In the Republic of Belarus, as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, there were 3678 settlements in the zone of radioactive contamination, including 27 cities where 2,2 million people lived. In 1991, the law «On social protection of citizens affected by the Chernobyl disaster» was adopted, which defined the categories of citizens belonging to various groups of the affected population. The database of the Belarusian State Register of persons exposed to radiation as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, created by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated May 5, 1993 No. 283, contains information on 1 067 821 citizens of the Republic of Belarus affected by the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, other radiation accidents, including about 735 927, which are currently under dispensary supervision in health care organizations. Stable medical and demographic indicators of the health status of the affected population have been achieved.The development of scientific work in the field of radiation medicine continues within the framework of the sixth State program to overcome the consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for 2021-2025.

In this review, the basic principles and technologies of next-generation sequencing (NGS) are presented. A number of modern references concerning principles and stages of NGS, as well as the use of NGS in various branches of medicine: genetic diseases, oncological diseases, pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics, are discussed. The development of NGS technologies opens up new perspectives for personalized medicine.

In the course of the study, a comparative analysis of cancer incidence and mortality rates was carried out for the contingent of medical and preventive institutions of the FMBA of Russia and the population living in the territories contaminated with radionuclides (over 5 Ku/ km2) of the Republic of Belarus in comparison with similar indicators for Russia and Belarus for 2012-2018.According to the results of the statistical analysis, the cancer incidence rates increased in all study groups at approximately the same rate (the growth rates were statistically significantly different from 0 and were about 3% per year). The highest incidence was observed in the Republic of Belarus (554,48 ± 4,74 in 2018) and was significantly higher (p <0,001) than in the Russian cohorts. At the same time, the incidence of cancer in the Republic of Belarus did not differ from residents of contaminated areas (566,4 ± 64,42 in 2018, p = 0,74). In the Russian Federation, the incidence was significantly higher (425,5 ± 1,06 in 2018, p <0,001) than in the cohort of the FMBA register (390,1 ± 7,55 in 2018). The ratio of mortality to morbidity is the lowest in the Republic of Belarus, 0,35 ± 0,006, and the highest, 0,47 ± 0,002 in Russian Federation.When analyzing the incidence rates for various nosological forms, there was no significant excess of the incidence rates in the exposed cohorts in comparison with the corresponding population.

During fires in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the expected contribution of the inhalation component to the effective radiation dose of personnel can reach the level formed by external radiation. In the observation area of the Belarusian NPP, the contribution of inhaled radionuclides to the total individual effective radiation dose of personnel is also comparable with the dose of external radiation. It is shown that in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the contribution of 137Cs to the «inhalation» dose of personnel can be only 1%, and the contribution of transuranic elements - 60%. In the zone of exposure to regular emissions of the Belarusian NPP up to 95% of the radiation dose is formed by inert radioactive gases. In the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the inhaled dose component does not exceed 0,1 mSv per year, which is significantly less than the control level set in the Polessky State Radiation and Environmental Reserve for personnel (5 mSv per year). When working in the observation area of the Belarusian NPP outside the industrial site, the expected radiation doses of personnel from regular emissions are an order of magnitude lower than in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP. According to the inhalation route of radiation exposure, the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant remains the most radiation-hazardous territory in the Republic of Belarus.

This paper describes the current status and preliminary results of thyroid screening and a study on reliability of radiation doses for 2965 persons exposed in utero and early life to Chernobyl fallout in Belarus. By 15 November 2020, 1194 study subjects have been screened. Among them, single thyroid nodule was diagnosed in 163 persons (13,7% of the total) and multiple thyroid nodules in 95 persons (8,0% of the total): 180 (15,1%) persons who had nodules detected for the first time at the screening and 78 (6,5%) persons who had nodules that had been detected previously (pre-screening thyroid nodules). Fifty-six out of 258 subjects (21,7%) with thyroid nodule were referred to Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNA), and among them 33 (58,9%) were biopsied. One person had surgery for thyroid cancer. In addition, five subjects had thyroid cancer diagnosed prior to screening. Information from 724 pairs of questionnaires obtained during the first and second personal interviews of 724 mothers were used to evaluate the reliability of radiation doses for the cohort members. A moderate degree of agreement was observed (Spearman's correlation coefficient rs=0,64, pWilcoxon=0,039) for total ecological doses calculated using data from the two interviews, while instrumental doses yielded an almost perfect agreement (rs=0,98, pWilcoxon=0,183). It was found that consistency of answers between two personal interviews is better among mothers of the Belarusian in utero cohort members than among mothers of the members of Belarusian-American cohort of individuals exposed in childhood and adolescence.

