Summary
The Finnish and Russian Karelia are adjacent areas in northern Europe, socio‐economically distinct but geoclimatically similar. The Karelia Allergy Study was commenced in 1998 to characterize ...the allergy profiles in the two areas. Allergy prevalence had increased in Finland since the early 1960s, but the situation in Russia was unknown. The key finding was that allergic symptoms and diseases were systematically more common in Finnish children and adults than in their Russian counterparts. For example, in the early 2000s, hay fever in school children was almost non‐existent in Russian Karelia, and only 2% were sensitized to birch pollen compared with 27% in Finnish Karelia. Adult birth cohorts showed that among those born in the 1940s, the sensitization to pollens and pets was at the same low level in both countries, but among younger generation born in the late 1970s, the difference was already manifold. Seropositivity to some pathogens, microbial content in house dust and drinking water seemed to confer allergy protection in Russia. In subsequent studies, it became apparent that on the Finnish side, healthy children had a more biodiverse living environment as well as greater diversity of certain bacterial classes on their skin than atopic children. Abundance of skin commensals, especially Acinetobacter (gammaproteobacteria), associated with anti‐inflammatory gene expression in blood leucocytes. In vivo experiments with the mouse model demonstrated that intradermally applied Acinetobacter protected against atopic sensitization and lung inflammation. These observations support the notion that the epidemic of allergy and asthma results from reduced exposure to natural environments with rich microbiota, changed diet and sedentary lifestyle. Genetic studies have confirmed strong influence of lifestyle and environment. With our results from the Karelia study, a 10‐year National Allergy Programme was started in 2008 to combat the epidemic in Finland.
Summary
Background
Atopic allergy has been more common among schoolchildren in Finland, as compared to Russian Karelia. These adjacent regions show one of the most contrasting socio‐economical ...differences in the world.
Objective
We explored changes in allergy from school age to young adulthood from 2003 to 2010/2012 in these two areas. The skin and nasal microbiota were also compared.
Methods
Randomly selected children from Finnish (n = 98) and Russian Karelia (n = 82) were examined in 2003, when the children were 7–11 years of age, and again in 2010 (Finnish Karelia) and 2012 (Russian Karelia). We analysed self‐reported allergy symptoms and sensitization to common allergens by serum sIgE values. The skin (volar forearm) and nasal mucosa microbiota, collected in 2012 (aged 15–20 years), identified from DNA samples, were compared with multivariate methods.
Results
Asthma, hay fever, atopic eczema, self‐reported rhinitis, as well as atopic sensitization, were threefold to 10‐fold more common in Finland, as compared to Russian Karelia. Hay fever and peanut sensitization were almost non‐existent in Russia. These patterns remained throughout the 10‐year follow‐up. Skin microbiota, as well as bacterial and fungal communities in nasal mucosa, was contrastingly different between the populations, best characterized by the diversity and abundance of genus Acinetobacter; more abundant and diverse in Russia. Overall, diversity was significantly higher among Russian subjects (Pskin < 0.0001, Pnasal‐bacteria < 0.0001 and Pnasal‐fungi < 0.01). Allergic diseases were not associated with microbial diversity in Finnish subjects.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance
Differences in allergic phenotype, developed in early life, remain between populations. A parallel difference in the composition of skin and nasal microbiota suggests a potential underlying mechanism. Our results also suggest that high abundance and diversity of Acinetobacter might contribute to the low allergy prevalence in Russia. Implications of early‐life exposure to Acinetobacter should be further investigated.
Visual crowding refers to a phenomenon whereby objects that appear in the periphery of the visual field are more difficult to identify when embedded within clutter. Pooling models assert that ...crowding results from an obligatory averaging or other combination of target and distractor features that occurs prior to awareness. One well-known manifestation of pooling is feature averaging, with which the features of target and nontarget stimuli are combined at an early stage of visual processing. Conversely, substitution models assert that crowding results from binding a target and nearby distractors to incorrect spatial locations. Recent evidence suggests that substitution predominates when target-flanker feature similarity is low, but it is unclear whether averaging or substitution best explains crowding when similarity is high. Here, we examined participants' orientation report errors for targets crowded by similar or dissimilar flankers. In two experiments, we found evidence inconsistent with feature averaging regardless of target-flanker similarity. However, the observed data could be accommodated by a probabilistic substitution model in which participants occasionally "swap" a target for a distractor. Thus, we conclude that-at least for the displays used here-crowding likely results from a probabilistic substitution of targets and distractors, regardless of target-distractor feature similarity.
