Russian Journal of Biotherapy

Background. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced the development of clinical laboratory diagnostics and showed the importance of comprehensive study of immune status to various infectious agents, in particular to SARS-CoV-2, in addition to PCR for pathogen identification. The study of humoral immunity, based on the detection of antibodies, without determining the cellular immunity assessment does not allow to assess the immune response, which is important for detecting its intensity and prognosis of the disease during infection. Assessing the potential of memory B cells to proliferate into antibody-secreting cells and quantifying the specific antibodies secreted by them will enable evaluation of the duration of B-cell memory.

Aim. To explore the current possibilities for diagnosing cellular immunity, with a focus on the B-cell component, after SARS-CoV-2 infection and other viral infections.

Materials and methods. A review study was conducted based on data from foreign (PubMed, Oxford Medicine Online, Penn Libraries, Springer) and Russian literature (e-Library), mainly from 2020 to 2025, on the methods of determining and maintaining the duration of B-cell memory to COVID-19 after vaccination and previous infection, as well as other viral infections.

Conclusion. Finding an accessible platform and methods for the detection of specific B-cell memory to SARS-CoV-2 and other infections that can be utilized in clinical diagnostic laboratories is an important challenge at the present time. The detection of a specific memory B-cell clone would allow characterizing immune status, improving retrospective long-term diagnosis of COVID-19, evaluating the efficacy of vaccine prophylaxis and predicting the effectiveness of the antagonistic response in subsequent exposure to infection. Test systems capable of characterizing B-lymphocytes by determining the clonal affiliation of the B-cell receptor and the proliferation potential of memory B-cells for subsequent secretion of specific immunoglobulins are poorly distributed in the world and absent in Russia. At the same time, the possibility of detecting memory B-cell clones for COVID-19 and other infections, capable of rapidly synthesizing a large number of specific antibodies, is of crucial importance in the development of the disease in case of repeated contact with the pathogen.

Background. Lipophilicity is one of the most significant and widely used physico-chemical characteristics of a drug, which determines its path in the body.

Aim. To systematize and generalize the literature data on the main parameters of lipophilicity and methods of its determination.

Materials and methods. The search for materials on the subject under study was carried out using the following search and information and library databases: PubMed, CyberLeninka, eLibrary, ResearchGate. The search for publications was carried out by keywords / phrases: “lipophilicity”, “lipophilicity of drugs”, “octanol / water distribution coefficient”, “assessment of lipophilicity”, etc.

Results. Lipophilicity shows the affinity of a compound to a lipophilic medium, and is traditionally expressed as the logarithm of the distribution coefficient of a molecule between two immiscible liquids − an organic solvent and water. There are various approaches to assessing lipophilicity. The standard method is “shaking in a flask”, which is based on the extraction of the test substance in the octanol-water system. Alternatively, reverse-phase thin-layer chromatography or high-performance liquid chromatography is used to assess lipophilicity. Chromatographic methods make it possible to determine the lipophilicity of a wide range of newly synthesized compounds and are characterized by low cost of experiments, simplicity and high accuracy. For ionized compounds, it is possible to use potentiometric approaches that are based on potentiometric titration or potential measurement through the use of ion-selective electrodes. Computational methods that provide quick information on lipophilicity are usually used for screening chemical libraries and have significant advantages over experimental methods. Many programs have been developed to calculate the logarithm of the distribution coefficient, which are freely available both in the form of software and on online platforms.

Conclusion. This review provides basic information about lipophilicity, describes key parameters and criteria for its assessment, and presents modern approaches to determining this characteristic.

Background. Due to the limited number of cell lines, as well as the high heterogeneity of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas (UPS), the creation of new stable cell lines is relevant.

Aim. Obtaining a stable cell line from a sample of UPS obtained during surgery to model carcinogenesis processes in vitro and in vivo.

