[The humoral immunity against diphtheria].

Results of the conducted study showed that naturally acquired antibacterial and postvaccinal antitoxic antibodies against diphtheria were found in human blood sera. Challenge of ADT-M toxoid to adults resulted in production of antitoxic as well as antibacterial antibodies in high concentrations. In response to challenge of ADT-M toxoid simultaneously with bacterial vaccine against diphtheria Codivac both antibacterial and antitoxic antibodies were synthesized in blood on optimal physiologic levels.

[Specific antibodies and their role in the formation of antidiphtheria immunity].

In human sera, studied with the use of the enzyme immunoassay, antidiphtheria postvaccinal antitoxic IgG and naturally acquired antibacterial IgG, IgM and IgA were detected. In the blood of children and adults aged up to 50 years antitoxic IgG were present at normal and high concentrations. In 50% of children antibacterial IgA were absent, while specific antibacterial IgM could be found at high concentrations.

[A large-scale epidemic of diphtheria in Moscow in recent years: patterns of development].

Data on the dynamics of diphtheria morbidity in Moscow in 1958-1999 are presented. The last epidemic which started at the end of the 1980s and reached its peak in 1994, giving a 59-fold rise in morbidity in comparison with the pre-epidemic period, is characterized in detail. During the epidemic 12,267 persons fell ill, 454 of them died (mortality rate was 4%).

[The antidiphtheria activity of the pre-EGF fragment].

The DNA fragment, coding a part of the protein molecule--the precursor of the epidermal growth factor (pre-EGF76-208)--and containing the sequence of 133 N-end amino acid residues, was obtained with the use of gene engineering and molecular biological techniques. For this purpose a fraction of poly(A+) = RNA was isolated from the kidney of a newborn infant; on this fraction the "library" of cDNA fragments whose coding capacity corresponded to the required sequence of mRNA in the pre-EGF gene was obtained in the reaction of reverse transcription, conjugated with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). After the determination of the nucleotide sequences in 11 fragments only 1 fragment which contained practically no mutations appearing in PCR as the result of amplifications was chosen.

[Clinical aspects of diphtheria in infants].

The symptomatology of different forms of diphtheria was analyzed in 49 patients under 3 year of age. It has been established that in infants, diphtheria is marked by the diversity of localizations and a fairly high portion of associated toxic diphtheria of the stomatopharynx and disseminated croup. These gravest forms are fairly difficult to recognize them clinically.

[Clinico-laboratory analysis of the diarrhea syndrome in young children excreting rotaviruses with feces].

A total of 404 children admitted to the infectious hospital of the non-intestinal type were examined with the aid of counter immunoelectroosmophoresis. Rotavirus antigen was detected in feces in 46.8% of 126 children admitted with a diagnosis of diarrhea, in 10.

[Circulation of the causative agent of diphtheria in immune collectives].

Prolonged observations on the spread of toxigenic C. diphtheriae carriership, made during a school year in 12 groups of immune children (3809 children), showed that the penetration of diphtherial infection could give rise to the outbreak of bacterial carriership, its level being as high as 20.9-35.

[Data from different Moscow polyclinics on the utilization of vaccination against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and measles in children of first 3 years of life].

The coverage of children by immunization against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus during the first 3 years of life as indicated in forms No. 112 and No. 63 in 4 districts of Moscow was studied on the basis of the analysis of 1688 children's development histories.

[Cytochemical study of granulocyte enzymes in germ-free animals with adenovirus infections].

The activity of some dehydrogenases and hydrolases was studied by cytochemical methods in the peripheral blood neutrophils of germ-free guinea pigs infected with adenoviruses. The gnotobiotic animals were obtained by hysterotomy in an operation isolation room after which they were transferred into manipulation isolation room and infected with human adenovirus type 1. A depression of enzymes of alpha-glycerophosphate shunt and NADP-H2-diaphorase in neutrophils two days after infection and activation of lactate dehydrogenase and acid phosphatase at 4 days were demonstrated.

[Enzymatic activity of the lymphocytes in gnotobionts in adenovirus infection].

The cytochemical activity of succinate dehydrogenases, alpha-glycerophosphate (mitochondrial and hyaloplasmic), lactate, glycose-6-phosphate, glutamate, beta-oxibutyrate, NADP-H2- and NAD-H2 diaphorases and acid phosphatase was studied in lymphocytes of gnotobiotic guinea-pigs infected with human adenovirus type 1. The analysis of transgression of distribution of the values in the experimental and control groups revealed a high informative diagnostic value of acid phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase of lymphocytes.

[Patterns of antimicrobial immunity in carriers of toxigenic diphtheria bacteria].

It was shown in the passive hemagglutination test (PHAT) with a type-specific somatic antigen on 147 carriers of toxigenic diphtheria bacilli that the PHAT titres of 1/80 and over were determined in 64% of bacteria. In the process of carrier state of toxigenic bacteria antimicrobial antibodies were detected in 79% of the children; after the release from the carrier state, the percentage was from 57 to 26, depending on the time lapse after it. Among the carriers of nontoxigenic diphtheria bacilli the PHAT titre of 1/80 and over was established in up to 20% of children, and only in those which were in the focus of toxigenic bacilli carriers.