Репозиторий Университета

© 2021 Elsevier GmbH The expanding phylogenetic tree of trypanosomatid flagellates (Kinetoplastea: Trypanosomatidae) contains a long-known and phylogenetically well-supported species-rich lineage that was provisionally named as the ‘jaculum’ clade. Its members were found in representatives of several unrelated families of heteropteran bugs captured in South and Central America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. However, this group resisted introduction into the culture, a needed prerequisite for its proper characterization. Here we describe four new cultivable species, which parasitize various parts of their hosts’ intestine, including the thoracic and abdominal part of the midgut, hindgut, and Malpighian tubules. Morphologically, the cultured flagellates vary from relatively short stumpy promastigotes to long slender leptomonad cells. Some species form straphangers (cyst-like amastigotes) both in vivo and in vitro, initially attached to the basal part of the flagellum of the mother cell, from which they subsequently detach. To formally classify this enigmatic monophyletic cosmopolitan clade, we erected Obscuromonas gen. nov., including five species: O. modryi sp. nov. (isolated from the true bug host species Riptortus linearis captured in the Philippines), O. volfi sp. nov. (from Catorhintha selector, Curaçao), O. eliasi sp. nov. (from Graptostethus servus, Papua New Guinea), O. oborniki sp. nov. (from Aspilocoryphus unimaculatus, Madagascar), and O. jaculum comb. nov. (from Nepa cinerea, France). Obscuromonas along with the genus Blastocrithidia belongs to the newly established Blastocrithidiinae subfam. nov.

© 2021 Mathematical models for complex systems under random fluctuations often certain uncertain parameters. However, quantifying model uncertainty for a stochastic differential equation with an α-stable Lévy process is still lacking. Here, we propose an approach to infer all the uncertain non-Gaussian parameters and other system parameters by minimizing the Hellinger distance over the parameter space. The Hellinger distance measures the similarity between an empirical probability density of non-Gaussian observations and a solution (as a probability density) of the associated nonlocal Fokker-Planck equation. Numerical experiments verify that our method is feasible for estimating single and multiple parameters. Meanwhile, we find an optimal estimation interval of the estimated parameters. This method is beneficial for extracting governing dynamical system models under non-Gaussian fluctuations, as in the study of abrupt climate changes in the Dansgaard-Oeschger events.

© 2021 Elsevier GmbH Purpose: Although the plantaris muscle is vestigial in humans, it is far too important to remain omitted. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the existing literature focused on plantaris muscle clinical value, grafting usefulness and its morphological variations. Hopefully this study will be of great use for every medical practitioner due to its clarity and conciseness despite such broaden scope of this article. Material and Methods: The article is written based on 100 studies published since 1868 until 2020. During careful selection process 12 papers were dismissed due to their insufficient sample size, wrong methods used or results that were previously discovered. Results: Many aspects concerning the plantaris muscle are already well examined, summarized and described. However this study has shown how much we still do not know and which fields require further investigations. Conclusion: The anatomical variations of plantaris muscle morphology may cause mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy, tennis leg syndrome or increase the risk of failure while harvesting the tendons.

© 2021 Elsevier GmbH Purpose: Although the plantaris muscle is vestigial in humans, it is far too important to remain omitted. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the existing literature focused on plantaris muscle clinical value, grafting usefulness and its morphological variations. Hopefully this study will be of great use for every medical practitioner due to its clarity and conciseness despite such broaden scope of this article. Material and Methods: The article is written based on 100 studies published since 1868 until 2020. During careful selection process 12 papers were dismissed due to their insufficient sample size, wrong methods used or results that were previously discovered. Results: Many aspects concerning the plantaris muscle are already well examined, summarized and described. However this study has shown how much we still do not know and which fields require further investigations. Conclusion: The anatomical variations of plantaris muscle morphology may cause mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy, tennis leg syndrome or increase the risk of failure while harvesting the tendons.

