Features of the immune profile and polymorphism of candidate genes in children population of an industrially developed region with excessive contamination of the biological medium with mercury

Introduction. Analyzing the negative impact of technogenic chemicals on the health of the children’s population of industrially developed regions is an urgent problem of preventive medicine. Excessive accumulation of mercury in the human body causes disadaptation changes in the immune regulation of physiological processes. Therefore, the analysis of the features of the immune profile associated with polymorphic variants of candidate genes as markers of early disorders of the child population’s health status is relevant in preserving the health of the population of industrialized regions. Materials and methods. A clinical and laboratory examination of the biological environment of 215 children aged 4-6 years was carried out. The observation group consisted of 133 people living in an industrially developed region. The comparison group consisted of 82 people living in a relatively clean territory. The level of contamination of the biological medium with mercury was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Identification of CD3+CD4+ -, CD3+CD8+- and CD19+ - lymphocytes was performed by flow cytofluorometry. The study of the phagocytic activity of leukocytes was carried out using formalized ram erythrocytes. The level of IgG production was determined using radial immunodiffusion by Mancini, specific IgG to mercury was carried out using allergosorbent testing with an enzyme label. Identification of single-nucleotide polymorphic variants (SNP) of the GSTA4 (rs3756980), FOXP3 (rs3761547), MTR (rs1805087), TERT (rs10054203) genes was carried out by real-time PCR. Results. Children living near the territory of the chemical industry enterprise in conditions of mercury exposure at a level not exceeding hygienic standards are characterized by an increased level of mercury contamination of urine, exceeding the reference level and the level of the comparison group by 1.8 times (p<0.05). The immune profile of children in the observation group is characterized by a decrease in the CD4+/CD8+ immunoregulatory index due to the decline of CD3+CD4+ helpers and hyperproduction of CD3+CD8+ cytotoxic lymphocytes, inhibition of the phagocytic activity of leukocytes (percentage of phagocytosis, phagocytic number, phagocytic index) against the background of an increase in CD19+ lymphocytes, serum IgG and a marker of specific sensitization - IgG to mercury (p<0.05). Changes in the immune profile of children with an increased level of mercury contamination are associated with the C-allele and TC-heterozygous and CC-homozygous genotypes of the GSTA4 gene (rs3756980), the C-allele and CC-genotype of the FOXP3 gene (rs3761547), the A-allele and AA-genotype of the MTR gene (rs1805087) (OR>1, p<0.05), the G-allele and GG-genotype of the TERT gene (rs10054203) (p<0.05). These genes are responsible for the features of detoxification processes, immunoregulation and longevity programs. Conclusion. The established features of cellular (decrease in CD4+/CD8+ due to CD3+CD4+ deficiency with simultaneous increase in CD3+CD8+, inhibition of phagocytosis) and humoral (hyperproduction of IgG, specific IgG to mercury, CD19+) immunity associated with polymorphic variants of the glutathione S-transferase GSTA4 (rs3756980), transcription factor FOXP3 (rs3761547), MTR (rs1805087), TERT telomerase (rs10054203) in children with excessive contamination of the biological medium with mercury, a complex of immune and genetic markers of the effect and sensitivity of mercury exposure is formed.

Environmental Desire in: The Mill on the Floss

Jayne Hildebrand, “Environmental Desire in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss” (pp. 192–222) This essay argues that George Eliot’s expansive use of landscape description in The Mill on the Floss (1860) represents an engagement with the emerging concept of a biological “medium” or “environment” in the nineteenth-century sciences. In the 1850s, scientific writers including Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, and G. H. Lewes redefined biological life as dependent on an abstraction called a “medium” or “environment”—a term that united all the objects, substances, and forces in an organism’s physical surroundings into a singular entity. Eliot in The Mill on the Floss draws out the ecological potential of this new biological concept by imbuing the described backgrounds of her novel with a lyrical affect I call “environmental desire,” a diffuse longing for ambient contact with one’s formative medium that offers an ethical alternative to the possessive and object-driven forms of desire that drive the plot of a traditional Bildungsroman. Maggie Tulliver’s marriage plot is structured by a tension between environmental desire and possessive desire, in which her erotic desire for Stephen Guest competes with a more diffuse environmental desire that attaches to the novel’s described backgrounds. Ultimately, the new environment concept enables Eliot to reconceive the Bildungsroman’s usual opposition between self and world as a relationship of nourishment and dependency rather than struggle, and invites a reconsideration of the ecological role of description in the Bildungsroman genre.

Wireless Monitoring of Biological Objects at Microwaves

Electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation inside and along the surface of the human body is the subject of active research in the field of biomedical applications of microwaves. This research area is the basis for wireless monitoring of biological object parameters and characteristics. Solutions to the following problems are crucial for achieving the stated goals in the area of wireless monitoring: EM wave propagation inside and on-body surface. The biological object monitoring is based on a consideration of the following problems: (i) dielectric properties of a biological issue; (ii) EM wave propagation in biological medium; (iii) propagation of EM waves across the boundary of two media (biological medium–air): wave reflection and refraction; (iv) EM wave propagation in a multilayer biological medium; (v) EM wave propagation along the plane or curved surface of biological objects.

COMPARATIVE OF NATURAL ZEOLITE – CLINOPTILOLITE ELIMINATION OF METAL IONS/ESPECIALLY Cu (II) WITH D-PENICILLAMINE FROM BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTS

Clinoptilolite is used as an adsorbent to remove heavy metal cations due to its function as a molecular sieve. This molecular sieve characteristic has made it possible to study the efficiency of clinoptilolite and D-Penicillamine in a comparative way in terms of the adsorption of heavy metals (especially copper) from a biological medium. For this purpose, clinoptilolite was subjected to grinding to produce a homogenized micronized powder in two sizes with d90=75 and 150 μm. Then, initial adsorption tests in an aqueous medium were performed on 10 ppm solutions of iron, zinc, copper, cadmium and nickel cations in single cation solutions, as well as a mixture of cations. In the next step, tests were performed to evaluate the adsorption of Cu2+ on clinoptilolite under different conditions. Experiments have been performed to investigate the effect of pH, temperature (T), adsorbent dosage, time and cation concentration in a simulated biological medium. According to the results, clinoptilolite has a high ability to remove metal cations from aqueous solutions. The 99.71% removal of copper cations by clinoptilolite indicates the high ability of this mineral to remove copper from any environment. In a simulated biological medium at pH=7 and 5, the copper adsorption rate was 98.18% and 97.45% respectively, which indicates the high ability of zeolite to absorb copper cations under biological conditions. An examination of the mass balance calculations has also shown the ability to replace clinoptilolite with penicillamine; 15 mg of clinoptilolite removes 214 mg of Cu from aqueous solutions, which is equivalent to the formation of copper-penicillamine chelate.

A review of the current understanding of nanoparticles protein corona composition

Upon entering into the biological environments, the surface of the nanoparticles is immediately coated with proteins and form the so-called a protein corona due to which a nanoparticle changes its "synthetic" identity to a new "biological" identity. Different types of nanoparticles have different protein binding profiles, which is why they have different protein corona composition and therefore it cannot be said that there is a universal protein corona. The composition and amount of protein in the corona depends on the physical and chemical characteristics of the nanoparticles, the type of biological medium and the exposure time. Protein corona increases the diameter but also changes the composition of the surface of the nanoparticles and these changes affect biodistribution, efficacy, and toxicity of the nanoparticles.