Asymptotic freedom in strong magnetic fields.

Perturbative gluon exchange interaction between quark and antiquark, or in a 3q system, is enhanced in a magnetic field and may cause vanishing of the total qq[over ¯] or 3q mass, and even unlimited decrease of it-recently called the magnetic collapse of QCD. The analysis of the one-loop correction below shows a considerable softening of this phenomenon due to qq[over ¯] loop contribution, similar to the Coulomb case of QED, leading to approximately logarithmic damping of gluon exchange interaction (≈O(1/ln|eB|)) at large magnetic field.

[Correlation between long-term proton pump ingibitor use, homocysteine and lipoproteins serum concentrations in patients with comorbidity of ischemic heart disease and acid peptic disease].

Present article is devoted to the study of the correlation between vitamin B12 serum level, hyperhomocysteinaemia and dyslipidemia. During research there were discovered that the lowest vitamin B12 serum level and the highest homocysteine serum level have been registrated in associated pathology (ischemic heart disease and acid peptic disease according to long-term proton pump inhibitor use) patients. It was shown evident correlation between that changes and dyslipidemia. Тhe complex therapy that includes parenteral B12 supplementation leads to more effective correction of hyperhomocysteinaemia and dyslipidemia in patients with comorbidity of ischemic heart disease and acid peptic disease with long-term use of proton pump inhibitors.

Therapeutic AIDS vaccines.

Therapeutic HIV vaccines represent promising strategy as an adjunct or alternative to current antiretroviral treatment options for HIV. Unlike prophylactic AIDS vaccines designed to prevent HIV infection, therapeutic vaccines are given to already infected individuals to help fight the disease by modulating their immune response. The first immunotherapeutic trial in AIDS patients was conducted in 1983. Since then several dozen conventional therapeutic vaccine trials have been carried out. Unfortunately, the results have consistently shown that while HIV-specific immune responses were evident as a result of vaccination, the clinical improvement has been seldom observed. The instances of the apparent clinical benefit were invariably associated with unconventional vaccines that acted in accord with the principles of alloimmunization and/or autologous vaccination. All such vaccines were derived from the blood of HIV carriers or a cell culture and thus they inherently contained allo- or self-antigens unrelated to HIV. This intriguing observation raises the issue whether this clinically successful approach has been unduly neglected. The current strategy biased toward vaccines, which have shown little evidence of clinical efficacy, needs to be diversified and supplemented with research on alternative vaccine approaches geared toward immune tolerance induction.

Molecular epidemiology of the hepatitis C virus in Western Siberia.

Western Siberia is the region with little information on the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, genotypic diversity of HCV isolates and risk factors. A molecular epidemiological survey was conducted to clarify these issues. Four groups of volunteers were included in a cross-sectional study (n = 500 in each group): health care workers; daycare patients from a hospital for drug users, daycare patients from an AIDS prevention and control center; and persons admitted to a local general practice clinic for any reason (outpatients). The anti-HCV IgG prevalence was 4.6% in health care workers, 48.0% in a narcological center, 35.8% in AIDS center, and 5.6% in outpatients. HCV RNA was found in 79.3%-86.3% of seropositives. A total of 388 HCV isolates were genotyped by direct sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the 5'-UTR and NS5B regions of HCV genome. The genotypes distribution was: 1b--50.3%, 2a--4.4%, 2c--0.3%, 3a--44.8%. One isolate (0.3%) could not be typed unambiguously. This genotypic diversity is intermediate between that of European Russia and China. Genotype 1 prevailed in an older age group (75% among 51-60 years old), and genotype 3 was most prevalent in young people (51.4% in 16-20 years old). A statistically significant (P < 0.05) increase in risk was found in intravenous drug users (odds ratio (OR) = 77.5), unemployed persons (OR = 16.3), persons having >4 sexual partners during lifetime (OR = 4.3), and male homosexuals (OR = 6.6).

Blood antidiuretic activity and selected haemodynamic indicators in patients with essential hypertension.

In patients with essential hypertension the blood antidiuretic activity was studied in relation to the haemodynamics. It was found that the blood antidiuretic activity increased in parallel with the rise in the total peripheral resistance, and with the decreases in the blood and plasma volumes, stroke volume, and end-diastolic heart volume. The role of antidiuretic hormone in the regulation of haemodynamics in hypertensive patients is discussed.

"Exaggerated" natriuresis in experimental hypertension and the role of the natriuretic factor.

In rabbits with experimental ischaemic cerebral hypertension the role of the natriuretic factor in the genesis of the phenomenon of "exaggerated" natriuresis after extracellular space expansion was studied. In control animals an expansion of the extracellular fluid was followed by an elevation of the natriuretic factor in blood, whereas in hypertensive rabbits the phenomenon did not appear. Besides, in hypertensive rabbits the urinary excretion and the clearance of the natriuretic factor were considerably higher than in the control animals. In the genesis of exaggerated natriuresis in hypertension a certain role is doubtlessly played by the natriuretic factor.

Experiments with micro-organisms and human cell cultures in the Zond 5 and Zond 7 flights.

Lysogenic strains of Escherichia coli were exposed to space conditions aboard the flight of Zond 5 and Zond 7. Space flight factors appeared to affect the state of episome systems of bacteria, as judged by data obtained with F-Lac+ donor cells which also carried genetic markers for threonine and leucine. Observations on phage induction are discussed and compared with results obtained aboard Biosatellite 2. A number of monolayer cultures of human cells (HeLa cells, fibroblasts, and A-1 cells) were repeatedly exposed to the space environment. In one instance, HeLa 19 cells increased in size after exposure to space conditions, a change which appeared to be genetically stable. HeLa 19 cells which were carried on six separate space flights showed a higher viability than corresponding cultures which were exposed only once aboard Zond 5.