© 2021 The aim of this work was to compare mesoporous carriers based on silica and magnesium aluminosilicate in the amorphous solid dispersion production. Darunavir has been selected as an active pharmaceutical ingredient that is classified as a Class 2 BCS substance and exists in two commercially available forms: crystalline ethanolate and amorphous. In the course of the study, the conditions for the preparation of amorphous samples with the selected carriers were evaluated within the framework of the most common methods for obtaining solid dispersions - hot-melt extrusion, solvent wetting, and spray drying. It was determined that the obtained dispersion properties almost completely repeat the properties of the corresponding carriers. The resulting dispersions were examined in a dissolution test and the best ones was used to formulate tablets, which were studied in an in vitro dissolution test with the original Prezista. The proposed tablet formulation showed improved dissolution compared to the original one. It was also found that silica supports have a greater positive contribution to darunavir dissolution - both ethanolate or amorphous forms.

© 2020 The Authors Congenital malformations of blood vessels, including arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), are a less common pathology, which remains one of the most diagnostically and therapeutically complex diseases for treatment. Patients with vascular abnormalities often receive an erroneous diagnosis and inadequate treatment. Depending on the abnormality, such improper treatment can lead to potential long-term functional and cosmetic consequences. Existing treatment options include surgical resection, endovascular embolization, and a combination of these methods. To date, there is no pharmacotherapy available that allows you to radically treat this pathology. Despite recent advances, AVMs are rarely cured and may require multi-stage therapy throughout life. The article presents a clinical case of successful endovascular treatment of extra-intracranial arteriovenous malformation of the frontoparietal region in a young girl with a more pronounced extracranial component of AVM on the front and frontoparietal region with cosmetic and functionally significant defect. We performed double-stage embolization of AVMs with a combination of non-adhesive liquid embolic agents with high and low viscosity. We got good angiographic, clinical and cosmetic treatment results.

© 2020 Elsevier GmbH Wad Medani virus (WMV) belongs to the genus Orbivirus and is a poorly studied arbovirus with unclear medical significance. Presently, a limited number of WMV strains are characterized and available in NCBI GenBank, some isolated many years ago. A new WMV strain was isolated in 2012 from Dermacentor nuttalli ticks collected from sheep in the Tuva Republic, Russia, and sequenced using high-throughput methods. Complete coding sequences were obtained revealing signs of multiple intersegment reassortments. These point to a high variability potential in WMV that may lead to the formation of strains with novel properties. These new data on WMV can promote better understanding of: ecological features of its circulation; relationships within the genus Orbivirus; and the medical significance of the virus.

© 2020 Elsevier GmbH Wad Medani virus (WMV) belongs to the genus Orbivirus and is a poorly studied arbovirus with unclear medical significance. Presently, a limited number of WMV strains are characterized and available in NCBI GenBank, some isolated many years ago. A new WMV strain was isolated in 2012 from Dermacentor nuttalli ticks collected from sheep in the Tuva Republic, Russia, and sequenced using high-throughput methods. Complete coding sequences were obtained revealing signs of multiple intersegment reassortments. These point to a high variability potential in WMV that may lead to the formation of strains with novel properties. These new data on WMV can promote better understanding of: ecological features of its circulation; relationships within the genus Orbivirus; and the medical significance of the virus.

© 2020 The Author(s) Patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy are at risk of thrombocytopenia. The co-incidence of cancer-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE) and thrombocytopenia is a frequent complication in patients with cancer. Especially in certain tumour entities at high VTE risk, chemotherapeutic agents with myelosuppressive effects are part of the standard of care. The management of cancer-associated VTE in the setting of chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia is challenging, in the absence of evidence from high-quality studies. Thrombocytopenia is associated with both increased risk of recurrent VTE and risk of bleeding during anticoagulation. In this case-based concise review, we aimed at summarizing available literature and expert consensus guidance on the treatment of cancer-associated VTE in patients with chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia.

© 2020 Purpose: To evaluate the density and distribution of conjunctival goblet cells in mice without clinical evidence of ocular surface diseases. Methods: Immediately after euthanasia of C57BL/6 wild-type mice, the eyes including eyelids were removed and fixed in paraformaldehyde. Entire eyeballs and eyelids were cut in series along the sagittal axis from nasal to temporal on a microtome and then stained with Periodic Acid-Schiff acid to visualize the goblet cells. At each section stained in this way, the conjunctival goblet cells of the entire upper and lower lid conjunctiva were counted by light microscopy. Additional (transmission electron microscopy) (TEM)-Analysis on ultrathin sections was performed to evaluate morphological differences. Results: The total number of conjunctival goblet cells differs markedly between individual animals. Categorisation into upper eyelid (UL) and lower eyelid (LL) and into regions (nasal, middle, temporal) revealed a significant increase of goblet cells from nasal to temporal in the UL and a significant decrease in the LL. Conclusion: The distribution of conjunctival goblet cells in mice differs considerably from humans and between individual animals. Therefore, precise selection of sampling and methods are needed to obtain comparable data. We recommend to use the middle region of the conjunctiva of UL/LL for goblet cell studies in mice. These findings are of particular interest for dry eye mouse models as well as pharmacological studies on mice with influence on their goblet cells.

