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Introduction. Features of cytokine production in mononuclear cell cultures from Lyme borreliosis patients based on clinical data remained poorly studied. The study aim was to estimate the patterns of baseline and lipopolysaccharide-induced cytokine-secretory activity of peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes from patients with erythema migrans form of acute Lyme borreliosis based on clinical parameters. Materials and methods. Groups of 22 and 12 patients with the diagnoses of mild or moderate severity of monoinfection and co-infection with tick-borne encephalitis of Lyme borreliosis with erythema migrans were examined twice: on week 1 after disease onset and day 14. The control group included 17 healthy donors. Basal and lipopolysaccharide-induced IL-6, IL-10, and TNFα secretion levels were assessed in mononuclear leukocyte culture supernatants applying enzyme immunoassay. Statistical analysis was performed by using the Mann–Whitney U-test, Wilcoxon test, and Spearman’s rank correlation. Results. The group of moderate severity patients was clinically distinguished by severer fever and intoxication manifestations. At the disease onset, the basal TNFα, IL-6 and IL-10 secretion levels in the moderate severity patient cultures were significantly higher than in those of the other groups. After antibiotics treatment, the baseline TNFα and IL-10 levels tended to decrease. At the onset, lipopolysaccharide-induced cultures from the moderate severity patients showed significantly suppressed TNFα production and increased IL-10 secretion as compared to the other groups. Lipopolysaccharide-induced IL-6 secretion in the moderate vs. mild severity group supernatants was significantly lower. In dynamics, the induced TNFα levels in the moderate severity patients were increased to the magnitude exceeding that in the controls. Positive correlations between the IL-6 and TNFα basal levels and maximum body temperature or the C-reactive protein serum concentrations were revealed in the patients. Induced TNFα levels showed negative correlations with fever levels or with IL-10 secretion. Conclusions. It was demonstrated that basal TNFα, IL-6 and IL-10 secretion levels in the mononuclear cell cultures of acute Lyme borreliosis patients increased with the increasing disease severity. Suppression of lipopolysaccharide-induced TNFα production in the moderate severity patient cultures was presumably associated with the regulatory cytokine IL-10 effects.

The aim of the study was to characterize mono- and mixed infection with causative agents of vector-borne infections in Dermacentor reticulatus ticks inhabiting one of the anthropourgic foci of the Tomsk Region. Materials and methods. D. reticulatus ticks were collected from vegetation “on the flag” in the forest park zones of the southern part of Tomsk in August and September, 2020–2021. To isolate nucleic acids from homogenates of mites and subsequent PCR diagnostics, kits of the RealBest series (“Vector-Best”, Novosibirsk) were used. 184 individual samples of nucleic acids were examined for the presence of molecular-genetic markers of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), pathogenic borrelia, babesia, rickettsia, anaplasma, and ehrlichia. Results and discussion. The spectrum of pathogens detected through PCR assay of ticks collected in one of the anthropurgic foci of the Tomsk Region in 2020 and 2021 includes TBEV, pathogenic borrelia, rickettsia, and babesia. The highest rate of D. reticulatus infection has been established in relation to candidate pathogens of tick-borne rickettsioses (Rickettsia sp.) and babesioses (Babesia sp.). The overall frequency of co-infection in D. reticulatus was 12.88 %. Seven different associations of pathogens infecting D. reticulatus have been identified. The majority (88.24 %) of the detected cases of mixed infection were rickettsia associations. Double infection has been registered in 94 % of the total number of mixed variants. Markers of four tick-borne infection pathogens simultaneously (Rickettsia species DNA, Babesia species DNA, Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. DNA and TBEV RNA) have been found in one sample. Changes in areal of the D. reticulatus against the background of an increase in their numbers, determines the need to analyze the epidemiological significance of the ticks of this species in combined foci of tick-borne infections, especially in the zone of sympatry with ixodic ticks of other species.

The aim of the study was to identify the features of the cellular composition and cytokine profile of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in rats in a model of diet-induced metabolic syndrome.Materials and methods. In an experiment on animals (rats), a model of metabolic syndrome (MS) induced by a high-fat and high-carbohydrate diet was reproduced. To assess the viability of the reproduced model, biochemical and morphometric methods were used, such as measurement of body weight, specific gravity of liver and visceral fat, and blood pressure, determination of glucose concentration in the blood (including a glucose tolerance test), as well as determination of blood lipid parameters. To assess the intensity of the inflammatory response in the blood, the concentration of total protein, the total number of leukocytes, and the levels of immunocytokines (interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α, monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1) were determined. Open bronchoalveolar lavage was performed on the isolated heart – lung complex. The concentration of protein, immunocytokines (IL-6, IL-10, TNFα, MCP-1), the total number of leukocytes, and the ratio of their morphological types were determined in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF).Results. In animals with MS, an increase in the total number of leukocytes in the blood due to granulocytes and a rise in the concentration of protein, TNFα, and IL-10 were revealed compared with the parameters in the controls. BALF analysis revealed an increase in the concentration of protein, the total number of leukocytes, and the absolute number of alveolar macrophages, neutrophil granulocytes, and lymphocytes. The levels of IL-6 and MCP-1 were more than 1.5 times higher.Conclusion. Changes in the qualitative and quantitative parameters of BALF are inflammatory in nature and are formed during a systemic inflammatory response accompanying metabolic disorders in modeling MS in rats in the experiment.

