[Destruction of mustard gas hydrolysis products by marine and soil bacteria].

Destruction of mustard gas hydrolysis products by bacterial cultures isolated from soils and bottom waters at the sites of chemical weapons disposal has been studied. Among the tested microorganisms, the soil bacteria Pseudomonas putida Y-21 and Rhodococcus erythropolis 8D and the marine bacteria Achromobacter sp. 75-1, Arthrobacter sp. 23-3, and Pseudomonas sp. 93-2 show the highest activity. Thiodiglycol is utilized by two pathways; one of them, with formation of [(2-hydroxyethyl)thio]acetic and thiodiglycolic and thioglycolic acids, is a common pathway for all bacteria under study. The results demonstrate both the possibility of self-purification of natural objects by natural communities of microorganisms and the prospects for application of microorganisms--destructors in bioremediation of polluted territories.

[ApoE genotype and efficacy of neurotrophic and cholinergic therapy in Alzheimer's disease].

Correlation association between an ApoE4 genotype in patients with mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease and efficacy of neurotrophic (cerebrolysin) and cholinergic (exelon) therapy was studied in the groups of patients formed using case-control method. A 4-month treatment has shown that both types of therapy had a significant clinical effect, however clinical effect proved to be more higher and stable in patients treated with cerebrolysin. A number of responders in the cerebrolysin group was 1.7-fold higher comparing to that in the exelon group. Patients with the ApoE4(+) genotype did not differ in response to either drug but in those with genotype ApoE4(-) the number of responders was 3-fold higher in the group treated with cerebrolysin compared to the group given exelon. A follow-up estimation of cognitive impairment in ApoE4(-) patients revealed that long-term clinical effect of cerebrolysin treatment was 6.5 times higher than that of exelon.

[Neuropsychological evaluation of long-term therapy of Alzheimer's disease using different cerebrolysin dosages].

An open comparative randomized clinico-neuropsychological study of 4 cerebrolysin treatment courses was conducted during 19 months. The differences in long-term effects of different medication dosages (10 and 30 ml) were revealed. The higher cerebrolysin dose was more effictive for cognitive functioning of patients. In patients receiving a dosage of 10 ml, the disease progress was significantly more pronounced. The results obtained indicate that a course of cerebrolysin treatment in higher dosages significantly inhibited neurodegenerative process.

Content of autoantibodies to bradykinin and beta-amyloid(1-42) as a criterion for biochemical differences between Alzheimer's dementias.

We measured serum content of autoantibodies to beta-amyloid protein Abeta(1-42), its neurotoxic fragment Abeta(25-35), vasopressin, bradykinin, thrombin, antithrombin III, alpha(2)-macroglobulin, and angiotensin II in patients with various forms of Alzheimer's dementias, including presenile and senile dementias of the Alzheimer type. The ratio of antibradykinin and anti-Abeta(1-42) autoantibody contents differed by 39% in these patients. Our results can be used for the development of a new biochemical method for differential diagnostics of dementias of the Alzheimer type.

[Current strategies of pathogenetic therapy of Alzheimer's disease]. / Sovremennye strategii patogeneticheskoi terapii bolezni Al'tsgeimera.

This is a review of the data available in the literature and the authors' own findings on pathogenetical rationale for the use and clinical study of current treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) (synonym: Alzheimer-type dementia). In the past decade many attempts have been made at targeting different links of the pathogenesis of a neurodegenerative process that underlie AD. Several areas of pathogenetical therapy for AD have been developed on the basis of experimental studies and pilot clinical tests. The most developed areas are as follows: various compensatory (replacement) treatments aimed at overcoming neurotransmitter deficit in different neuronal systems that are damaged in AD to a greater or lesser extent; neuroprotective therapy promoting increased viability (survival) of neurons and their plasticity, and vasoactive therapy. Rather new directions of AD pathogenetic therapy, such as antiinflammatory and hormonal therapy along with antiamyloid therapeutic strategies are still under study.

Autoantibodies to beta-amyloid and neurotransmitters in patients with Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia of the Alzheimer type.

The content of autoantibodies to beta-amyloid protein Abeta(1-42), its neurotoxic fragment Abeta(25-35), and neurotransmitters were studied in the blood of patients with presenile Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. Significant differences in the relative content of autoantibodies to Abeta(1-42)and autoantibodies to biogenic amines were demonstrated. These results can be used for the development of a biochemical method for differential diagnosis of Alzheimer dementias.