Materials and methods. Cells were isolated from a tumor sample from a patient diagnosed with UPS. After passage 40 and stable growth, the proliferation rate, cell morphology, and growth ability in 3D culture conditions were assessed. To assess tumorigenicity, the cell suspension was injected into BALB / c nu / nu athymic mice. On the 15^th day of the experiment, the tumor was removed, its volume was measured, and it was examined histologically. Using short tandem repeat (STR) analysis, the cells of the resulting line were examined for the presence of human cell markers and their uniqueness. The chemosensitivity of the cells was assessed using the resazurin test.

Results. Stable growth and formation of spheroids under 3D culturing conditions were demonstrated for the cell culture. All mice inoculated with the UPS134 cell suspension showed tumor growth, and by day 14 of the experiment its average size was 28,7 mm³. Histologically, the tumor is similar in morphology to UPS, except for a smaller amount of myxoid and less polymorphism. The cells of the obtained line were shown to contain all analyzed genetic markers of human cells, and also that the STR data of the obtained line did not coincide with the STR of other lines. For doxorubicin, gemcitabine and docetaxel, IC₅₀ (inhibitory concentration) were determined to be 15, 6.5 and 10 % of the plasma peak concentration, respectively.

Conclusions. We obtained a new cell line UPS134, which can be further used to study the pathogenesis of UPS, as well as in preclinical studies of new antitumor agents in vitro and in vivo.

Background. Cyclodextrins and their individual derivatives capable of forming inclusion complexes with poorly soluble physiologically active compounds, increasing their solubility in water and slowing down their metabolism, are used as carriers of various drugs. Previously, cyclodextrin nitrates (NCD) were first proposed by us for these purposes: being organic nitrates, they can serve as a source of exogenous nitric oxide and provide an additional and independent therapeutic effect. It was found that complexes based on them exhibit synergistic antioxidant activity. A necessary stage in the study of the biological effectiveness of water-soluble NCDs, in particular, γ-NCDs, is the assessment of the safety of their use in animals.

Aim. To determine the toxic effect of water-soluble γ-NCD depending on the content of nitrate groups in an acute experiment on mice with a single intraperitoneal administration.

Materials and methods. The studies were conducted on healthy male BDF₁ hybrid mice. Aqueous solutions of low-nitrated γ-NCD with nitrogen content of 2.02 % (1), 1.44 % (2) and 0.84 % (3) were administered intraperitoneally at doses of 200–600, 700–900 and 900–1300 mg / kg, respectively. Clinical signs of animal intoxication, mortality, changes in body weight, food and water consumption have been recorded for 14 days, and macroscopic examination of the internal organs of dead animals was carried out.

Results. The acute toxicity of γ-NCD 1–3 was studied experimentally with a single intraperitoneal injection to laboratory animals in the dose range of 300–600, 750–900 and 1000–1300 mg / kg, respectively. The LD₅₀ value was established: for γ-NCD 1 it was 415 ± 33 mg / kg, for γ-NCD 2 – 800 ± 18 mg / kg, for γ-NCD 3 – 1115 ± 33 mg / kg. The results of the acute toxicity study make it possible to classify γ-NCD 1 and γ-NCD 2 to the class IV of toxicity (low-toxic substances); γ-NCD 3 to the class V of toxicity (practically nontoxic). γ-CD (gamma-cyclodextrin) with a single intraperitoneal injection in doses of 3000 mg / kg, it has no toxic effect and can be classified as toxicity class VI (relatively harmless).

Conclusion. For the first time, toxic dose levels of water-soluble low-nitrated γ-NCDs with nitrogen content from 0.84 to 2.02 % have been established, which allows them to be recommended for further research.

10 мая 2026 г. исполняется 75 лет академику Валерию Николаевичу Чарушину. Член президиума Уральского отделения Российской академии наук (УрО РАН), председатель Объединенного ученого совета УрО РАН по химическим наукам, заведующий лабораторией гетероциклических соединений, главный научный сотрудник Института органического синтеза имени И. Я. Постовского УрО РАН, профессор кафедры органической и биомолекулярной химии Уральского федерального университета имени первого Президента России Б. Н. Ельцина (УрФУ), академик РАН В. Н. Чарушин является ученым мирового уровня в области органической химии.