Antagonist Models for Relapse Prevention and Reducing HIV Risk.

Naltrexone is an antagonist that binds tightly to μ-opioid receptors and blocks the subjective and analgesic effects of opioids. It does not produce physiologic dependence and precipitates withdrawal if administered to an opioid dependent person, thus starting it must begin with detoxification. It was first available in the mid-1970s as a 50 mg tablet that blocked opioids for 24-36 h if taken daily, or every 2-3 days at higher doses - for example: 100 mg Monday and Wednesday, 150 mg on Friday.

Restrictive IgG antibody response against mutated citrullinated vimentin predicts response to rituximab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Introduction: Antibodies against mutated citrullinated vimentin (AMCV) represent a useful diagnostic marker with correlation to disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Since seropositivity for citrullinated autoantibodies was predictive for response to B-cell depleting therapy (BCDT) with rituximab (RTX), we investigated whether differences in antibody fine reactivity and immunoglobulin (Ig) isotype kinetics among AMCV-positive patients could provide additional information about outcome.

Methods: A total of 50 AMCV IgG-positive RA patients (RTX responders (RRs) n = 37 and non-responders (NRRs) n = 13) were analyzed for reactivity against MCV epitopes and co-existent AMCV isotypes IgM and IgA.

Treating Opioid Dependence With Injectable Extended-Release Naltrexone (XR-NTX): Who Will Respond?

Objectives: Once-monthly intramuscular extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) has demonstrated efficacy for the prevention of relapse in opioid dependence, providing an alternative to agonist or partial agonist maintenance (ie, methadone and buprenorphine). The question remains, for whom is this unique treatment most efficacious and can patient-treatment matching factors be identified?

Methods: A moderator analysis was conducted on a previously reported 24-week, placebo-controlled, multisite, randomized controlled trial of XR-NTX (n = 126) versus placebo (n = 124) among recently detoxified opioid-dependent adults in Russia, which showed XR-NTX superior to placebo in proportion of opioid abstinent weeks. The moderator analysis examined a dichotomous indicator of good clinical response-achieving at least 90% of weeks abstinent over the 24-week trial.

Autologous haematopoietic stem cell mobilisation in multiple myeloma and lymphoma patients: a position statement from the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Autologous haematopoietic SCT with PBSCs is regularly used to restore BM function in patients with multiple myeloma or lymphoma after myeloablative chemotherapy. Twenty-eight experts from the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation developed a position statement on the best approaches to mobilising PBSCs and on possibilities of optimising graft yields in patients who mobilise poorly. Choosing the appropriate mobilisation regimen, based on patients' disease stage and condition, and optimising the apheresis protocol can improve mobilisation outcomes.

Injectable extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) for opioid dependence: long-term safety and effectiveness.

Aims: To describe drug use and safety with intramuscular injectable extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) in opioid dependence during a 1-year open-label extension phase.

Design: Following 6 months of randomized, double-blind, placebo (PBO)-controlled injections given every 28 days, patients receiving XR-NTX 380 mg continued and PBO patients were switched to open-label XR-NTX, with monthly individual drug counseling, for a further year.

Setting: Thirteen clinical sites in Russia.

Naltrexone with or without guanfacine for preventing relapse to opiate addiction in St.-Petersburg, Russia.

Background: Stress is a key precipitant to discontinuing naltrexone and relapsing to opiate abuse. Alpha-2 adrenergic agonists like guanfacine may reduce stress induced craving and have reduced opiate relapse in small clinical trials.

Methods: This randomized, double blind double dummy placebo-controlled 6-month trial tested oral naltrexone with or without guanfacine for reducing stress and preventing opiate relapse.

Injectable extended-release naltrexone for opioid dependence: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre randomised trial.

Background: Opioid dependence is associated with low rates of treatment-seeking, poor adherence to treatment, frequent relapse, and major societal consequences. We aimed to assess the efficacy, safety, and patient-reported outcomes of an injectable, once monthly extended-release formulation of the opioid antagonist naltrexone (XR-NTX) for treatment of patients with opioid dependence after detoxification.

Methods: We did a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, 24-week trial of patients with opioid dependence disorder.

Effect of extracellular DNA destruction by DNase I on characteristics of forming biofilms.

Biofilm formation plays a crucial role in the development of different infections. This study was designed to examine the effects of extracellular DNA destruction by DNase I on characteristics of forming bacterial biofilms. We have found that extracellular matrix of biofilms formed in the presence of DNase I contains extracellular DNA fragments of about 30 kb.

Long-acting depot formulations of naltrexone for heroin dependence: a review.

Purpose Of Review: The major problem with the oral formulation of naltrexone for heroin dependence is poor compliance (adherence). Long-acting sustained release formulations of naltrexone (implantable and injectable) might help to improve compliance and, thus, increase the efficacy of abstinence-oriented treatment of heroin dependence with naltrexone.

Recent Findings: There have been several implantable and injectable formulations of naltrexone developed within the last decade.

Effect of DNase and antibiotics on biofilm characteristics.

