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Imbalance in the interaction of mechanisms of innate and adaptive immunity rather than selective defect of each of the links is a determinant of the development of basal-cell carcinoma of this or that form of immunopathology or that of transformation of one to another form. The lecture gives notions on immunological phenotypes and the parameters of innate and adaptive immunity and on the association of two links of immunity. The major tumor-associated immunological phenotypes are pathogenetically and clinically different, but have signs of two-link immunodeficiency in each case. Tumor-associated secondary immunodeficiency is characterized by defects encompassing both the innate and adaptive links of immunity. Predominant are autoimmune disorders involving mainly the adaptive link of immunological responsiveness in case of tumor-associated autoimmune syndrome concurrent with immunodeficiency.

Aim: To study possible pathogenetic role and clinical significance of DNA-hydrolysing autoantibodies (autoAB) or DNA-abzymes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis., Material and Methods: Prevalence of DNA-abzymes and their catalytic activity were studied in 400 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 88 healthy donors matched by age and gender., Results: Associated with DNA-binding autoAB DNA-hydrolysing activity was detected in 41.5% cases of RA. DNA-abzymes were maximally active in men with rheumatoid factor (RF) and women without RF, while it was minimal in men without RF and women with RF. By catalytic activity there was no significant differences between patients with RF and without it. The highest catalytic activity of DNA abzymes was detected in patients with distinct extraarticular pathology. DNA-abzymes were also active in patients with x-ray stage III-IV of the disease in association with high prevalence of catalytic autoAB. DNA abzymes were also active in patients with RA activity stage II and III., Conclusion: It is possible to use DNA-abzymes in clinical practice for monitoring of the disease activity in RA.

The paper considers the current trends in the development of biological and medical sciences: their subject, tasks, methods, and place of General Human Pathology among other subjects, its value for the clinical discipline. It defines and analyzes the most topical and disputable directions of General Human Pathology, primarily including those which form the bases for the pathology theory. Arguments are advanced for the necessity of introducing the subject General Pathology of Man into the curriculum of higher medical educational establishments at various faculties. Consideration is given to the specific features of this subject teaching at the faculty training researchers and research pedagogical personnel, at the Pharmaceutical and Higher Nurse Training Faculties of the I. M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy. A proposal is given to consider and to discuss the most important problems of General Pathology and its teaching, which are listed in the paper.

The effect of acute and chronic alcohol intoxication and of the syndrome of ethanol withdrawal on the consumption of glucose by the brain of rats was studied by means of intravascular ethanol infusion. Infusion of ethanol into the internal carotid artery had no effect on glucose consumption by the brain, while its infusion into the femoral vein reduced consumption twofold. The effect was completely removed by the inhibitor of alcohol dehydrogenase pyrazole. Chronic intoxication also caused a twofold decrease of glucose utilization by the brain of rats. Infusion of ethanol into the internal carotid artery of rats who were in a state of alcoholic intoxication led to increase of glucose consumption by the brain to the control level. Infusion of ethanol into the femoral vein in this case had no effect on glucose consumption by the rat brain. Utilization of glucose by the brain diminished to an equal degree in rats suffering from the syndrome of ethanol withdrawal and in animals who were in a state of alcoholic intoxication. Infusion of ethanol, both intraarterial and intravenous, had no effect on glucose consumption by the brain. Activation and inhibition of the function of external respiration were encountered in equal concentrations of ethanol in blood flowing from the brain, whatever the method of its infusion.