Photosensitized oxidation reactions of biomolecules such as lipids, proteins, DNA initiate cytotoxic and genotoxic processes that are mediated by endogenous sensitizers under effect of ultraviolet radiation in the range A (UVA, 320–400 nm) on living systems. The photosensitization reactions are oxygen-dependent and depending upon primary mechanism are divided into type I and type II. Type I reactions involve electron transfer between photoexcited sensitizer and biomolecule with the formation of radical states. The interaction of radical cation of biomolecule with oxygen leads to the production of its final oxidation products, and electron transfer between radical anion of sensitizer and oxygen generates superoxide anion radical (O2•−) with following production of H2O2 and the highly reactive hydroxyl radical (•OH). In contrast to radical mechanism of type I reactions, primary mechanism of type II reactions involves energy transfer from photoexcited sensitizer to oxygen (O2) that leads to the formation of singlet oxygen (1O2, 1Δg), which is much more reactive in relation to biomolecule oxidation than O2. Current knowledge on mechanisms of initial stages of the type I and type II reactions as well as their involvement in the oxidized degradation of biomolecules such as DNA, proteins and lipids are expounded in detail in present review. Sensitized properties of pterins, riboflavin and protoporphyrin IX with characteristic peculiarities of action of each of these photosensitizers are also considered. The considerable attention is given to processes of photosensitized damage to DNA and discussing the role of different DNA photoproducts in initiating genotoxic processes including carcinogenesis in human skin.

The relevance of studying the nervous apparatus of the mediastinal organs during the period of early postnatal ontogenesis is due to the peculiarities of the birth period, when the process of blood circulation switches from placental to pulmonary, and the period of the first days of development, when the establishment of the regulation of respiration and the functioning of the cardiovascular system is observed. The purpose of this study was to comparatively study the innervation of the organs of the rat mediastinum and to elucidate interorgan and neurotissue relationships in the early postnatal period of ontogenesis. Frontal sections through the cardiopulmonary complex of rats at the age of 1, 7, 10 and 14 days were the objects of study. The nervous structures of the mediastinum were studied using neuronal markers: PGP 9.5 protein, tyrosine hydroxylase, synaptophysin. A study of the nervous apparatus of the mediastinal organs (heart, bronchi, esophagus, aorta, pulmonary artery, adipose tissue, etc.) showed that in the early stages of development, most nervous structures are cholinergic. Using an immunohistochemical reaction to synaptophysin, heterochronic development of the main terminal synaptic network en passant was revealed. A high concentration of synaptic structures in the venous sinus and in the His bundle of the rat myocardium at the age 1 and 7 days with a predominance of parasimatic innervation has been described. At the age 10 and 14 days, widespread superficial active growth of nerve fibers was noted along the entire perimeter of the organ up to its apex. The beginning of the formation of its main nerve plexuses of the heart was noted: subepicardial, myocardial and endocardium.

In recent years, amid an increasing shortage of resources, there has been a steady trend towards the search for new biotechnologically valuable algae strains. This paper presents the results of a study of the taxonomic position, growth characteristics and analysis of the fatty acid profile of two strains of eustigmatophyte microalgae of the genus Vischeria (Heterokontophyta) isolated from the Nadymsky district of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia) in order to clarify their biotechnological potential. According to the results of morphological and phylogenetic analysis using internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), the strains were identified as Vischeria sp. In the work, the growth rates of the studied strains were studied in detail, productivity was assessed, the content of total lipids was determined and the fatty acid composition was studied. It has been shown that both are active producers of palmitic, eicosapentaenoic and palmitoleic acids. It is noteworthy that in terms of the content of palmitoleic acid, both strains studied are superior to its traditional sources. In the strains VKM Al-463 and VKM Al-480, the final concentration of palmitic acid was 419,6 ± 18,1 mg/l and 501,3 ± 57,0 mg/l, palmitoleic acid – 896,5 ± 22,5 mg/l and 1312,5 ± 109,0 mg/l, eicosapentaenoic acid – 109,0 ± 7,5 mg/l and 113,7 ± 8,8 mg/l, respectively. During the comparative analysis, it was found that although both strains had undoubted biotechnological value, it was the VKM Al-480 strain that most effectively accumulated biomass enriched with these acids. This makes it attractive as an alternative source of raw materials for the production of food and feed additives, cosmetics and biodiesel.

Placenta development is largely determined by the interaction of natural killer (NK) cells and trophoblast cells. Despite intensive research, the role of NK cells and methods for correcting their functional activity in reproduction remain controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of protein fractions of NK cell lysate on trophoblast cell proliferation in a model experiment in vitro. Chromatographic separation resulted in obtaining six cell lysate fractions with different sets of proteins (25–250 kDa). It was found that all the studied fractions stimulated trophoblast cell proliferation. Proliferation markers such as protein kinase B (AKT/ PKB) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2) were found in the protein fractions with molecular weights of 36–250 kDa, 29–66 kDa, and 47–62 kDa. The obtained data on the change in the proliferative activity of JEG-3 cells under the influence of the NK-92 cell lysate fractions hypothetically reflect the behavior of chorionic cells surrounded by NK cells in the event of their death under normal or pathological conditions caused by viral and bacterial infections, as well as other stress factors that lead to reproductive pathology.

