BCG vaccine for tuberculosis was developed nearly 100 years ago and still remains the only medicine for specific immunological prevention of tuberculosis. Despite the fact it has been actively used for a long time in more than 100 countries, the results of vaccination are very contradictory. The protective effect of BCG vaccination is assessed from 0 to 80%, while the efficacy of BCG vaccination in children, especially in infants, is generally recognized. BCG helps to reduce tenfold the number of tuberculous meningitis and disseminated tuberculosis in children. However BCG neither protects the population from mycobacteria infections nor the adults from pulmonary tuberculosis, although it prevents extrapulmonary tuberculosis. For the last 20 years new tuberculosis vaccines have been intensive developed, their efficacy is believed to exceed the efficacy of BCG vaccine, with the minimized adverse reactions. Nevertheless out of more than 200 tuberculosis vaccine candidates only few were allowed for clinical trials. In the upcoming years the humanity can not count upon a medicine that could replace BCG. Therefore the research efforts should be focused on improving BCG vaccine in order to enhance its protective effect and to reduce adverse effects.

Typing of bacterial populations and identification of microorganisms are the overriding priorities in the field of prophylaxis, diagnosis and treatment of bacterial infections. Over the recent two decades rapidly developing approaches to molecular typing of bacterial populations have become an essential tool for the mentioned task. The information encoded in nucleic acids is more complete as compared to other characteristics of an organism. It can be obtained by either direct determination of genome sequences or by using a variety of techniques, that allow to indirectly assess the nucleotide composition in a representative genome locus of a microorganism under study. The article provides an overview of the literature data on direct and indirect methods of determining nucleotide composition of DNA sequences in microorganisms (multiple locus sequence typing, multiple sequeneed sites typing, denaturing gel electrophoresis, high-sensitivity melting curve analysis, DNA macro(micro)arrays).

Since Ilya Metchnikoff’s studies, both medical science and clinical practice have accumulated a large amount of evidence that human intestinal microbiota possesses a unique characteristics for our existence. However, only recently, scientists have achieved the actual breakthrough in this field of human physiology, and we start to understand the precise mechanisms of the complex interplay of microbial activity with human homeostasis and discover numerous new functions of intestinal microbes. In this regard, a novel medical technology evolves since 1958, so called fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), which is the administration of donor feces to the patients suffering from different kinds of diseases. Such infusion of donor feces restores the natural balance of gut commensal germs. FMT is most efficacious in severe or recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. FMT has been also reported to cure diarrhea and constipation caused by different conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn ’s disease etc. In the U.S. and Canada as well as in other countries FMT is of uttermost interest of not merely clinical practitioners but lately also of regulatory authorities. The paper also addresses the possibility of application the Russian pharmaceutical legislation to FMT.

Biological preparations differ substantially from low molecular weight chemicals in molecular weight, multidimensional structure of an active substance, presence of post-translational modifications, composition of impurities and excipients, drug manufacturing process, etc. These specific features of biological preparations also influence their pharmacokinetic properties. The assessment of pharmacokinetic properties is essential not only for the confirmation of the efficacy of a biological preparation, but it is also key aspect of demonstrating the similarity/analogy of a biosimilar preparation under development and the reference (original) preparation. High molecular weight biological preparations when administered subcutaneously and intramusculary initially migrate from the injection site into lymphatic vessels and then to blood. Pharmacokinetic properties of drugs with Fc region of immunoglobulin, are affected by their ability to interact with Fcy and FcRn receptors. Almost all biological preparations possess immunogenicity, the appearance of antibodies to a drug causes changes not only in pharmacodynamic but also in pharmacokinetic properties of biological products. The assessment of pharmacokinetic properties is a complicated and time-consuming process, for example, the study of drug distribution may in some cases require the use of a radioactive label.

Developing specific, effective and safe biomedical cell culture products (BCCP) assumes the following standard operating procedures: a) developing cell line with specific cell composition; b) obtaining a sufficient amount of cells of a specific cell line for therapeutic use as a part of BCCP; c) quality control and standardization of the developed cell line. Experts believe mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) to be the first choice for the purpose of stem cell therapy. The development of a cell line with a specific cellular composition includes five sequential steps: selection of donors, sampling of biological material, cell isolation from donor material, preparation of standardized homogeneous population of cells, characterization of cell line composition of the cell line and its certification. The process of obtaining a sufficient amount of cells of a specific cell line for therapeutic use as a part of BCCP includes the selection of culture medium for cultivation of MSC, in special bioreactors for cultivation and culture control parameters. Quality control and standardization of the developed cell line assumes the elaboration of general requirements for quality parameters, characterizing all cell lines; as well as specific requirements for the assessment of therapeutic preparations in accordance with their proposed indications (for example, for the treatment of diabetes, bone grafting, restoration of blood supply to ischemic myocardium). The article describes typical procedures and identifies possible checkpoints for common technological methods used in BCCP manufacture and their quality assessment. It also outlines the requirements for the content of documents submitted by BCCP developer to an official authority in marketing authorization dossier as well as the expert evaluation procedure.

In this paper we introduce new approach in formed in heterogeneous biological fluids immune complexes analysis. The approach is based on an analysis of the contribution of immune complexes in dynamic light scattering, recorded by laser correlometer with heterodyne measurement circuit. We demonstrated our approach sensitivity using embryonic calf serum model in addition of monoclonal antibody against hepatocuprein. Proposed approach is capable to detect forming immune complexes by adding antigen at a concentration greater than 150 pg/ml. Using immunoaffinity techniques we confirmed the lawfulness of identified peaks in the histograms of dynamic light scattering as appropriate immune complexes. For these purposes, we selectively removed immune complexes using staphylococcal protein A sepharose immobilized on the particles or increased in size immune complexes due to their further aggregation using antibodies specific for human immunoglobulin. The proposed approach can detect immune complexes in various biological fluids.

The article describes development of methods of quantitative determination of thimerosal in non-adsorbed immunobiological preparations by cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy as well as an estimation of the statistical significance of differences in the results determination of thimerosal conventional colorimetric method in combination with dithizone and CV AAS using one-way analysis of variance with Fisher’s exact test (F-test).

In Russia in the second half of the XIX century research schools, developing anthrax vaccines for agriculture were formed. Their level was highly competitive with the Western analogues. At the end of the 1930 Soviet military scientists were the first in the world to create the anthrax vaccine for medical use on the basis of the spores of unencapsulated live strains of B. anthracis. In the 1940-1960-ies Russian scientists determined the principles of the development of anthrax vaccines, which allowed to avoid failures of their Western colleagues, when developing the vaccines capable of protecting the population from biological weapons with anthrax spores as the harmful agent. Russian military scientists in the 1990s managed to keep the vaccine strains of anthrax bacteria and restore the technological capability for their manufacture, which helps to protect the population of the Russian Federation from natural anthrax outbreaks and from biological terror. At a time when there is a need in creating immunity in humans against infection caused by inhalation of anthrax spores, the most reasonable decision for the upcoming decades is to use the domestic combined vaccine that combines unencapsulated live strains of Bacillus anthracis and anthrax toxin protective antigen.