Background. There is no current generally accepted classification and clinical approaches to assess the clinical course severity of tick-borne encephalitis. The aim is to develop models for the quantitative severity scores of the febrile form of tick-borne encephalitis using the most informative predictors. Materials and methods. In accordance with clinical criteria of the height and duration of fever, two groups of 9 and 30 patients (52.2 ± 4.3 and 49.5 ± 3.9 years old) with severe and non-severe febrile form of tick-borne encephalitis were formed. The study design was a retrospective case-control study. Statistical significance assessment of variables was carried out using the chi-square test. The odds ratios were also calculated. The development of logistic regression models was carried out using Statistica 12.0 modules. Results. A questionnaire of febrile form of tick-borne encephalitis severity score was developed using the height of fever and 11 most informative clinical predictors including arthralgia, chills, sleep disturbance, dizziness, orbital pain, nausea, photophobia, myalgia, severe headache, vomiting and meningism. To predict the severe clinical course of febrile form of tick-borne encephalitis, two logistic regression models were developed with or without severity score assessment of fever syndrome (coefficients α and β were –12.13 and 0.94 and –5.78 and 0.75 for models 1 and 2, respectively). Models 1 and 2 demonstrated a high predicted probability for cut-off values equal to 14 and 9 points and excellent quality of prediction test (AUC are equal to 0.99 and 0.98, respectively). Conclusions. The models of severity score demonstrated high predicted probabilities to predict severe clinical course of febrile form of tick-borne encephalitis, which can be used in clinical practice and for scientific purposes.

Objective: is to develop a model for early diagnosis of mixed infection of the non-erythema migrans form of Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis using the assessment of the complete blood count and the blood leukocyte indices of patients in the first week of the disease.Materials and methods. The retrospective clinical study involved Group 1 of 27 patients with the mixed infection of the non-erythema migrans form of Lyme borreliosis and the febrile form of tick-borne encephalitis and Group 2 of 29 patients with the monoinfection of the non-erythema migrans form of Lyme borreliosis, who were hospitalized no later than in the 7th day of the disease. The average age of patients in Groups 1 and 2 was 50.6±3.4 and 49.9±2.3. We analyzed 14 parameters of the complete blood count as well as calculated the leukocyte intoxication index and the body resistance index. Statistical significance assessment was carried out using the chi-square test and ROC analysis. Logistic regression model was developed using STATISTICA 12.0 modules.Results. The levels of the band and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a serious medical and social problem due to its high prevalence, lack of common approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Prevention of food dysadaptation reactions and the studies of control mechanisms of immune tolerance to food antigens is of special scientific interest, thus providing available anti-inflammatory tools for correcting increased permeability of the intestinal epithelium and vascular endothelium associated with development of MS. Nutritional dysadaptation occurs due to inappropriate diet being mediated by the geno-phenotypic characteristics of digestive enzymes and immune system which control the efficiency of food digestion.Immunological control of digestion, including dynamic maintenance of tolerance to food antigens, is carried out at two levels of immune system: innate response with functional involvement of microbiota, and adaptive response, represented by cellular and humoral mechanisms associated with molecular epitopes and critical mass of persistent food antigens which are present in immunologically competent areas of small intestine, due to changing permeability of intestinal barrier and transcytosis processes. Patients and methods: aiming for assessment of the diet contribution to the immuno-biochemical and rheological imbalance in people with increased body weight, 170 volunteers of both sexes aged 20-55 years were examined, depending on the body mass index: > 27.0 kg/m2 (clinical group, n = 120), and those with BMI of < 25.0 kg/m2 (control group, n = 50). We have revealed statistically significant increase of multiple parameters in the clinical group, i.e., concentration of IL-6, IL-17, cholesterol, glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, insulin, indices of insulin resistance and atherogenicity. Increased levels of specific IgG antibodies to a number of food antigens were found in the subjects in the clinical group. In the course of our study, a statistically significant relationships was found between total numbers of platelets (p < 0.05; r = 0.213), erythrocytes (p < 0.05; r = -0.211), mean erythrocyte volume (MCV) (p < 0, 05; r = 0.339), and the concentration of IgG to casein in the blood, as well as a correlation between the levels of sIgG to soybeans and the number of platelets (p < 0.05; r = 0.231). At the same time, some associations were found between the established values of IgG to casein pAG, and the risk of developing atherogenic changes (atherogenicity index > 3) being significant at OR = 2.68 (1.33-5.42), as well as between IgG values to casein pAG (OR = 8.9 (2.6-30.5)), to soybean pAG (OR = 5.6 (1.8-16.7)), to gluten pAG ((F = 0.00359. p < 0.05), and increased body mass index.The results obtained were interpreted as a possible impairment of food tolerance for a number of food antigens in individuals with high body mass index, due to the revealed correlations between concentrations of IgG to food antigens, imbalance of pro-inflammatory cytokines, rheological and metabolic parameters. These data may be used as biomarkers suggesting higher risk of evolving metabolic syndrome.