© 2021 Elsevier B.V. The Astrakhan region of Russia is endemic for the number of arboviruses. In this paper, we describe the results of the detection of the list of neglected arboviruses in the Astrakhan region for the 2018 season. For the purpose of the study in-house PCR assays for detection of 18 arboviruses have been developed and validated using arboviruses obtained from Russian State Collection of Viruses. Pools of ticks (n = 463) and mosquitoes (n = 312) as well as 420 samples of human patients sera have been collected and analyzed. Using developed multiplex real-time PCR assays we were able to detect RNA of eight arboviruses (Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, Dhori (Batken strain) virus, Batai virus, Tahyna virus, Uukuniemi virus, Inkoo virus, Sindbis virus and West Nile fever virus). All discovered viruses are capable of infecting humans causing fever and in some cases severe forms with hemorrhagic or neurologic symptoms. From PCR-positive samples, we were able to recover one isolate each of Dhori (Batken strain) virus and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus which were further characterized by next-generation sequencing. The genomic sequences of identified Dhori (Batken strain) virus strain represent the most complete genome of Batken virus strain among previously reported.

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a pandemic. At the time of writing this (October 14, 2020), more than 38.4 million people have become affected, and 1.0 million people have died across the world. The death rate is undoubtedly correlated with the cytokine storm and other pathological pulmonary characteristics, as a result of which the lungs cannot provide sufficient oxygen to the body's vital organs. While diversified drugs have been tested as a first line therapy, the complexity of fatal cases has not been reduced so far, and the world is looking for a treatment to combat the virus. However, to date, and despite such promise, we have received very limited information about the potential of nanomedicine to fight against COVID-19 or as an adjunct therapy in the treatment regimen. Over the past two decades, various therapeutic strategies, including direct-acting antiviral drugs, immunomodulators, a few non-specific drugs (simple to complex), have been explored to treat Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), influenza, and sometimes the common flu, thus, correlating and developing specific drugs centric to COVID-19 is possible. This review article focuses on the pulmonary pathology caused by SARS-CoV-2 and other viral pathogens, highlighting possible nanomedicine therapeutic strategies that should be further tested immediately.

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a pandemic. At the time of writing this (October 14, 2020), more than 38.4 million people have become affected, and 1.0 million people have died across the world. The death rate is undoubtedly correlated with the cytokine storm and other pathological pulmonary characteristics, as a result of which the lungs cannot provide sufficient oxygen to the body's vital organs. While diversified drugs have been tested as a first line therapy, the complexity of fatal cases has not been reduced so far, and the world is looking for a treatment to combat the virus. However, to date, and despite such promise, we have received very limited information about the potential of nanomedicine to fight against COVID-19 or as an adjunct therapy in the treatment regimen. Over the past two decades, various therapeutic strategies, including direct-acting antiviral drugs, immunomodulators, a few non-specific drugs (simple to complex), have been explored to treat Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), influenza, and sometimes the common flu, thus, correlating and developing specific drugs centric to COVID-19 is possible. This review article focuses on the pulmonary pathology caused by SARS-CoV-2 and other viral pathogens, highlighting possible nanomedicine therapeutic strategies that should be further tested immediately.