Current century has been highlighted with rise in allergic pathology, and environment markedly affects it via epigenetic mechanisms. Allergy research in Russia and Finland has been conducted for many ...years, of larger scale recorded in the latter, still being maintained over time. Atopy prevalence was studied in the border areas in both countries. The level of total, dietary, inhaled IgE level, as well as dietary and inhalation range were examined. The Phadiatop® radio allergen sorbent test was used (UniCAP 1000 v.2; Pharmacia Upjohn, Uppsala, Sweden), with cut-off point: IgE 110 kUA/l and sIgE 2.5 kUa/l and 0.35 kUA/l. The study was subdivided into 2 stages conducted during 2003 and 2010/2012 timeframe. Stage 1 was performed with children from Finland (n = 344), Russia (n = 427), aged 7—15 years, whereas stage 2 — 180 subjects (Finland, n = 98, Russia, n = 82). Results. It was found that total IgE level was higher in children from Finland. The inhaled sIgE in 2003 and 2010/2012 was higher among children from Finland, p = 0.019 and p = 0.027, showing temporal elevation. In 2003, dietary sIgE was higher among those from Finland (27.6% and 18.3%), p = 0.142, whereas in 2010/2012 it was decreased by 2- and 3-fold in subjects from Finland and Russia, respectively. In 2003, high atopy rate against dust mites, cats, timothy, birch, and dogs was found in Russia, which was increased at stage 2. Such parameter was most evidently elevated for timothy — by 2-fold, p = 0.176, wormwood — by 2-fold, p = 0.312, equine allergens — by 2-fold, p = 0.563, canine allergens — by 1.5-fold, mite — by 1.5-fold, p = 0.220. In 2003, atopy rate in Finland to canine allergens reached 26.5%, timothy — 24.5%, birch — 20.4%, feline allergens — 20.4%. In 2010, it was noted rise in atopy rate mainly to dust mites — by 2-fold, equine allergens — by 2-fold. In 2003, atopy rate in Russia to egg, milk, and wheat prevailed, whereas in Finland it was mostly found against milk, nuts, wheat, eggs, in both cases declined in dynamics. Interestingly, no sensitization to fish in subjects from Russia and Finland was observed at both stages. Finally, at the stage 2 dietary atopy rate was declined in both countries. Differences in atopic sensitization as well as during 7—9 year follow-up observation were preserved between both subject cohorts from Finland and Russia.
Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) need costly medical care and adequate therapy with expensive medicinal products. Tigerase® is the first biosimilar of dornase alfa, developed by the lead Russian ...biotechnology company GENERIUM. The aim of the manuscript to present post hoc sub-analysis of patients' data with cystic fibrosis and severe pulmonary impairment of a larger comparative study (phase III open label, prospective, multi-centre, randomized study (NCT04468100)) of a generic version of recombinant human DNase Tigerase® to the only comparable drug, Pulmozyme®.
In the analyses included subgroup of 46 severe pulmonary impairment patients with baseline FEV1 level 40-60% of predicted (23 patients in each treatment group) out of 100 patients registered in the study phase III open label, prospective, multi-center, randomized study (NCT04468100), and compared efficacy endpoints (FEV1, FVC, number and time of exacerbations, body weight, St.George's Respiratory Questionnaire) as well as safety parameters (AEs, SAEs, anti-drug antibody) within 24 treatment weeks.
All outcomes were comparable among the studied groups. In the efficacy dataset, the similar mean FEV1 and mean FVC changes for 24 weeks of both treatment groups were observed. The groups were also comparable in safety, all the secondary efficacy parameters and immunogenicity.
The findings from this study support the clinical Tigerase® biosimilarity to Pulmozyme® administered in CF patients with severe impairment of pulmonary function.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The paper sets forth the stages of design and introduction of the new Russian tuberculosis (TB) drug perchlozon registered in the Russian Federation in 2012. Based on the results of Phases I-III ...clinical trials, the authors evaluate the efficacy and safety of the agent and consider the adverse effects of its treatment for respiratory TB. The use of perchlozon as a component of combination therapy versus standard chemotherapy regimens significantly reduces abacillation time in pulmonary TB caused by its drug-resistant pathogen. In terms of the higher prevalence of TB induced by its pathogen resistant to many drugs (with multiple and broad-spectrum drug resistance), perchlozon is an essential drug that has antituberculous activity mainly against multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains and gives patients with the severest and epidemiologically poor form of TB the chance to recover.
Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study using a database of patients in the pulmonology department of a city hospital from 2002 to 2016.In our sample, there was preponderance of men older than ...60 years old and of serious cardiovascular diseases and risk factors for unfavourable outcomes grew over time.
The underlying pathology of a nonhereditary virus, the Drosophila C virus, was studied. This study was related to the contamination routes (ingestion or contact) and developmental timing. When oral ...contamination occurred at the first larval instar: (1) the flies were contaminated, (2) the flies which had developed the most rapidly were the most infected, (3) in newly emerged females, the level of virus was higher than in newly emerged males, (4) when infected flies were reared on virus-free medium only males lost their virus. Moreover, oral contamination of adults was very efficient, but the highest virus yield was obtained when both larvae and imagos grew on virus-contaminated medium. About 30 to 50% of the flies died on the sixth day. They were as DCVC invaded as DCVC-injected flies. It seemed that when the virus yield was higher than a given threshold, all flies died, whatever had been the contamination routes. When contaminated adult females and virus-free males were reared together on a virus-free medium, females could infect males. In contrast, contaminated males were not able to infect virus-free females. Thus, only females were able to contaminate a rearing medium or other flies.
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