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The article considers and analyzes the views of Russian church authors in the latter half of XIX – early XX century (orthodox clergy, scholars, teachers of theological schools) toward the phenomenon of the Jerusalem community and the attempts of supporters of socialist views to treat the patterns of life and thought of Jerusalem Christians as an “early Christian”, “apostolic” or “ancient Christian” communism. Through the example of the critical scrutiny by church authors of the book “The Acts of the Apostles”, the paper shows their interpretations of property relations established in the Jerusalem community, reasons of its unique character, exegesis of the fall of Ananias and Sapphire, as well as fundamental differences of life of first Christians from the communist ideal. It testifies that notwithstanding the insignificant disparity of valuations concerning the Jerusalem community, its experience, achievements and period of existence, church authors had an undivided opinion in terms of disagreement with the fallacy of division between property relations of the community with those proclaimed by ideologists of socialism and communism.

Recent genome-wide association studies have revealed genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that are exclusively expressed in microglia within the brain. A proteomics approach identified moesin (MSN), a FERM (four-point-one ezrin radixin moesin) domain protein, and the receptor CD44 as hub proteins found within a co-expression module strongly linked to AD clinical and pathological traits as well as microglia. The FERM domain of MSN interacts with the phospholipid PIP (2) and the cytoplasmic tails of receptors such as CD44. This study explored the feasibility of developing protein-protein interaction inhibitors that target the MSN–CD44 interaction. Structural and mutational analyses revealed that the FERM domain of MSN binds to CD44 by incorporating a beta strand within the F3 lobe. Phage-display studies identified an allosteric site located close to the PIP (2) binding site in the FERM domain that affects CD44 binding within the F3 lobe. These findings support a model in which PIP (2) binding to the FERM domain stimulates receptor tail binding through an allosteric mechanism that causes the F3 lobe to adopt an open conformation permissive for binding. High-throughput screening of a chemical library identified two compounds that disrupt the MSN–CD44 interaction, and one compound series was further optimized for biochemical activity, specificity, and solubility. The results suggest that the FERM domain holds potential as a drug development target. The small molecule preliminary leads generated from the study could serve as a foundation for additional medicinal chemistry effort with the goal of controlling microglial activity in AD by modifying the MSN–CD44 interaction.

In the article the author addresses in more detail the problem of the Black-Hundred terror during the First Russian Revolution (1905–1907). Most of the focus in on the attitude of right-wing parties and unions towards violence, Jew bashings, armed detachments forming and political killings. The article illustrates different attitude of right royalists and extreme left-wingers towards strong-arm methods of struggle and draws attention to the policy of double standards, which was widely used in respect of right-wingers by revolutionary and opposition journalists. The author emphasizes that the problem of violence by the right-wingers cannot be viewed separately from similar problem with the left-wingers, and considering the general political situation and radicalization of the society as a whole. It is shown that in spite of the sympathy of some Black-Hundred politicians for pogroms and right terror as well as involvement of some members of the Black Hundred with political killings and other acts of violence, the leaders of royalist parties and unions never proclaimed terror as the method of their struggle and publicly condemned it. At the same time, armed resistance to extreme left-wingers at the height of revolution was regarded by the Black-Hundred leaders as assistance to the legal authorities and fulfillment of loyalist duty to protect the monarchist statehood.