The article presents the results of the development of the emergency radiation monitoring program of food and drinking water, habitats and radiation doses to the public in the event of a nuclear emergency at the Belarusian, Rovno and Smolensk NPP within the extended planning radius (100 km). The emergency radiation monitoring program was developed for the bodies and institutions of state sanitary supervision, taking into account the severity of possible accidents and on the basis of an analysis of the design documentation of the NPP, the physical-geographical and climatic characteristics of the areas where the NPP is located, the results of predictive assessments of the consequences of severe accidents at the NPP, demographic the situation and nature of land use and water use in NPP emergency planning zones.

The aim of the work was to study the effect of Pro-Gly (a dipeptide structurally similar to the Pro-Leu oxytocin fragment) on the zoosocial behavior of laboratory rodents.The studies were performed on adult outbred ICR male mice, inbred C57Bl/6 and BALB/c male mice. The effect of Pro-Gly on muscle strength and the level of situative anxiety in ICR mice was determined. The effect of Pro-Gly on zoosocial behavior of ICR mice was studied in a three-chamber apparatus for assessing the socialization. The effects of the studied dipeptide were evaluated in the conditions of model pathology caused by the administration of a non-competitive blocker of N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors - MK-801 to C57Bl/6 and BALB/c mice.Pro-Gly significantly increased sociability in rodents without behavioral disorders (outbred ICR and inbred C57Bl/6 mice). ICR mice after oral administration of Pro-Gly (0,5 mg / kg) spent 40,4% more time in the chamber with mouse than mice of the control group (398,5±42,7 s versus 283,9±42,9 s, respectively), and they preferred a camera with a mouse (398,5±42,7 s), rather than a camera with a Lego (89,9±38,3 s; p<0,05). The dipeptide significantly increased the sociability of C57Bl/6 mice: individuals of this strain preferred to spend most of their time in the chamber with a mouse (327,3±66,7 s) than in the chamber with a Lego (159,7±48,9 s; p<0,05) or in the central chamber (113,0±25,9 s; p<0,05).Conclusion - dipeptide Pro-Gly is effective when administered in a short course (5-7-fold), with intragastric administration, which distinguishes it from OT (which is administered intranasally). Further studies of Pro-Gly in social disorder are promising.

As a result of the survey of 3,450 schoolchildren found that representatives of mesоleptosomic and leptоsomomic somatotypes were more frequent among urban boys and girls, indicating about skeletal gracilization of Belarusian schoolchildren. In the puberty period of development of body transformations in schoolchildren occur more frequently during the year due to the shifting of the morphotype to the «neighboring» variants. At puberty, the somatotype was more likely to return to its original period consistent for him before puberty. The maximum increases in anthropometric indicators occur earlier in hypersomal children and adolescents, then in mesosomal and later in leptosomal children.

The article presents the results of molecular genetic analysis of 13 polymorphic variants of genes ESR1, AS3MT, PECR, NT5C2, BUB1B-PAK6, EPHX2, HIP1, MUC7, CACNA1C, CHRNA4, DGKI and PIK3C2A of patients suffering from pathological gambling addiction. The analysis of the frequency of prevalence of genotypes and alleles, as well as the analysis of intergenic interactions to determine their combined impact on the risk of developing pathological gambling addiction. The loci rs17504622, rs73229090 (EPHX2), and rs237238 (HIP1) were found

The paper presents the findings of an experimental study of laboratory animals with ascitic ovarian tumor with the aim to assess the antitumor efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents in the whole-body hyperthermia setting. The evaluation of the integral factor (the area under kinetic tumor growth curve and tumor growth index) demonstrated statistically significant differences vs the control group for all the chemotherapeutic agents under study. The comparison between the groups applying the drugs with and without hyperthermia showed a statistically significant improvement of the outcomes when employing hyperthermia with ifosfamide (p=0,045), cyclophosphamide (p=0,007), carboplatin (p=0,005) and oxaliplatin (p=0,047), which is indicative of the enhancing hyperthermia impact on the antitumor effect of these drugs.

