivnost' limfotsitov krovi bol'nikh shizofreniei.

In schizophrenia patients, the level of T-lymphocytes with cytogenetic aberrations is elevated, and the ability of these cells for PGA-blast-transformation and the interferon synthesis is reduced. The elevation of the lymphocytes ability for blast-transformation in the presence of the native preparation of DNA and for lysis of the erythrocytes proper is marked in these patients. The observed changes were especially marked in schizophrenia with an interrupted course.

[The interferon system of patients with schizophrenia during therapy]. / Sistema interferona u bol'nykh shizofreniei v protsesse terapii.

The status of the interferon system was studied in 100 schizophrenics, in 40 of them over time (during exacerbation of the process and after psychotropic therapy). It has been established that the lymphocyte production of alpha- and gamma-interferon is depressed during exacerbation of the disease. Following treatment lymphocyte production of alpha-interferon remained low, while the production of gamma-interferon normalized.