The role of extracellular DNA in the maintenance of biofilms formed by gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria was studied. This study evaluated all the bacterial strains that were tested for the presence of extracellular DNA with an average size of 30 kb in the matrix. Our results indicate changes in community biomass, architecture, morphology, and the numbers of CFU in the presence of DNase.

Screening for LRRK2 mutations in patients with Parkinson's disease in Russia: identification of a novel LRRK2 variant.

Background And Purpose: Mutations in LRRK2, encoding leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (or Dardarin), cause autosomal dominant Parkinson's disease (AdPD) and are also found in sporadic PD (sPD). To investigate the frequency of LRRK2 mutations in a sample of Russian PD patients.

Methods: We sequenced the complete coding region of LRRK2 in 65 patients with AdPD and in 30 patients with sPD.

Single versus repeated sessions of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for people with heroin dependence.

A prior study found that one ketamine-assisted psychotherapy session was significantly more effective than active placebo in promoting abstinence (Krupitsky et al. 2002). In this study of the efficacy of single versus repeated sessions of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in promoting abstinence in people with heroin dependence, 59 detoxified inpatients with heroin dependence received a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KPT) session prior to their discharge from an addiction treatment hospital, and were then randomized into two treatment groups.

Co-morbidity of infectious and addictive diseases in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Russia.

The Russian health care system is organized around specific diseases, with relatively little focus on integration across specialties to address co-morbidities. This organizational structure presents new challenges in the context of the recent epidemics of injection drug use (IDU) and HIV. This paper uses existing and new data to examine the prevalence of reported new cases of drug dependence (heroin) and HIV over time as well as associations between drug dependence and alcoholism, hepatitis B and C, and tuberculosis in the City of St.

Alcohol use and HIV risk behaviors among HIV-infected hospitalized patients in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Purpose: Russia has high per capita alcohol consumption and an injection-drug-use-driven HIV epidemic. However, the role of alcohol in the spread of HIV infection in Russia is largely unexplored. Thus, we assessed recent alcohol use and associated HIV risk behaviors among HIV-infected persons in St.

The pangenome concept: a unifying view of genetic information.

A way of viewing the genetic information in all organisms on Earth as constituents of the Pangenome is proposed. According to this concept, the Pangenome is the common (collective) genetic system of all living organisms, the organic molecules and their complexes (DNA- and RNA-containing viruses, plasmids, transposons, insertion sequences) involved in the storage and transmission processes of genetic information. Pangenomic stability and variability are discussed.

Serum TGF-beta 1 and TNF-alpha levels and cardiac fibrosis in experimental chronic renal failure.

Objectives: To characterize dynamics of changes of serum levels of TGF-beta1 and TNF-alpha in rats with cardiac fibrosis (CF) occurring during chronic renal failure (CRF), and to reveal the character pf correlations of these factors with amounts of cardiac collagen.

Design And Methods: CRF was induced by unilateral nephrectomy and by electrocoagulation of 25% of the cortex of remnant kidney. Post-operative checkpoints were 2, 4, and 6 months.

Naltrexone for heroin dependence treatment in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Naltrexone may be more effective for treating opioid (heroin) dependence in Russia than in the U.S. because patients are mostly young and living with their parents, who can control medication compliance.

The onset of HIV infection in the Leningrad region of Russia: a focus on drug and alcohol dependence.

Objectives: Within 5 years, 5 million Russians may be infected with HIV. Currently, injection drug use is the major risk factor for HIV. As Russia's alcohol consumption per capita is among the highest in the world, alcohol-associated behaviours may be an important contributor to the HIV epidemic.

Connexin 43, but not connexin 32, is mutated at advanced stages of human sporadic colon cancer.

The membrane-spanning connexin proteins form microscopic intercellular channels that directly connect the cytoplasms of adjacent cells and as such have been implicated in maintenance of tissue homeostasis. They are considered to act as tumor suppressors since their function or expression is frequently aberrant in tumor cells. Several mechanisms appear to be involved in this, but irreversible mutational alterations have not yet been proved to be among them.

Microvascular endothelium dysfunction during growth of transplanted lymphosarcoma and glioma in rats.

The changes of endothelium functional parameters (adhesivity, permeability, thrombogenity and thromboresistance) in mesenteric microvasculature in rats with two transplanted tumors: fast-growing Pliss' lymphosarcoma (PLS) and slow-growing glioma-35 (G-35) were studied, using a complex method, based upon a computer-assisted microscopic video image processing. The endothelial dysfunction in mesenteric microvessels is characterized by the increase of leukocyte adhesion to the endothelial cells, microvessels permeability and their thromboresistance properties decrease in tumor-bearing rats. The observed changes are shown to be the nonspecific manifestation of the tumor process development.

Microvascular endothelium dysfunction in rats bearing 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced colon tumors.

Functional parameters (adhesivity, permeability, thrombogenicity and thromboresistance) of the mesenteric microvasculature endothelium in rats bearing 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) induced colon tumors were studied using a complex method, based upon computer-assisted microscopic video image processing. It was shown that paraneoplastic endothelial dysfunction in rat mesenteric microvessels is characterized by an increase in leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium, microvessel permeability and thrombogenic properties. It was demonstrated that the observed changes are the consequences of tumor growth and are related to tumor size and the duration of the process.