The bacterial strain Pseudomonas putida K-9 does not possess toxic and toxigenic properties in standard doses and concentrations, belongs to the IV hazard class and is qualified as an industrial strain of microorganisms. The microbial preparation «Korneplus» does not irritate the skin and mucous membranes, does not have skin-resorptive properties, has a pronounced sensitizing ability, belongs to the 2nd class of allergenic danger, when inhaled at a standard concentration for a month, it causes the induction of a pronounced allergizing effect by mixed anaphylactic, complement-dependent cytotoxic, immunocomplex and delayed cell-mediated types of allergic reactions, it exhibits weak antigenic ability to activate the bactericidal function of phagocytes and weak stimulating immunomodulatory properties in the absence of hemotoxic action. The measures of medical prevention and safety requirements when working in contact with the microbial preparation «Korneplus» are defined.

Long-term predictions of exposure levels to the population are required in order to support long-term planning of actions and resources on optimization of measures for radiation and social protection of the population and rehabilitation of territories in the remote period after the Chernobyl accident.Analysis of working materials of the IAEA document «Prediction of radiation doses to the population and its critical groups in the remote period after the Chernobyl accident» and the results of our own long-term studies have made it possible to develop a methodological approach for predicting exposure doses to the population living in radioactively contaminated territories of Belarus for a remote period of 40-50 years after the Chernobyl accident. The predicted values of the coefficient of the relation between the external exposure dose of a representative person and the density of contamination of the settlement territory with 137Cs for 2026, 2031 and 2036 were determined in order to assess the predicted annual effective external exposure dose.We obtained the dependences of the relative internal exposure dose of a representative person in settlement residents versus time to assess the predicted annual effective internal exposure dose.

The article presents the results of molecular genetic analysis of 19 polymorphic variants in the genes of proteins responsible for coagulation (F1, F2, F5, F11, F13, FGG, GP6 and PAI- 1), regulation of vascular tone (eNOS, HIF1A, BDKRB2, MTHFR, VEGF and ACE) and lipid metabolism (LDLR and APOE) among men with myocardial infarction (MI) from the Republic of Belarus. The analysis of the frequency of prevalence of risk-associated genotypes with MI, depending on the age of patients. It has been shown that every second patient (47,6% of patients in this study) with MI has six or more risk-associated genotypes, for 7,2% of the examined patients with MI there are ten or more genetic risk factors.

We have examined a group of 175 recipients who underwent kidney transplantation. Patients were divided into groups: group 1 with satisfactory graft function on the 360th day after the transplantation, group 2 with chronic graft dysfunction, transplantectomy, and death during the first year after transplantation. We determined CD3+CD38+, CD3+CD8+CD38+, CD3+CD4+CD38+, CD3+CD69+, CD3+CD8+CD69+, CD3+CD4+CD69+, CD3+HLA-DR+, CD3+CD8+HLA-DR+ and CD3+CD4+HLA-DR+ on the 90th, 180th and 360th post-transplant days. The level of CD38+ cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in both groups was significantly lower than in the comparison group, while in the KRT 1 group the level of T-helpers was lower the reference values. One year after kidney transplantation, the number of CD3+CD8+CD69+ prevailed in the KRT 2 group, and CD3+CD4+CD69+ in the KRT 1 group. The number of T-lymphocytes expressing the HLA-DR receptor after 180 days prevailed in the KRT 1 and KRT 2 groups relative to the comparison group. However, the level of CD3+CD4+HLA-DR+ prevailed in the KRT 1 group, and CD3+CD8+HLA-DR+ in the KRT 2 group relative to CG by the end of the first year of follow-up. The obtained data can be applied in the case of necessity of correcting immunosuppressive therapy in the late post-transplant period.

As a result of the study, the differences between patients with arterial hypertension, atherosclerotic and postinfarction cardiosclerosis were determined in terms of the levels of biomarkers of myocardial fibrosis and inflammation, blood lipid spectrum, and renin. The indicators of ultrasound examination of the heart, carried out both according to the standard technique and using tissue myocardial Doppler sonography and 2D Speckle Tracking technology, have been analyzed. A diagnostic model for predicting pathological remodeling of the left ventricle of the heart is proposed.

Multiple myeloma is a malignant lymphoproliferative disease characterized by infiltration of the bone marrow by plasma cells, as well as osteolytic bone lesions and the presence of monoclonal immunoglobulin in serum and/or urine. In recent years, the global trend towards an increase in the number of cases of detection of multiple myeloma at a younger age dictates the need for a detailed study of the epidemiological situation with multiple myeloma in the Republic of Belarus. This article presents the results of a statistical analysis of data obtained from the National Belarusian Cancer Registry, reflecting the epidemiological characteristics of multiple myeloma in the Republic of Belarus over the past 10 years.

