Vol 145, No 3 (2025)

The pathological processes contributing to local (at the site of invasion) and systemic (thrombotic and fibrotic manifestations) complications of the new coronavirus infection are assessed. The features of virus internalization into cells, S-protein-dependent biochemical processes that form inflammatory and barrier reactions are analyzed. When studying the options for evading the virus from the immune control systems, attention is paid to the uncoupling of phagocytosis from lytic processes compartmentalized in lysosomes during the penetration of SARS-CoV-2 into cells, as well as to the multilevel suppression of the interferon response. COVID-19 is a powerful stress factor and is associated with an increase in cortisol, catecholamines and lactate in the blood. Under hypoxic conditions, deviations in the course of metabolic processes and the reception of signaling molecules are traced. The redistribution of ionized iron in the progression of the viral process and the formation of its complications is traced. An important role in the formation of cellular damage and tissue structure reorganization is played by the systemic inflammatory response and immunothrombosis, associated with the formation of extracellular neutrophil traps, as a form of apoptotic cell death. The significance of DNA methylation, the appearance of mobile genetic elements and non-coding RNA is estimated. The formation of structural changes is largely associated with fibrosis, realized in particular through the virus-activated epithelial-mesenchymal transition, local and systemic correction of which will reduce the risk of complications of the infectious process.

Next-generation sequencing methods allow to fully characterize the qualitative composition of microbiota in fermented foods such as yoghurts and kefirs. However, to properly use high-throughput sequencing for food composition analysis, it is necessary to find out the optimal combination of bioinformatics software and database. In our study, we aimed to characterize the microbiota composition of fermented dairy products using high-throughput sequencing and to analyze how the choice of software affects the obtained data. We sequenced 7 samples of fermented dairy product metagenomes to compare the composition and identify the main components. Reads obtained from sequencing the 16S rRNA gene region of 7 fermented dairy samples were analyzed using BLASTN against the NCBI 16S Microbial database, as well as MEGAN and MG-RAST. Mixtures of generated pseudoreads from “mixtures” of Lactococcus lactis, Levilactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus kefiri and Leuconostoc mesenteroides species were also analyzed. The bioinformatics tools used differ in their applicability depending on the acceptable error level. BLASTN without binning allows for species-level identification of samples that MEGAN and MG-RAST only identify up to the genus level, but at the same time allows for more false positive errors when using different databases with incorrectly identified reference sequences. Thus, further identification of the bacterial composition of fermented milk products requires the creation of a curated database for correct identification up to the species level.

Sequencing of chloroplast genomes provides new data for phylogenetic studies of controversial species of the tribe Triticinae. One such species is Aegilops aucheri Boiss., which is considered to be a subspecies of Ae. speltoides Tausch. The chloroplast genomes of accessions k-2278 and k-657 of Ae. aucheri from different geographical origins were sequenced and annotated to complete the picture of the phylogenetic position of this representative of the genus Aegilops. The size of the plastomes of both samples was 135668 bp. A phylogenetic tree based on the complete nucleotide sequence data of the chloroplast genomes of seven different Ae. aucheri accessions (five of which were already sequenced in the previous study) showed a separate position of this representative of the genus Aegilops from Ae. speltoides. The species status of Ae. aucheri is discussed in the context of these results.

A. Yu. Rozanov, Academician of the Russian academy of sciences, doctor of geological and mineralogi- cal sciences, professor of the Department of paleontology of Moscow State University provided feedback on a series of articles by A.P. Kozlov published in the journal “Advances in current biology” in 2024. In particular, the reviewer noted that we have been presented with a new biological concept – carcino-evo-devo, which studies the interrelationships of evolutionary, individual and tumor development within the framework of a single approach, therefore it can claim to be the unifying biological concept that has already defined new research directions in several fields of biology.

A.M. Pivovarov, Ph.D., co-author of domestic preparations of recombinant human erythropoietin “Epocrin” and “Eralphon”, preparations of natural and recombinant interferon-alpha (“Interlock”, “Reaferon”), recombinant epidermal growth factor, and many enzyme immunoassay systems for human cytokines, gives his comments on the series of A.P. Kozlov articles. He notes that the discovery in the laboratory of A.P. Kozlov and co-authors of a whole class of genes with a wide tumor-specific expression makes it possible to develop therapeutic MCAs with a wide antitumor spectrum of action. Thus, the study of proteins encoded by TSEEN genes may become a new field of medical biotechnology, claiming to be universal.