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Changes in subpopulations of T3, T4, T8, HNK-1, Ia-positive, B-IgM and B-IgG producing lymphocytes were studied in patients with acute and chronic active virus hepatitis B and delta infection. A decrease of T4-helpers/inducers was demonstrated in all the groups under study and of T3-lymphocytes only in patients with delta-hepatitis turning into liver cirrhosis. The number of suppressors/cytotoxic T8 cells increased and T4/T8 ratio decreased in most patients. The number of HNK-1, Ia-positive, B-IgM and B-IgG lymphocytes increased in many subjects examined. Most marked quantitative changes in lymphocyte subpopulations were observed in patients with severe forms of delta-hepatitis and with liver cirrhosis. Changes in lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with viral hepatitis B and delta-infection are explained by reconstruction of the immune system in response to infection, affection of lymphocytes with viruses and emergence of antilymphocyte antibodies.

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Changes in subpopulations of OKT 3, OKT 4, OKT 8, HNK-I, B-IgM, and B-IgG-producing lymphocytes in carriers of HIV antibodies were studied. A decrease in OKT 4 helpers/inducers, an increase in OKT 8-suppressors of cytotoxic cells, HNK-I, Ia-positive and B-IgM-producing lymphocytes was demonstrated. The ratio of OKT 4/OKT 8 lymphocytes was below 1.0 in most of the subjects examined. Most marked changes in lymphocyte subpopulations were observed in anti-HIV carriers with lymphadenopathy.

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The immune status was investigated in 32 patients with acute hepatitis of mixed etiology and in 39 HBsAg carriers, superinfected with delta virus. The relationship of changes in the immune status with a course and outcomes of acute delta virus infection was revealed. These changes returned to normal on patients with a cyclic course of disease, persisted in patients with a lingering process, and progressed in the development of subacute liver dystrophy. The most noticeable shifts (a decrease in all indices of the immune system) were revealed in patients with a fulminant course of disease.

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The paper describes the study of non-A-non-B virus hepatitis with parenteral mechanism of the infection transmission. Immunofluorescence method was used to test 9 liver biopsies from patients with non-A-non-B hepatitis using blood sera from convalescents after this disease. In 6 liver preparations, diffuse fluorescence of hepatocyte cytoplasm was observed. No markers of hepatitis A or hepatitis B were found. In the control group of 17 patients with HB and HA, no non-A-non-B hepatitis antigen was detected. Analysis of the blood sera from the acute period by the ELISA demonstrated the presence of anti-HBs in 28.2% of the patients with non-A-non-B virus hepatitis which corresponds to the frequency of their detection in the normal population. Antibody to HBeAg were found in 59.5%, i. e. significantly more frequently than anti-HBs in non-A-non-B virus hepatitis (p less than 0.03) and anti-HBe in the normal population (15%, p less than 0.01). Experiments of DNA-DNA hybridization demonstrated the homology of HBV DNA and that isolated from the blood serum and liver of patients with non-A-non-B virus hepatitis. The above results suggest that the agent or one of the agents of parenteral non-A-non-B virus hepatitis belongs to the group of Hepadnaviruses.

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The use of specific sensitive methods for demonstration of hepatitis A markers has made it possible to detect 6 children with inapparent form of the disease among 86 subjects present in the focus of infection. Specific HAV antibody of the M class were detected in 100% of them. By radioimmunoassay, hepatitis A virus antigen (HAV-Ag) was detected in fecal extracts in 1 case only. Liver biopsy from 1 patient with inapparent disease showed typical morphological signs of acute hepatitis, and HAV-Ag was detected in the hepatocyte cytoplasm by immunofluorescence. Titres of specific antibody in convalescence varied from 1:10 to 1:800 in patients with the inapparent forms and from 1:200 to 1:3200 in manifest forms of hepatitis A.

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The rate of occurrence of hepatitis A and B virus specific markers in anthropoid apes of the Moscow Zoo (3 chimpanzees, 3 gorillas, 8 orang-outangs) was studied. Long-term persistence of HBs-antigen in orang-outang accompanied by the presence of HBe-antigen and anti-HBs was demonstrated. The presence of anti-HBs in gorillas and orang-outangs was recorded. Antibodies to hepatitis A virus were found in all the animal species examined. Cases of acute virus hepatitis A in orang-outangs are described contracted from the personnel handling the animals and suffering from this type of hepatitis. Morphological features of the course of hepatitis A in the presence of HBs-antigen carrier state are described. The possibility of active immunization of susceptible animals and the personnel of the zoo against viral hepatitides is discussed.

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The study was carried out with blood sera from 122 patients with viral hepatitis B (94 adults and 28 infants). The specific markers of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc) were tested in the time course of the disease at 10-day intervals in the acute period and for a year after the discharge. Radioimmunoassay (RIA) revealed anti-HBc in the blood of adults and infants suffering from hepatitis B both in the presence and absence of HBsAg. Anti-HBc titres were mostly high (over 1:1500) in the acute period of the disease and persisted at high levels (1:1900) for a year after the acute disease. Anti-HBc titres were found to correlate with the severity of the disease: low titres (1:500) were detected only in severe cases. Anti-HBc demonstrated in the blood from the first days of the disease belonged to immunoglobulins M. A group of patients with hepatitis B was examined in the acute period for anti-HBc only in the absence of HBsAg and anti-HBs by RIA. In convalescence all these patients developed anti-HBsAg. No fatal outcomes were observed.

