[Oncolytic potential of recombinant influenza A virus vectors on a model of malignant glioma in vivo].

Malignant glioma is the most frequently occurring primary brain tumor. Despite significant progress in the diagnostics and treatment of neoplastic diseases the prognosis for patients with III-IV grade gliomas, remains extremely unfavorable. Rapidly developing area in oncology is the employment of therapeutic viruses with natural or genetically engineered oncolytic activity. In the present study we demonstrated the oncolytic potential of a recombinant influenza A virus vector with impaired interferon antagonism function of NS1 protein in treatment of malignant glioma. Recombinant influenza A virus (HA-DS-GFP) expressing green fluorescent protein from the NS1 open reading frame was used as a model vector. HA-DS-GFP virus has shown infectivity towards glioma cells both in vitro, and in vivo (experimental glioma model in rats). Intratumoral inoculation of HA-DS-GFP resulted in a substantial inhibition or complete regression of tumor growth. Our data demonstrate that recombinant influenza vectors have promising potential in therapy of malignant gliomas.

[Postmortem diagnosis of influenza during its epidemic and interepidemic periods].

OBJECTIVE: to assess the potential role of influenza virus in fatal pneumonia during the epidemic and interepidemic periods. MATERIAL AND METHODS An immunohistochemical method was used to clinically and morphologically analyze 40 fatal outcomes of acute pneumonias in 2009-2013. Laboratory tests could not establish the diagnosis of influenza in 20 cases of the study group with clinical and/or morphological pattern of this illness. Seventeen cases occurred during the epidemic period (autopsies from November 2009 to January 2010) and the seasonal rise of morbidity; 3 cases were observed during the interepidemic period. A control group was additionally formed from 20 cases with neither clinical nor further morphological evidence of suspected influenza in the presence of pneumonia in both the epidemic and interepidemic periods. RESULTS: In the study group, influenza virus nucleoprotein was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in the bronchial epithelial cells with the signs of cytopathic changes in half of the cases and that in the alveolocytes in 30%. Sporadic cases displayed a positive IHC response of blood vessel endothelial cells, which was attended by staining of the epithelium and macrophages. The maximum disease periods with the virus nucleoprotein being detected by IHC in the macrophages doubled those in the epithelial cells (40 versus 22 days). The control group showed a large number of cases with a positive macrophage response that was approximately similar to that in the study group. Despite the frequent detection and intensive staining of macrophages, they demonstrated no cytopathic changes, which can be explained by the low virulence persistence of influenza virus in the macrophages. CONCLUSION: These investigations showed the role of influenza virus in the occurrence of additional deaths in the epidemic period and a possible fatal outcome in the interepidemic period.

[The effect of combination of glycyrrhizic acid with alpha-glutamyl-tryptophan on the experimental adenoviral infection].

In this work, the activity of glycyrrhizic acid (GL) and dipeptide alpha-glutamyl-tryptophane (EW) as single preparations or in combination (GL+EW) against experimental adenoviral infection in the syrian hamsters was studied. Application of gl and GL+EW was shown to decrease the level of the adenovirus replication in liver tissue by 0.6 - 1.2 lgTCID50 depending on the composition and time point of the post infection. It was also demonstrated that normalization of the structure of the liver tissue was required, which was shown on the level of both optical and electron microscopy. The results obtained in this work suggest that gl and GL+EW may be considered as potential component of the complex therapy of adenoviral infection.