Effects of gold nanoparticles on erythrocyte hemolysis.

We studied hemolytic activity of gold nanoparticles added to the whole blood (ex vivo) and of nanoparticles coated and not coated with plasma components on erythrocytes in hypotonic medium (osmotic hemolysis) in vitro. Gold nanoparticles did not stimulate erythrocyte hemolysis after 4-h incubation with the whole blood ex vivo. Hemolysis tended to increase in the presence of small gold nanoparticles (5, 10, 20 nm) at the maximum concentration of 20 μM (by gold content) used in our study in comparison with the control.

Studies of oxidant-induced changes in albumin transport function with a fluorescent probe K-35. Metal-catalyzed oxidation.

The dynamics of albumin transport function was studied during metal-catalyzed oxidation of albumin in diluted blood plasma from healthy donors and in the solution of purified albumin using fluorescent probe K-35. The changes were compared with the dynamics of free radical oxidation markers. For oxidation, different concentrations of Cu(2+), Fe(2+), Fe(3+) ions as well as EDTA and H(2)O(2) were used.

Studies of oxidant-induced changes in albumin transport function with a fluorescent probe k-35. Effect of hypochlorite.

The dynamics of changes in albumin transport function during hypochlorite-induced oxidation of isolated albumin in blood plasma and serum was studied with a fluorescent probe K-35. Binding of the probe K-35 to albumin was characterized by effective concentration of albumin. Oxidative modification of proteins was evaluated by the content of carbonyl products of protein oxidation and bityrosine fluorescent products.

Detection of mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome determining resistance to fluoroquinolones by hybridization on biological microchips.

We developed a method of identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with simultaneous evaluation of the sensitivity to fluoroquinolones on a biological microchip array. The method of multiplex two-staged PCR followed by hybridization of a biochip makes it possible to detect 8 mutant variants of gyrA gene occurring in fluoroquinolone-resistant strains (approximately 85% all resistant forms) within 1 day. Using this method we analyzed 107 cultures isolated from patients with tuberculosis and 78 sputum samples.

[Use of molecular-biological microchip TB-BIOCHIP-2 for detecting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with multidrug resistance to fluoroquinolones in patients with new detected and chronic tuberculosis].

At present the left-handed "respiratory" quinolones such as moxifloxacin and levofloxacin are the most promising drugs for therapy of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR). Fast and specific diagnostics of sensitivity of M. tuberculosis (MBT) with MDR to this group of drugs is required for timely prescription of adequate chemotherapy and its correction in case of MBT resistance to fluoroquinolones.