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK Graphene-based nano-porous materials (GNM) are potentially useful for all those applications needing a large specific surface area (SSA), typical of the bidimensional graphene, yet realized in the bulk dimensionality. Such applications include for instance gas storage and sorting, catalysis and electrochemical energy storage. While a reasonable control of the structure is achieved in micro-porous materials by using nano-micro particles as templates, the controlled production or even characterization of GNMs with porosity strictly at the nano-scale still raises issues. These are usually produced using dispersion of nano-flakes as precursors resulting in little control on the final structure, which in turn reflects in problems in the structural model building for computer simulations. In this work, we describe a strategy to build models for these materials with predetermined structural properties (SSA, density, porosity), which exploits molecular dynamics simulations, Monte Carlo methods and machine learning algorithms. Our strategy is inspired by the real synthesis process: starting from randomly distributed flakes, we include defects, perforation, structure deformation and edge saturation on the fly, and, after structural refinement, we obtain realistic models, with given structural features. We find relationships between the structural characteristics and size distributions of the starting flake suspension and the final structure, which can give indications for more efficient synthesis routes. We subsequently give a full characterization of the models versus H2 adsorption, from which we extract quantitative relationship between the structural parameters and the gravimetric density. Our results quantitatively clarify the role of surfaces and edges relative amount in determining the H2 adsorption, and suggest strategies to overcome the inherent physical limitations of these materials as adsorbers. We implemented the model building and analysis procedures in software tools, freely available upon request.

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Magnetic anisotropy and interface exchange interaction were analyzed in α-Fe core microwire covered with PrDyCoFeB amorphous shell. The α-Fe/PrDyCoFeB core/shell microwires were grown by pendant drop melt extraction technique providing separation of the α-Fe and PrDyCoFeB phases during the ultrafast cooling. Low saturation field of the core ~100 Oe and high saturation field of amorphous shell ~10 kOe with zero coercivity were distinguished from angular dependences of the magnetic moment, recorded in low and high magnetic fields. Sharp decrease of the longitudinal magnetization, effective anisotropy field and magnetic susceptibility have been observed below the critical temperature, Tcrit = 240 K, in zero field. The Almeida-Thouless transition from ferrimagnetic state to Ising spin glass state has been revealed in PrDyCoFeB amorphous shell. Such spin reorientation transition is very attractive for magnetocaloric applications. We found exchange bias effect controlled by exchange coupling between ferromagnetic core and ferrimagnetic shell. The significance of the obtained data lies in possible applications of the core/shell microwires for tweezers with magnetic moment, stepwise changing in external field. Exchange bias in core-shell interface provides determined initial state of the microwire used as working media of field sensor. The sharp decrease of the magnetization associating with spin-reorientation transition looks very promising for magnetocaloric applications close to room temperature.

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Magnetic anisotropy and interface exchange interaction were analyzed in α-Fe core microwire covered with PrDyCoFeB amorphous shell. The α-Fe/PrDyCoFeB core/shell microwires were grown by pendant drop melt extraction technique providing separation of the α-Fe and PrDyCoFeB phases during the ultrafast cooling. Low saturation field of the core ~100 Oe and high saturation field of amorphous shell ~10 kOe with zero coercivity were distinguished from angular dependences of the magnetic moment, recorded in low and high magnetic fields. Sharp decrease of the longitudinal magnetization, effective anisotropy field and magnetic susceptibility have been observed below the critical temperature, Tcrit = 240 K, in zero field. The Almeida-Thouless transition from ferrimagnetic state to Ising spin glass state has been revealed in PrDyCoFeB amorphous shell. Such spin reorientation transition is very attractive for magnetocaloric applications. We found exchange bias effect controlled by exchange coupling between ferromagnetic core and ferrimagnetic shell. The significance of the obtained data lies in possible applications of the core/shell microwires for tweezers with magnetic moment, stepwise changing in external field. Exchange bias in core-shell interface provides determined initial state of the microwire used as working media of field sensor. The sharp decrease of the magnetization associating with spin-reorientation transition looks very promising for magnetocaloric applications close to room temperature.

© 2020, Advanced Scientific Research. All rights reserved. In the modern world, acute respiratory viral infections are a widespread and socially significant disease. Having the similarity of structure, epidemiology and strong tropism to the respiratory tract, each causative agent of acute respiratory viral infection has its own characteristics. The most severe course with complications is characteristic of influenza. More than 200 viruses are known to cause acute respiratory viral infections. Their diversity is very great. This creates a situation when a person, having been ill with a disease caused by one virus, can immediately become infected with other viruses of this group and get sick again. For a year in the world, for an adult, 3-4 cases of the disease of acute respiratory viral infection occur. A child suffers from this infection 6-9 times during the year. 3.9 million deaths worldwide are associated with acute respiratory viral infections each year. Due to the enormous social significance of acute respiratory viral infection, the World Health Organization has launched the Battle against Respiratory Viruses initiative to combat it. Her prerequisites were problems with the treatment and prevention of acute respiratory viral infection. It is aimed at improving diagnostic methods to differentiate viral and bacterial infections at the earliest stages of the disease, developing effective antiviral drugs for the most common viruses and safe and effective stimulants of defense mechanisms in the body. It becomes clear that acute respiratory viral infections are a diverse group of infectious diseases of the respiratory tract that have similar developmental mechanisms, epidemiological and clinical characteristics. Given that these diseases have a high contagiousness, rapid spread, a significant number of complications, especially among people at risk, they require serious and lengthy research.

