Predictability of individualized dosage regimens of carbamazepine and valproate mono- and combination therapy.

What Is Known And Objective: Many investigators agree that appropriate rational utilization of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) with Bayesian feedback dosage adjustment facilitates epilepsy treatment with carbamazepine (CBZ) and/or valproate (VPA) by increasing the seizure control and safety, as well as by reducing treatment costs. In previous works we have developed and used in clinical practice population pharmacokinetic (PK) models of different dosage forms for VPA and post-induction CBZ behaviour, as well as for combined therapy with CBZ plus another 'old' antiepileptic drug (AED). An important step of external validation is to evaluate how well a procedure of Bayesian individualizing AED dosage regimens based on a proposed population PK model and sparse TDM data 'works', and how helpful it is in real practical clinical settings.

Molecular typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis circulated in Moscow, Russian Federation.

The present study investigates epidemiological diversity and multidrug resistance spreading among Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains circulating in Moscow, Russian Federation. Among 115 M. tuberculosis strains selected randomly from the sputum of epidemiologically unrelated tuberculosis (TB) patients, multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains predominated.

Application of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the study of Helicobacter pylori.

The characteristics of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry based investigation of extremely variable bacteria such as Helicobacter pylori were studied. H. pylori possesses a very high natural variability.

Byproduct with altered fluorescent properties is formed during standard deprotection step of hexachlorofluorescein labeled oligonucleotides.

HEX-labeled oligonucleotides obtained via typical synthetic protocols may contain more than 15% of material with altered spectral characteristics. We discovered hexachlorofluorescein residue transformation unknown earlier for standard DNA ammonolysis step. HEX residue reacts with ammonium hydroxide yielding acridine derivative, which has differed UV-VIS and fluorescent properties compared to HEX.

Hepatitis B virus genetic typing using mass-spectrometry.

Mini-sequencing with subsequent result registration using MALDI-ToF mass-spectrometry was employed for hepatitis B virus genetic typing in Russian population. This approach was employed for hepatitis B virus genetic typing in HBsAg-positive patients with chronic hepatitis B, hepatitis of combined etiology and hepatic cirrhosis and allowed to show the prevalence of D genotype (83.3%) in all groups of patients.

Direct Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionisation (MALDI) Mass-Spectrometry Bacteria Profiling for Identifying and Characterizing Pathogens.

This study examines the features and limitations of direct Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionisation (MALDI) mass-spectrometry profiling of bacterial cells for investigating a microbial population. The optimal laboratory protocol, including crude bacteria lyses by a solution of 50% acetonitrile, 2.5% trifluoroacetic acid, and using α-cyano-4-hydroxy cinnamic acid as the MALDI matrix, has been developed.

DNA modification of live cell surface.

We report a novel approach for the attachment of DNA fragments to the surface of live cells. By using fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry we demonstrated that our synthetic conjugates of fatty acid with oligonucleotides can be incorporated in plasma membrane and then hybridized with complementary sequences at the cell surface. Method permits to control amount of immobilized DNA on the cell surface.