[Molecular basis of biological activity of polysaccharides in COVID-19 associated conditions]

The review considers the main molecular biological features of the COVID-19 causative agent, the SARS-CoV-2 virus: life cycle, viral cell penetration strategies, interactions of viral proteins with human proteins, cytopathic effects. We also analyze pathological conditions that occur both during the course of the COVID-19 disease and after virus elimination. A brief review of the biological activities of polysaccharides isolated from various sources is given, and possible molecular biological mechanisms of these activities are considered. Data analysis shows that polysaccharides are a class of biological molecules with wide potential for use in the treatment of both acute conditions in COVID-19 and post-COVID syndrome.

[A Model of a Human-dominated Urban Ecosystem as an Active Medium]

The concept of active medium is used as a biophysical basis for modeling spatial and temporal self-organization in anthropogenic ecosystems that results in formation of regular dynamic structures with stable or unstable modes of development. Urban ecosystem is represented as a hierarchy of interacting active media, and their non-linearity is the result of extreme anthropogenic load and mismatch between characteristic times and scales in evolution of the natural and anthropogenic components together with the complex set of positive and negative feedbacks between the subsystems. Description of the presented model is deliberately simplified so as to use a modified Fitz-Hugh-Nagumo equation. The approach developed here is quite general and allows for systematic description of urban ecosystems as distributed dissipative systems.

The parametric pump mechanism in separation of components in heterogeneous systems. I. Macroscopic distributed systems

A dynamic method is proposed for the separation of the electrolyte components using a parametric pump with an ion exchange column. It was studied experimentally and described mathematically. The parametric separation of mixtures is based on interactions of two oscillating fields with a heterogeneous system containing two phases, a liquid and a solid one, the components of the mixture being able to redistribute between the phases. The field of mechanical force is responsible for cyclic relative displacement of the phases, and synchronously changing temperature causes redistribution of the components between them. This results in sodium and potassium fluxes opposite in direction which in turn leads to accumulation of sodium and potassium in opposite end cells.

Cooperative dynamics of quasi-1D lipid structures and lateral transport in biological membranes

A model for the dynamics of quasi-1D lipid structures in biological membranes is proposed. The model takes into account interactions between the lipid heads and hydro-carbon chains, the description of their relaxation dynamics being based on the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau approach. It is shown that in lateral linear structures of lipids, a soliton-like excitation can propagate with constant velocity. The latter in turn may provide for lateral transport of matter and for membrane conformation changes.

Alamethicin as a permeabilizing agent for measurements of Ca(2+)-dependent ATPase activity in proteoliposomes, sealed membrane vesicles, and whole cells

The channel-forming antibiotic peptide alamethicin was used in measurements of Ca-ATPase activity in sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) vesicles, proteoliposomes containing Ca(2+)-ATPase from SR, and native human platelets. Alamethicin was used as a permeabilizing agent providing for a free access of the whole cells or sealed vesicles interiors for ions, ATP, and other reactants. The experiments were carried out with the use of alamethicin preparations obtained in our laboratory and that purchased from the Upjohn Company (antibiotic U-22,324). A comparative study of the effects of Ca(2+)-ionophore A23187 and alamethicin was performed on native SR vesicles containing Ca(2+)-ATPase molecules with right orientation and SR vesicles treated with cholate in order to randomize Ca(2+)-ATPase molecules orientation in the membrane. It was found out that alamethicin, like A-23187, prevents the ATP-dependent Ca2+ accumulation by the vesicles and therefore activates the Ca(2+)-ATPase. Maximal specific activities of the Ca(2+)-ATPase in native SR vesicles in the presence of either alamethicin, or A23187, or both of them, are equal in all cases to 20 activity units (mumol Pi per min per mg protein). The operative range of alamethicin concentrations is 5-25 micrograms/ml and is a little wider than that for A23187. The ATPase activity of the SR vesicles treated with cholate reached 20 units in the presence of alamethicin while in the presence of A23187 it was only 10 units. These data suggest that alamethicin unlike A23187 allows ATP to reach the ATPase's active centers from the inside of the SR vesicles with 'randomized' membranes, the ATP transport through the membrane not being the rate-limiting stage of ATP hydrolysis. It was shown that diffusion flux of ATP through a BLM in the presence of alamethicin may reach 10% of the flux through the hole without the BLM. With the use of alamethicin it was found out that the quality of randomization of the ATPase molecules orientation in the membrane depends on the proteoliposome preparation technique. The ATP transport through the alamethicin pores makes possible the use of alamethicin in accurate measurements of Ca(2+)-ATPase activity in whole cells. A method was developed for determination of the activity of human platelets was found to be 90-100 nmol Pi per min per mg protein.