Urban dust particles are a major pathogenic factor in respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and lung cancer. Nanoparticles (NPs) of various origins are an important component of urban dust, but their effects on the human body are barely studied. In the present work, the effect of urban dust NPs on innate immune cells, neutrophils and macrophages was investigated in vitro. Urban dust nanoparticles were isolated from urban dust samples using coiled tube field-flow fractionation technique. Urban dust NPs were shown to induce a slight increase in the production of reactive oxygen species in human neutrophils. Preincubation of neutrophils with dust NPs resulted in a significant increase in ROS production in response to the chemoattractant peptide N-formylmethionine-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP). This suggests an effect of neutrophil priming with nanoparticles. On macrophages differentiated from the monocytic line THP-1, urban dust NPs stimulated the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor, and interleukin-6. The inflammatory activation of neutrophils and macrophages was reduced by antibiotic polymyxin B, which is able to bind bacterial wall lipopolysaccharide. The results suggest that the pro-inflammatory effect of urban dust NPs on neutrophils and macrophages is, at least in part, due to the presence of LPS.

Virus diseases of stone fruit crops (Prunus spp.) reduce both fruit yield and quality and shorten the productive life of fruit trees. Of the more than fifty known viruses affecting these crops, cherry virus A (CVA, genus Capillovirus, family Betaflexiviridae) is one of the most common. During a survey of stone fruit collections of the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), a sweet cherry (P. avium) tree of the cultivar Iput with viruslike rugosity symptoms on the leaves was found. When studying the virome of this plant using high-throughput sequencing, reads related to CVA were obtained and the complete genome of a new isolate of this virus, named SwC14, was assembled. Typically of capilloviruses, the SwC14 genome contained two open reading frames encoding a viral replicase, a coat protein and a movement protein. The SwC14 genome sequence was shown to be closest to the genomes of some Canadian sweet cherry CVA isolates (99.4% identity) and 81.4-95.0% identical to isolates of this virus from other stone fruit species and other regions of the world, including the previously characterized Crimean isolate PTC (82.0% identity). CVA was also detected in six of the seven other symptomless cherry cultivars examined by RT-PCR.This is the first report of a divergent CVA isolate in Central Russia, which expands information on the geographical distribution and genetic diversity of the virus.

Graphene derivatives (oxide and its reduced form) are promising carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) used in industry, electronics, medicine and biotechnology. The aim of the work was to study the effect of graphene oxide (GO) and its reduced form (rGO) on the formation and eradication of Candida maltosa VKPM Y-194 biofilms, metabolic activity, intracellular ATP content and the permeability of the cytoplasmic membrane of biofilm cells. It was found that GO and rGO slightly suppress yeast biofilm formation, and the decrease in biofilm biomass during growth in the presence of GO is significantly greater than during cell growth with rGO. The destruction of mature 7-day yeast biofilms is slightly greater in the presence of CNMs than in the control, and significantly greater than that of 3-day ones. At the same time, the metabolic activity of biofilm cells, assessed by the reduction of tetrazolium salt (methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium reagent), upon contact of biofilm cells with CNM for 4 hours, significantly increased in 3-day biofilms exposed to rGO. The content of intracellular ATP in biofilms grown in the presence of CNMs exceeded that in the control, but was lower after 4-hour effect on mature biofilms grown in a nutrient medium without CNM. The greatest negative effect on the cytoplasmic membrane of biofilm cells, which was expressed in an increase in its permeability, was exerted by GO upon 4-hour exposure to a 7-day biofilm. It was found that the negative effect of CNMs on biofilms of C. maltosa VKPM Y-194 is more pronounced when exposed to GO than to rGO, and higher when exposed to 7-day biofilms than to 3-day ones. Complete inhibition of biofilm formation and complete eradication of mature biofilms under the effect of CNMs have not been established.

The genus Rosa includes more than 200 species and 18,000 cultivars, which, in addition to being used in floriculture, are of economic importance due to the presence of essential oil, a source of natural aromatic components. Products (essential oil, rose oil, rose water, etc.) obtained from essential-bearing oil rose are used in the food, perfume, cosmetic and medical industries. Traditional rose propagation is carried out by cuttings, grafting or budding, which are complex and time-consuming processes. Biotechnological methods have become an alternative to the vegetative method of rose propagation. The main studies are aimed at selecting the mineral composition of nutrient media and concentrations of growth regulators, while the issues of structural and genetic stability of the material in vitro are still discussed. Therefore, the work aimed to determine the optimal conditions for in vitro cultivation, structure, ploidy, and relative DNA content of essential oil rose microshoots. Essential oil rose cultivar “Festivalnaya” (Rosa damascena Mill × Rosa gallica L.) was used as the material. Buds were sterilized and transferred on the Murashige-Skoog modified medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BAP), 0.25 mg/l gibberellic acid (GA3), 0.15 mg/l α-naphthylacetic acid. Micropropagation of the obtained microshoots was carried out on the Murashige-Skoog culture medium containing 1.0 mg/l 6-BAP; 1.0 mg/l kinetin (Kin); 1.0 mg/l 6-BAP + 1.0 mg/l Kin; 1.0 mg/l 6-BAP + 0.5 mg/l GA3. The structure analysis was carried out according to the generally accepted methods. Ploidy and relative DNA content were determined by flow cytometry. Induction of direct organogenesis in vitro from vegetative buds of essential oil rose was carried out. At the stage of micropropagation, the maximum number of adventitious microshoots was obtained on Murashige-Skoog medium with the introduction of 1.0 mg/l 6-BAP and 1.0 mg/l Kin. Structural analysis of microshoots after subculturing for 12 months revealed qualitative and quantitative changes due to specific in vitro conditions and material rejuvenation. The ploidy level of the leaf blade nuclei in vitro did not differ from those of ex situ shoots. The relative content of DNA in the leaf nuclei of shoots ex situ and microshoots in vitro was 2.21 pg and 2.24 pg, respectively, which indicates a certain stability of the material in vitro.