Renal and cardiac effects of antihypertensive treatment with ramipril vs metoprolol in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Background: Hypertension is a common complication in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). This prospective randomized double-blind study was performed to compare the renal and cardiac effects of the ACE inhibitor ramipril and the beta-blocker metoprolol as first line therapy in ADPKD patients with hypertension.

Methods: Forty-six hypertensive ADPKD patients were randomized to either ramipril (n = 23) or metoprolol (n = 23).

[Effects of the antioxidant ionol on humoral immune response in experimental influenza].

The effect of the antioxidant ionol on a humoral immune response was studied in experimental influenza. With preventive introduction of ionol, the affinity of anti-influenza G antibodies circulating in the blood stream was shown to be decreased as compared to that in control animals. The changes in the affinity during influenza infection were cyclic and less marked in the group of animals receiving ionol.

[Glucose utilization in influenza of varying severity in intact or stressed animals].

Animals preexposed to stress developed manifest hyperglycemia in the first 2 days of influenza infection, which was replaced by prolonged hypoglycemia. The status of carbohydrate metabolism normalized no sooner than 3 to 4 weeks after the disease onset, although the acute phase of infection was over by the end of week 2. The changes were evident in the pattern of "sugar curve" after glucose loading.

[The effect of mutation in the NS gene on the biological properties of the influenza virus].

The biological properties of influenza virus strain A/PR/8/34, virulent from mice, and its variant 25A-1, obtained by hybridization with avirulent strain A/Leningrad. This reassortant 25A-1 included 7 genes of its virulent parent strain and only gene NS of the avirulent one, which contained a single mutation in position 798 (ATG=>ATA), inducing amino acid change MET=>IIe in position 100 of the polypeptide chain of protein NS2. The loss of pathogenic properties by strain A/PR/8/34 was achieved by replacing the single gene NS with an analogous mutant gene of the variant strain A/Leningrad, adapted to low temperatures.

[Stress and viral infection: dynamics of expression of influenza A viral antigens during immobilization stress].

The level of expression of influenza virus antigens in the target organ is an important characteristic of the severity of a viral process, as was shown on a model of experimental influenza A. Stress exposure augmenting the severity of the infection stimulates the expression of viral polypeptides in the acute period of the disease. Injection of an antioxidant ionol which is effective in influenza may prevent stress-enhanced synthesis of viral proteins.