[Quantitative EEG in early and differential diagnosis of mild dementia of different genesis]. / Kolichestvennaia élektroéntsefalografiia v rannei i differentsial'noi diagnostike "miagkikh" dementsii raznogo geneza.

Quantitative EEG was used to reveal the specific features of its amplitude-frequency parameters and topography in patients with mild dementia of different genesis versus healthy elderly individuals. All four study groups of patients differ in EEC relative spectral density, they also differ from the healthy persons while alpharhythm was suppressed in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) and there was slower alpha-rhythm and higher theta-activity in senile AD (SAD). Patients with VD were characterized by desynchronized EEG. Factorial and stepwise discriminant analyses of EEG parameters showed that the control group greatly differed from patients with mild dementias. Patient groups mainly with atrophic atrophic AD and SAD or vascular (VD and mixed) dementia were also different whereas the mixed vascular-atrophic group is intermediate in EEC parameters between the VD group and the partially overlapped AD and SDA patient groups. Quantitative EEC data may be thus used for differential diagnosis to optimize therapy and prognosis even in mild dementia.

[The influence of cerebrolysin on the efficiency of subsequent therapy with amiridine++ in Alzheimer's disease patients (neuropsychological investigation)]. / Vliianie tserebrolizina na éffektivnost' posleduiushchei terapii amiridinom u bol'nykh s bolezn'iu Al'tsgeimera (neiropsikhologiches- koe issledovanie).

The paper presents a study concerning an influence of cerebrolysin on the efficiency of subsequent therapy with amiridin in patients with mild and moderate dementia of Altzheimer's type (DAT). A study included 2 groups of patients similar in terms of clinical and demographic parameters. The patients of group 1 (23 cases) were treated by amiridin in daily dose of 80 mg during 10 weeks. In group 2 (26 patients) a session of 20 intravenous infusions of cerebrolysin (30 ml in 150 ml of physiologic solution during 4 weeks) preceded the same therapy with amiridin. The neuropsychological assessment was made according to Luria's method with a quantitative estimation of the regulatory and operational components of mental activity. Comparison of the results of neuropsychologic examination both before and after the therapy showed a more pronounced improvement in the states of all regulatory and separate operational components of mental activity in combined therapy with cerebrolysin and amiridin versus monotherapy with amiridin. In patients of group 2 with disturbances of higher mental functions the pathological symptomatology connected with anterior frontal and deep structures of brain was significantly decreased as compared with the patients from group 1.

[Neuropsychologic method in diagnosis of mild dementia in elderly and senile patients]. / Neiropsikhologicheskii metod v diagnostike miagkoi dementsii u lits pozhilogo i starcheskogo vozrasta.

Clinical neuropsychologic investigation was performed in 95 patients of elderly and senile age with mild dementia: 20 individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 25 patients with senile dementia of Alzheimer's type (SDAT), 25 patients with vascular dementia (VD) and 25 patients with combined dementia of vascular and Alzheimer's types (DAT/VD). Clinical diagnosis of mild dementia was performed according to ICD-10. Neuropsychologic study was based on the theory and method of A.R. Luria. Syndrome of disorder of high psychic functions (HPF) in patients with mild SDAT was characterised by pathology of frontal cerebral structures and by significantly less defects of profound cerebral structures. According to the examination results the group of patients with mild AD was divided into 2 subgroups: 1) patients in which syndrome of HPF disorders was determined by pathology of parietal-temporal and profound cerebral structures and 2) patients with dysfunction of profound and frontal cerebral structures. Symptoms associated with profound cerebral structures were the main ones in patients with mild VD. Syndrome of HPF disorder included in mild DAT/VD symptoms connected with subcortical and profound brain structures as well as with frontal structures too. Besides, there were also defects in posterior frontal and parietal structures of the brain.

[Mild dementia syndrome in middle and old age]. / Sindrom miagkoi dementsii v pozhilom i starcheskom vozraste.

95 elderly and senile patients with mild dementia were followed up: 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 25 patients with senile dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT), 25 patients with vascular dementia (VD), 25 patients with combined vascular and Alzheimer's type of dementia (DAT/VD). Follow-up of patients for 1 and 3 years demonstrated that the diagnosis of mild dementia according to CDR and ICD-10 criteria had a differential-diagnostic specificity and reliability. It was also noticed that the nosologic qualification of mild dimentia syndrome was difficult or even impossible in patients with DAT/VD in conditions of a single examination. Only follow-up studies (during 3 years as a rule) may give a chance to define the diagnostic belonging of mild dementia syndrome more precisely.