Efficiency of Lidocaine Intramuscular and Intraosseous Trigger Point Injections in the Treatment of Residual Chronic Pain after Degenerative Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Decompression Surgery.

: Despite the long-term use of intramuscular and intraosseous lidocaine trigger point injections (LTPI) in the treatment of patients with low back pain, there have been no studies examining their efficiency in treatment of residual pain after degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS) decompression surgery. The purpose of our research is to examine the LTPI efficiency in the treatment of residual lumbar pain after DLSS decompression surgery and to compare the analgesic and recovery effects of intramuscular and intraosseous LTPI administered in the L4-S1 region and in the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) after treatment and during four months of follow-up. : We observed 99 patients (F:50, M:49) aged 42 to 59 years with residual neurological disorders after DLSS decompression surgery.

Association of Telomere Length in T Lymphocytes, B Lymphocytes, NK Cells and Monocytes with Different Forms of Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Background: Age plays a primary role in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Telomere length (TL) is one of the most relevant biomarkers of aging. In our study, we aimed to determine the association of TL with T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, NK cells or monocytes with different forms of AMD.

Comparative Analysis of High-Frequency and Low-Frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation of the Right Median Nerve in the Regression of Clinical and Neurophysiological Manifestations of Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

: The anxiolytic effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is associated with the activation of endogenous inhibitory mechanisms in the central nervous system. Both low-frequency, high-amplitude TENS (LF-TENS) and high-frequency, low-amplitude TENS (HF-TENS) are capable of activating opioid, GABA, serotonin, muscarinic, and cannabinoid receptors. However, there has been no comparative analysis of the effectiveness of HF-TENS and LF-TENS in the treatment of GAD.

Many Faces of Regulatory T Cells: Heterogeneity or Plasticity?

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are essential for maintaining the immune balance in normal and pathological conditions. In autoimmune diseases and transplantation, they restrain the loss of self-tolerance and promote engraftment, whereas in cancer, an increase in Treg numbers is mostly associated with tumor growth and poor prognosis. Numerous markers and their combinations have been used to identify Treg subsets, demonstrating the phenotypic diversity of Tregs.

Induction of FoxP3 Pre-mRNA Alternative Splicing to Enhance the Suppressive Activity of Regulatory T Cells from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients.

Forkhead box protein 3 (FoxP3) is a key transcription factor responsible for the development, maturation, and function of regulatory T cells (Tregs). The FoxP3 pre-mRNA is subject to alternative splicing, resulting in the translation of multiple splice variants. We have shown that Tregs from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have reduced expression of full-length (FL) FoxP3, while other truncated splice variants are expressed predominantly.

Modulation of Suppressive Activity and Proliferation of Human Regulatory T Cells by Splice-Switching Oligonucleotides Targeting FoxP3 Pre-mRNA.

The maturation, development, and function of regulatory T cells (Tregs) are under the control of the crucial transcription factor Forkhead Box Protein 3 (FoxP3). Through alternative splicing, the human FoxP3 gene produces four different splice variants: a full-length variant (FL) and truncated variants with deletions of each of exons 2 (∆2 variant) or 7 (∆7 variant) or a deletion of both exons (∆2∆7 variant). Their involvement in the biology of Tregs as well as their association with autoimmune diseases remains to be clarified.

The Role of Regulatory T Cells in the Onset and Progression of Primary Sjögren's Syndrome.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a key role in maintaining immune balance and regulating the loss of self-tolerance mechanisms in various autoimmune diseases, including primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). With the development of pSS primarily in the exocrine glands, lymphocytic infiltration occurs in the early stages, mainly due to activated CD4 T cells. Subsequently, in the absence of rational therapy, patients develop ectopic lymphoid structures and lymphomas.

[Increased suppressor activity of transformed ex vivo regulatory T-cells in comparison with unstimulated cells of the same donor].

Regulatory T-cells CD4⁺CD25⁺FoxP3⁺CD127low (Tregs) play a key role in the maintenance of tolerance to auto antigens, inhibit function of effector T and B lymphocytes, and provide a balance between effector and regulatory arms of immunity. Patients with autoimmune diseases have decreased Treg numbers and impaired suppressive activity. Transformed ex vivo autologous Tregs could restore destroyed balance of the immune system.

Cytoprotective Activity of Polyamines Is Associated with the Alternative Splicing of Pre-mRNA in Normal Human CD4 T Lymphocytes.

Physiological polyamines are ubiquitous polycations with pleiotropic biochemical activities, including regulation of gene expression and cell proliferation as well as modulation of cell signaling. They can also decrease DNA damage and promote cell survival. In the present study, we demonstrated that polyamines have cytoprotective effects on normal human CD4 T lymphocytes but not on cancer Jurkat or K562 cells.

Lycopene presence in facial skin corneocytes and sebum and its association with circulating lycopene isomer profile: Effects of age and dietary supplementation.

Lycopene is a dietary antioxidant known to prevent skin photodamage. This study aimed to examine age-dependent presence of this carotenoid on the surface of the facial skin and in the serum as well as to measure the same parameters during supplementation with lycopene. Serum samples and samples from facial skin surface were obtained from 60 young (under 25 years old) and 60 middle-aged (over 50 years old) volunteers.

A new statistical approach to predicting aromatic hydroxylation sites. Comparison with model-based approaches.