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Sixty-two women suffering from hepatitis B (HB) and their newborn babies were examined by a highly sensitive radioimmunoassay (RIA). The fluorescent antibody technique was also used to examine autopsy specimens of livers of 7 fetuses, 1 stillborn, and 3 babies dying in the first days of life whose mothers during pregnancy or delivery had experienced HB. Frequent infection of babies (77.8%) was observed at high concentrations of HBsAg in mothers in labor with subsequent development of persisting HBs-antigenemia, and in half of the babies of chronic hepatitis. HBsAg was detected in the first days of life not only in the blood serum, but also in the liver tissue which may be explained by intrauterine infection. At low concentrations of HBsAg in mothers the babies were infected less frequently (26.1%) and half of them were shown to have anti-HBs in the umbilical blood and blood serum in the first days and months of life. Anti-HBc transmission from mothers was also demonstrated. In babies born to convalescents after HB in the absence of HBsAg, anti-HBs in combination with anti-HBc were determined.

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Investigations of hepatitis B virus antigens (HBsAg and HBeAg) and antibody (anti-HBc, anti-HBe, anti-HBs) and DNA-polymerase activity in 136 patients with acute virus hepatitis B revealed their different diagnostic value depending on the severity of the process. The rate of finding of hepatitis B virus antigens declines in regression of the clinical symptoms of the disease. However, when hepatodystrophy develops, HBsAg and HBeAg concentration decreases, anti-HBc persist, and in one third of the patients anti-HBs are found. In moderately severe and mild forms of hepatitis, anti-HBs were detected in the convalescent period, as a rule.

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The indirect immunofluorescent procedure was used to examine blood sera from 68 patients with serum hepatitis having HBsAg. HBcAb were found in 85% of the specimens. Formalin-fixed paraffin sections of autopsy livers pretreated with enzyme and containing HBcAg in hepatocyte nuclei were shown to be a useful tissue substrate. HBcAb were found in patients in a wave-like manner. The presence of HBcAb was found to be connected with the active phase of serum hepatitis.

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The evaluation of influenza antigen detection was done in comparative experiments on the same material during an epidemic of influenza due to A2/Victoria (H3N2) influenza virus. Cells of the nasal mucosa from 65 patients were tested at the same intervals by two methods showing no difference in the principle of the reaction: peroxidase-labeled (IP) and FITC-labeled (IF) antibody. By the latter method influenza could be diagnosed in 36% of cases, by IP in 38%, by the combination of the two in 56%. There is sufficient evidence of the specificity of IP method. This method of influenza antigen detection is as sensitive as IF (47 and 44%, respectively), however, with IP the evaluation of the results is much easier.

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Herpes in main viral acute respiratory diseases (ARD) in adults (influenza, parainfluenza, adenovirus and mixed infections) was studied by different laboratory methods of diagnosis. It was found that in 44.5% viral ARD were accompanied by herpes in the clinically overt or latent form. Herpes was detected with varying frequencies depending on the nosological forms of ARD as well as on the nature of the infection: more frequently in monoinfections than in mixed infections.

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In accordance with the Soviet-American collaboration program on influenza and ARD, cooperative field studies were undertaken in 1975 in the USSR in order to test the field and laboratory methods for studies on influenza virus ecology. In the Rostov region of the USSR, virological and serological examinations of 321 birds of 25 species were carried out. Virological tests were performed with 678 biological specimens and in various serological tests 308 blood serum specimesn from wild birds were examined. Examinations of specimens of washings and organs of birds revealed no hemagglutinating agents. The paper presents the results of studies of avian blood serum specimens in the HI test, neuraminidase activity inhibition test and the immunodiffusion test.

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A comparative study of antigens detected in the livers of patients with hepatitis B. in the mesonephros of the human tissue--chick embryo system infected with the agents isolated from the blood of hepatitis patients, as well as antigens detectable in cell cultures transfected by the DNA isolated from these tissues was carried out. The results are in favour of the hypothesis on the integrational nature of serum hepatitis.

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Viremia in parainfluenza was studied in 80 patients (35 children and 45 adults) in the time course of the disease during the springautumn period of 1969-1974. For the detection of viremia, the immunofluorescence procedure, namely, the detection of early stages of virus replication in the tissue culture cells infected with the blood from the patients, was used. The tests were performed with 204 blood specimens. The blood clot was diluted 1 : 1 with distilled water and followed the conventional method. Commercial FITZ-globulins with high antibody titres to parainfluenza virus type 1, 2, and 3, influenza A2 and B and adenovirus types 3 and 7, were used. The clinical manifestations of parainfluenza in the observed patients were typical of the disease. Complications developed in 60% of the cases. As a result of clinical and laboratory examinations, viremed early and late (up to 22 days) in the disease in patients of different age groups both at high and low fever; for longer periods and later in the disease it was observed in patients with complications (pneumonia, maxillary simusitis), but always in the presence of clinical manifestations of parainfluenza.

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