[The immunological status indices of monkeys inoculated with a meningococcal B vaccine]. / Pokazateli immunologicheskogo statusa obez'ian, privitykh meningokokkovoi B-vaktsinoi.

The method for the determination of bacterial antibodies to group B meningococci was worked out. The method was used for the determination of antibodies to group B meningococcal vaccine produced in the USSR. The dynamic study of antibodies to protein, polysaccharide and lipopolysaccharide antigens of group B meningococci was made by the method of the enzyme immunoassay (EIA), and the safety of the vaccine was studied by the determination of autoantibodies active against brain tissue antigens. The data thus obtained were indicative of the immunological activity of group B protein-polysaccharide vaccines, manifested by the capacity for stimulating bactericidal antibodies whose level increased 8- to 10-fold after the immunization of monkeys in 2 and 3 injections. Similarity in the dynamics of the formation of bacteriolysins and antibodies to protein antigen, as determined in EIA, was noted. The vaccine was found to stimulate no cytotoxic anticerebral antibodies in the glia migration test, which was indicative of the safety of group B meningococcal vaccine.

[A comparative study of the immunogenicity of 2 group-B meningococcal vaccines in monkeys]. / Sravnitel'noe izuchenie immunogennosti dvukh meningokokkovykh vaktsin gruppy B na obez'ianakh.

The comparative study of two group B meningococcal vaccines manufactured in the USSR and in Cuba was made. The vaccine manufactured in the USSR contained the noncovalent compound of group B Neisseria meningitidis polysaccharide and outer membrane protein, and the Cuban vaccine contained group B N. meningitidis outer membrane proteins and group C N. meningitidis polysaccharide. The data obtained in this study indicated that both vaccines possessed immunological potency evaluated according to their capacity to stimulate the formation of bactericidal antibodies, whose level was found to increase eightfold after the immunization of monkeys in two injections. Besides, group B meningococcal vaccines did not induce the suppression of nonspecific protective activity characteristics of the body and did not stimulate the formation of autoantibodies to brain and liver tissues, which was indicative of the safety of these vaccines.

[The isolation and immunologic study of ribosomal preparations from Shigella flexneri]. / Poluchenie i immunologicheskoe issledovanie ribosomal'nykh preparatov iz Shigella flexneri.

S. flexneri ribosomal preparations were isolated by differential centrifugation or by fractionation with polyethylene glycol-6000. Their chemical composition and spectrophotometric properties were characteristic of ribosomes, and, as shown by the results of the serological assay, the content of O-specific component was, on the average, 1.4%. The ribosomal preparations were nontoxic for mice when injected intraperitoneally and intravenously in large doses and induced systemic O-antibody response in mice and rabbits. The parenteral administration of ribosomes to guinea pigs led to the increase of resistance to Shigella keratoconjunctivitis. The results of different tests with the use of this model greatly varied. According to the summary data of several tests, the ribosomal vaccine enhanced the resistance of the eyes from 11.3% to 48.5% and the effectiveness coefficient of immunization was 42 +/- 6. Ribosomes isolated from S. flexneri avirulent strain 2a 51.6 M (Iu. A. Belaia's vaccine) showed the same activity as those isolated from virulent strains. The results obtained in this study suggest the expediency of further experimental study of ribosomal preparations obtained from S. flexneri as potential vaccine.

[Encephalomyocarditis in hamadryas baboons]. / Entsefalomiokardit u pavianov gamadrilov.

In 1978--1979, four cases of encephalomyocarditis were recorded in baboons in a simian preserve of the USSR AMS Research Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy located in the Zapadnyaya Gumista river valley. The diagnosis was made on the basis of virological and pathomorphological examinations. The isolate recovered from the dead monkeys was identical with the prototype strain of encephalomyocarditis virus (EMC) and the EMC-70 strain previously isolated by us from M. rhesus monkeys. The infection of monkeys caused by the EMC-78/79 virus involved a severe affection of the myocardium of the type of parenchymatous-interstitial myocarditis, moderate encephalitis in the central nervous system, inflammatory changes in the brown fat and cross-striated muscles. An experimental infection in guinea pigs and mice exhibited similar features.

[Pathologic anatomy of experimental diseases of small laboratory animals caused by encephalomyocarditis virus (strain EMK-70)]. / Patologicheskaia anatomiia éksperimental'nogo zabolevaniia melkikh laboratornykh zhivotnykh, vyzvannogo virusom éntsefalomiokardita (shtamm EMK-70).

The results of pathomorphological investigation of the disease in small laboratory animals experimentally induced by the EMC-70 strain of encephalomyocarditis virus isolated from monkeys are presented. Irrespective of the mode of virus injection, the newborn and juvenile mice developed some lesions in the brown fat, transverse-striated muscles, as well as in the brain and heart. In guinea pigs the changes were characterized by the development of severe myocarditis and encephalitis accompanied by viral antigen accumulation. The disease induced by the EMC-70 strain could not be differentiated from the Coxsackie infection by the pathomorphological data. This fact should be taken into consideration in solving some problems pertinent to pathoanatomical diagnosis of viral diseases.

[Changes in transplantable cultures infected with mycoplasmas isolated from leukemic monkeys]. / Izmeneniia v perevivaemykh kul'turakh, zarazhennykh mikoplazmami, vydelennymi ot obez'ian, bol'nykh leikozom

Four strains of mycoplasms isolated from monkeys with malignant lymphoma and haematosarcoma induced an apparent cytopathogenic effect (CPE) only in the FL culture in the first passage. No visible CPE was observed in L and HeLa, and also in FL cultures of the second and further passages infected with the same mycoplasm strains. However, the infected cultures differed reliably from the control ones by a higher index of cell alteration and by an increased mitotic activity. According to these indices they can be regarded as cultures with a latent CPE.

[Identification of mycoplasmas isolated from monkeys]. / Identifikatsiia mikoplazm, vydelennykh ot obez'ian

The authors identified 15 strains of mycoplasmae isolated from Papio hamadryas suffering from leukemia and from healthy Macacus rhesus, a green monkey and saimiri. A study was made of their biochemical properties, antigenic properties in the reaction of growth depression with immune sera to a number of standard strains, and also the protein composition by electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel (EPAG). A number of mycoplasmae were identified as A. laidlawii, M. arthritidis--Campo and M. cynomolgus KI, affilated to M. orale II. Four strains were apparently a mixture of three mycoplasmae (M. cynomolgus KI, M. arthritidis--Campo, and M. hyorhinis). Six strains of mycoplasmae (three enzymatically active, belonging according to EPAG data to a single serological type, and three--enzymatically inert, differing by EPAG) could not be identified.