A new approach is described that is able to predict the most probable metabolic sites on the basis of a statistical analysis of various metabolic transformations reported in the literature. The approach is applied to the prediction of aromatic hydroxylation sites for diverse sets of substrates. Training is performed using the aromatic hydroxylation reactions from the Metabolism database (Accelrys).

Asphalt volcanism and chemosynthetic life in the Campeche Knolls, Gulf of Mexico.

In the Campeche Knolls, in the southern Gulf of Mexico, lava-like flows of solidified asphalt cover more than 1 square kilometer of the rim of a dissected salt dome at a depth of 3000 meters below sea level. Chemosynthetic tubeworms and bivalves colonize the sea floor near the asphalt, which chilled and contracted after discharge. The site also includes oil seeps, gas hydrate deposits, locally anoxic sediments, and slabs of authigenic carbonate.

Predicting biotransformation potential from molecular structure.

The program PASS-BioTransfo is presented, which is capable of predicting many classes of biotransformation for chemical compounds. A particular class of biotransformation is defined by the chemical transformation type and may additionally include the name of the enzyme involved in a transformation. An evaluation of the approach is presented, using biotransformations taken from the databases Metabolite (MDL) and Metabolism (Accelrys), respectively.

Toxicology analysis by means of the JSM-method.

Motivation: A model for learning potential causes of toxicity from positive and negative examples and predicting toxicity for the dataset used in the Predictive Toxicology Challenge (PTC) is presented. The learning model assumes that the causes of toxicity can be given as substructures common to positive examples that are not substructures of negative examples. This assumption results in the choice of a learning model, called the JSM-method, and a language for representing chemical compounds, called the Fragmentary Code of Substructure Superposition (FCSS).

[Immunogenic properties of epidemic and recombinant strains of influenza viruses H1N1 and H3N2].

The study of the immunogenic properties of epidemic influenza viruses H1N1 and H3N2 isolated from patients in 1979-1982 revealed a high immunogenic activity of H3N2 viruses. Recombinant strains of both subtypes (H1N1 and H3N2) had a higher immunogenicity than the original viruses. The intensity of immunity determined for an antigenically close pathogenic strain was considerably higher than for an antigenically remote pathogenic virus which is important for obtaining accurate information on the immunogenic activity of influenza viruses.

Comparative studies on biological properties and genome composition of influenza virus recombinants.

Some biological properties and the genome composition of antigenic recombinants obtained by crossing of human and animal influenza viruses were studied. Analysis of the recombinants has shown that upon heating of virions in vitro thermostability of the haemagglutinin (HA) does not necessarily correlate with the properties of parent HA; apparently it depended not only on the properties of the HA itself, but also on the peculiarities of other virion proteins. All recombinants obtained by crossing of pathogenic and apathogenic for mice parents either had a reduced pathogenicity for mice or were apathogenic.

Differentiation of influenza A virus nucleoproteins in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

The serum antibody titre to the nucleoprotein (NP) of the influenza virus recombinant MRC-11 was determined in virus strains A/USSA/5/80 (H3N2), A/Hong Kong/8/64 (H3N2), A/duck/Ukraine/63 (Hav7Neq2) and in a recombinant strain between A/tern/Frunse/334/78(Hav4Nav1) and A/PR/8/34(H0N1) using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Significant differences between the NP of these strains were found proving the usefulness for ELISA for such investigations.

Studies on some genetic properties of antigenic recombinants of influenza viruses.

Two groups of antigenic recombinants Hav4N1 were obtained by recombination of human influenza virus H0N1 with two avian influenza viruses isolated from ducks in 1956 and terns in 1978 and possessing the same surface antigen Hav4 Nav1. Recombinants obtained by crossing A/PR/8/34 and A/duck/CSSR/56 viruses showed a lower ability to reproduce at optimal and lowered temperatures and differed in the thermosensitivity of haemagglutinin and neuraminidase. An analysis of virus-specific proteins of the recombinants revealed different combinations of genes coding for internal (Pl, NP) and nonstructural (NS1) proteins.

[Comparative analysis of the biophysical characteristics of influenza A virus variants with differing pathogenicity for mice].

Variants of influenza A virus: A/PR8/34 Pm-, nonpathogenic for mice and A/PR8/34 Pm+, pathogenic for mice, obtained after 5 passages in mice, were studied. Both variants showed close similarities in the antigenic specificity, high reproductive activity at optimal temperature and reduced activity at low and high temperatures, similar plaque-producing activity in chick fibroblast cell cultures. Differences in their polypeptide composition were found.

[Influenza virus sensitivity to interferon and its inducer].

The results of the study on influenza virus sensitivity to interferon of two kinds (human and chicken) and its inducer, poly(G) . poly(C) are presented. Differences in this characteristic among human and animal influenza viruses were demonstrated.

[Antigenic recombinants of human influenza viruses with viruses isolated from wild birds].

Antigenic recombinants obtained by crossing of different human and animal influenza viruses were studied for some genetic markers and specific proteins in the resulting recombinants were analyses. In a number of cases the origin of inner virion proteins (NP and M) from one or the other parent and nonstructural NS proteins was established.

[Properties of the influenza viruses isolated in 1976 from gulls in Astrakhan Province].

Investigation of a number of properties of influenza viruses isolated from Laridae birds in the Astrakhan region showed that in one epizootic focus avian influenza viruses with different hemagglutinins and identical neuraminidase may circulate among Laridae birds. Among viruses with the antigenic formula Hav5Nav2 clear-cut differences in virulence and plaque-forming capacity were demonstrated.