Search

Malignant cutaneous melanoma (CM) is an extremely aggressive cancer characterized by a high level of metastatic activity and unfavorable prognosis due to a high incidence of relapses, as well as resistance to standard chemotherapy. Cutaneous melanoma accounts for 80% of deaths from malignant skin tumors. Nucleolin/C23 and nucleophosmin/B23, which constitute altogether ~70% of the nucleolus volume, are promising targets for molecular therapy of melanoma. These proteins perform many important functions in the cell, so disruption of the NCL and/or NPM gene structure and abnormal expression of the C23 and B23 proteins they encode, can lead to unlimited cell proliferation and progression of a tumor. Therefore, investigation of the structure and expression of these genes is a topical problem, which is important for understanding the mechanisms of CM carcinogenesis and for the development of new therapeutic approaches. This paper describes new NCL and NPM polymorphisms, as well as the levels of C23 and B23 expression in normal tissues, CM and mucosal melanoma.

Influenza is a highly contagious and one of the most massive infection diseases. General epidemiological significance has a strain, which belongs to subtype A. A high degree of genetic variety leads to the permanent changes in the antigenic structure of the influenza virus. Therefore, the current influenza vaccines require periodic updating of the composition of strains. Presently, it is important to develop a universal vaccine that can protect against different strains of influenza A virus at the same time and is based on the conserved antigens of the influenza virus. The recombinant adenovirus vectors expressing genes of conserved viral antigenes may be a promising candidate vaccine against influenza A. Using the method of the homologous recombination, we developed in this study recombinant adenovirus of fifth serotype that expresses genes of the ion channel M2 and nucleoprotein NP of the influenza virus A. Genes of the consensus protein M2 and NP of human influenza A virus were included into the structure of the viral genome. The expression of the antigens M2 and NP using recombinant adenovirus vector was detected by a Western blot assay. The immunogenicity of the developed recombinant adenovirus vector was demonstrated by the intranasal immunization of laboratory mice.

Gene expression profile in diaphragm in comparison to three principally different hindlimb muscles (soleus, red and white gastrocnemius) was studied using quantitative PCR. Expression levels of PGC-1alpha mRNA and myogenin mRNA in diaphragm were in accordance with its myosin phenotype and citrate synthase activity. However, diaphragm was characterised by atypically high content of MyoD mRNA as well as high content of IGF-1 mRNA and low content of myostatin mRNA. The latter two findings suggest high intensity of protein synthesis in diaphragm muscle fibers, although they have smaller cross sectional area than fibers in locomotor muscles.

Nestin and Musashil (Msi-1) proteins are most often used for labeling of neural stem cells and progenitor cells in vivo, however it remains unclear if these markers really label the same cells. As a result of the study of structural characteristics and localization of nestin- and Msil-expressing cells it was found that these proteins were detected in non-identical cell populations in the brain of intact 15 rats. We failed to find cell groups demonstrating a coexpression of nestin and Msi-1. However, after ischemic lesion of the brain, which was caused in 38 rats by an endovascular occlusion of the left medial cerebral artery for 30 min with the following reperfusion for 48 hours, both markers were detected in cells of subventricular zone and in ependymocytes. These results indicate the changes in cytochemical patterns of the candidate stem cells.

The aim of the study was to examine the distribution of cells expressing Msi-1 (Musashi-1) protein which is believed to be a marker of neural stem cells, in rat telencephalon. These cells were found to be concentrated in the subventricular proliferative zone and diffusely scattered in striatum and hippocampus. Moreover, neurons with extensive Msi-1 reaction were found in habenular nuclei. The data obtained are not in full agreement with current views on the localization of neural stem cells in the brain.