The article  presents  data on two of the main epidemiological  rates defining the burden  of tuberculosis  in the system of WHO global statistics tuberculosis  incidence and mortality.

The article specifies the formation of WHO assessment of tuberculosis incidence and provides main data on the evaluation  and notification  of new cases in certain countries,  WHO regions and worldwide.

Data presented in the article include the comparison of definitions of incidence and values of registered incidence of tuberculosis, obtained in Russia, worldwide and countries of WHO European Region.

The article speculates on the tuberculosis detection in WHO understanding, in particular on the use of systematic screening. The explanation is given why the rate of prevalence is not commonly used in the latest WHO publications.

In order to evaluate  the frequency  and risk factors of adverse reactions,  the monitoring results  of clinical and laboratory tests  of 435 new cases of respiratory tuberculosis being on the intensive phase of chemotherapy have been analyzed. 95.2% of patients had adverse reactions (95% CI 92.7-96.9); 48.7% demonstrated severe adverse reactions and in 72.7% treatment regimen had to be changed. Regarding the profile of adverse reactions, hepatotoxic ones prevailed (59.3%), they were followed by allergic reactions  (53.6%), gastrointestinal reactions  (35.6%) and hyperuricemia (61.6%). Certain risk factors have been identified for each of the above types of adverse reactions, making it possible to predict and prevent them prior to the start of chemotherapy.

591 lethal cases among patients of TB dispensary were analyzed with relevance to gender and HIV status; the part of patients with TB/HIV co-infection made 38.4% with absolute prevalence of men among those died (82.2%). It has been found out that those died due to HIV infection suffered mostly from disseminated and miliary tuberculosis  and HIV negative patients had fibrous cavernous and infiltrate tuberculosis. No impact of gender on the form of pulmonary tuberculosis was detected in HIV positive patients, and infiltrate form of tuberculosis was confidently the most common cause of death in female HIV negative patients. Generalized tuberculosis confidently developed more often in HIV positive patients, male patients had more severe lesions with the higher frequency of meningocephalites. The cause of death in those with TB/HIV infection was the progressing disease with no antiretroviral therapy  in the majority of cases regardless of gender.

238 tuberculosis cases with concurrent HIV infection were examined. The age of patients varied from 24 to 57 years old. Men made 189 (79.4%), and women 49 (20.6%). The CD4 count in the examined patients varied from 0 to 1.216 × 10⁹/L. The intensity of systematic inflammatory response was evaluated  as per the rates of acute phase reactants: С-reactive  protein (СRP), α₁-antitrypsin (α₁-АТ), haptoglobin (HG) and fibrinogen (F). It was found out that tuberculosis  patients with concurrent HIV infection demonstrated confidently increased levels of C-reactive  protein, α₁-antitrypsin, and haptoglobin, which was the evidence of systemic inflammatory response. However, the increase of fibrinogen level was not typical of tuberculosis patients with concurrent HIV  infection.  The comparative  analysis proved that  the intensity of systemic inflammatory  response was increasing simultaneously with the severity of the immune deficiency, and the growth  of acute phase reactants' level with a parallel reduction of CD4 count was the evidence of the above. C-reactive protein and α₁-antitrypsin were the most informative markers of systemic inflammatory response intensity in tuberculosis  patients with concurrent HIV infection.

The article describes the software developed for processing of data of entire genomes of human tuberculous mycobacteria.

Of late much attention has been paid to tissue engineering by urologists. After successful testing on animals, artificial urinary bladders with self-specific cells were transplanted to humans. Our research is aimed at investigating the opportunity of using cellular technologies  if no healthy  self-specific material is available.

The goal of this experiment  is to investigate the opportunity of using a multi-component composite material containing  allogeneic cells to replace the defect of urinary wall under experimental conditions.

The standard technique was used for isolation and culturing of mesenchymal stromal stem cells from the rabbit's  bone marrow. Multi-component composite material based on the polylactide  matrix was inoculated by allogeneic cells and transplanted in vivo to the model of partial cystectomy. In 2.5 months the presence of labeled cells in the implantation site was confirmed by objective methods.

Goal of the study: to investigate the impact  of isoniazid combined  with  silver nanoparticles on the isoniazid resistant strains  of tuberculous mycobacteria  and the course of experimental of tuberculosis  caused by the above strains.

Materials and methods. The electrochemical metal resolution was used to obtain silver nanoparticles, the average size of nanoparticles made 3-60 nm. The investigated concentrations of silver nanoparticles made 5; 25; 50 µg/ml. The isoniazid was used only in one concentration of 1 mg/ml. Totally there were 651 in vitro tests.

The experimental tuberculosis  model included infecting mice (totally 68) with two-week virulent  multiple drug resistant culture  of M. tuberculosis.

Results. In vitro tests  proved that  isoniazid combined  with silver nanoparticles fully or significantly  suppressed  the growth  of MDR  TB strain in 49.2% of cases. The minimal inhibitory concentration of nanoparticles in the combination with isoniazid made 2.5 µg/ml and minimal bactericidal concentration made 5 µg/ml. Atomic force microscopy detected the changes in morphometric parameters of MDR  tuberculous mycobacteria after exposure to silver nanoparticles combined with isoniazid unlike the use of isoniazid only or silver nanoparticles. When treating experimental tuberculosis, survival rates and histological tests of the lung tissue confirmed that the combination of isoniazid and silver nanoparticles was preferable compared to the single use of the above components.

Often local inflammation develops into systemic one with total inflammatory response of endotheliocytes, plasma and cellular blood factors, connective tissue, and at the final stages it is manifested through microcirculatory disorders in vital organs and tissues. At present two aspects are being investigated related to systemic inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Firstly, it is the evaluation of inflammatory load through testing the level of inflammation markers in blood. Secondly, now it is generally recognized that a number of typical extrapulmonary disorders and concurrent diseases develops in COPD patients. Regardless of these general pathogenic mechanisms, the one thing is clear: cardiovascular diseases, body weight loss, osteoporosis and a number of other extrapulmonary manifestations of COPD are related to systematic inflammatory response.