Copyright © 2021 The Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Arginine kinase (AK) was first identified as an allergen in the Indian-meal moth and subsequently shown to occur as allergen in various invertebrates and shellfish. The cDNA coding for AK from the house dust mite (HDM) species Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Der p 20, has been isolated, but no recombinant Der p 20 (rDer p 20) allergen has been produced and characterized so far. We report the expression of Der p 20 as recombinant protein in Escherichia coli. rDer p 20 was purified and shown to be a monomeric, folded protein by size exclusion chromatography and circular dichroism spectroscopy, respectively. Using AK-specific antibodies, Der p 20 was found to occur mainly in HDM bodies, but not in fecal particles. Thirty percent of clinically well-characterized HDM allergic patients (n = 98) whose immunoglobulin E (IgE) reactivity profiles had been determined with an extensive panel of purified HDM allergens (Der f 1, 2; Der p 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 21, 23 and 37) showed IgE reactivity to Der p 20. IgE reactivity to Der p 20 was more frequently associated with lung symptoms. AKs were detected in several invertebrates with specific antibodies and Der p 20 showed IgE cross-reactivity with AK from shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). Thus, Der p 20 is a cross-reactive HDM allergen and may serve as a diagnostic marker for HDM-induced lung symptoms such as asthma.

Copyright © 2021 The Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Arginine kinase (AK) was first identified as an allergen in the Indian-meal moth and subsequently shown to occur as allergen in various invertebrates and shellfish. The cDNA coding for AK from the house dust mite (HDM) species Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Der p 20, has been isolated, but no recombinant Der p 20 (rDer p 20) allergen has been produced and characterized so far. We report the expression of Der p 20 as recombinant protein in Escherichia coli. rDer p 20 was purified and shown to be a monomeric, folded protein by size exclusion chromatography and circular dichroism spectroscopy, respectively. Using AK-specific antibodies, Der p 20 was found to occur mainly in HDM bodies, but not in fecal particles. Thirty percent of clinically well-characterized HDM allergic patients (n = 98) whose immunoglobulin E (IgE) reactivity profiles had been determined with an extensive panel of purified HDM allergens (Der f 1, 2; Der p 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 21, 23 and 37) showed IgE reactivity to Der p 20. IgE reactivity to Der p 20 was more frequently associated with lung symptoms. AKs were detected in several invertebrates with specific antibodies and Der p 20 showed IgE cross-reactivity with AK from shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). Thus, Der p 20 is a cross-reactive HDM allergen and may serve as a diagnostic marker for HDM-induced lung symptoms such as asthma.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes a severe respiratory disease in humans. The MERS-CoV spike (S) glycoprotein mediates viral entry into target cells. For this, MERS-CoV S engages the host cell protein dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4, CD26) and the interface between MERS-CoV S and DPP4 has been resolved on the atomic level. Here, we asked whether naturally-occurring polymorphisms in DPP4, that alter amino acid residues required for MERS-CoV S binding, influence cellular entry of MERS-CoV. By screening of public databases, we identified fourteen such polymorphisms. Introduction of the respective mutations into DPP4 revealed that all except one (Δ346-348) were compatible with robust DPP4 expression. Four polymorphisms (K267E, K267N, A291P and Δ346-348) strongly reduced binding of MERS-CoV S to DPP4 and S protein-driven host cell entry, as determined using soluble S protein and S protein bearing rhabdoviral vectors, respectively. Two polymorphisms (K267E and A291P) were analyzed in the context of authentic MERS-CoV and were found to attenuate viral replication. Collectively, we identified naturally-occurring polymorphisms in DPP4 that negatively impact cellular entry of MERS-CoV and might thus modulate MERS development in infected patients.