In this study, the normal range for TREC and KREC in the peripheral blood of 58 healthy full-term infants was determined. The number of TREC copies was 3383-238848 copies (Q1- Q3), KREC 2729-236953 copies per 1 million leukocytes (Q1-Q3). The influence of the gestational age of 117 newborns born prematurely (22,5-37,8 weeks) on the number of these markers was studied. It was shown that the amount of both TREC and KREC increased with increasing gestational age. It was revealed that the weight of both full-term and premature newborns of different gestational maturity does not affect the number of TREC and KREC

The prevalence of particular components of the metabolic syndrome in young population, the high risk of developing comorbid pathology indicates the need to search for the earliest markers of metabolic risks in order to primary prevention of disorders of all types of metabolism.An examination of the young population aged 18-44 years without previously determined risk factors for chronic non-infectious diseases was carried out. In the course of the examination of this category, 8,2% of subjects were diagnosed with prediabetes. The correlation between excess body weight and laboratory markers of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism disorders has been defined. Our study shows that early metabolic markers associated with a high risk of prediabetes and atherosclerosis are overweight and integral indicators of lipid metabolism: Apo-B / Apo-A, AC, non-HDL cholesterol.The obtained results indicate that the onset of metabolic disorders in overweight occurs in the age category of young adults, and any of the pathogenetic mechanisms can trigger the development of irreversible disorders of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.

Patients with oncological and oncohematological diseases, after transplantation of solid organs or bone marrow, frequently suffer from severe COVID-19 infection, which is often fatal. The study involved 36 patients with various oncohematological diseases and confirmed COVID-19 infection. Verification of the infectious process was performed by real-time PCR with detection of the RNA of the virus from the oropharynx and nasopharynx within the first two days from the onset of symptoms of COVID-19 infection. The control group consisted of 24 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection by PCR without oncohematological pathology. The duration of viral SARS-CoV-2 shedding (positive PCR analysis of naso / oropharyngeal swab) in patients with hematological diseases and COVID-19 infections, regardless of clinical symptoms, ranged from 11 to 59 days (median 31 days, interquartile range 25-38), and in the control group - from 9 to 26 days (median 14 days, interquartile range 11-18).In most patients with oncohematological diseases, there is a prolonged shedding of SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA during COVID-19 infection, confirmed by real-time PCR (naso/oropharyngeal swab).

The analysis of the results of sensitivity to antimicrobial drugs of bacterial isolates (Staphylococcus aureus, n=248; CoNS, n=105; Enterococcus faecalis, n=234; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, n=180; Acinetobacter baumannii, n=165; Klebsiella pneumoniae, n=165; other isolates of Enterobacterales, n=97) obtained from wound swabs from patients with extensive wounds (EW) (195 patients with burn disease (BD), 435 samples) and local wounds (LW) (134 swab samples from acute local wounds (ALW); 195 swab samples from chronic local wounds (CLW)). It was found that when determining recommendations for antibacterial therapy for infections of the skin and soft tissues, it is necessary to take into account the duration of the wound and the extent of the damage. In patients with BD, a high efficacy of vancomycin, linezolid, tigecycline in MRSA-etiology of wound infection is assumed. In S. aureus infection of local wounds, the possibility of using cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides has been substantiated. When planning antibiotic therapy in patients with EW and LW, it is necessary to take into account the contribution of other Gram(+) bacteria - CoNS, E. faecalis and their resistance indicators. The high level of P. aeruginosa resistance does not allow predicting the efficacy of cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, and carbapenems in cases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in patients with EW and BD. Potential efficacy is expected from colistin given the 100% sensitivity of both P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii. For patients with LW, carbapenems will be more effective as well as aminoglycosides. Phenotypic signs of resistance to 3rd-generation cephalosporins, including inhibitor-protected ones, suggests the need to use carabapenems in cases of Klebsiella etiology of wound infection.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a tumor from plasma cells, which in its development passes the stage of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) or smoldering myeloma. It is characterized by bone marrow infiltration, the presence of foci of destructive lesions, hypercalcemia, and impaired renal function. Renal failure of varying degrees of manifestation occurs in almost half of patients with newly diagnosed MM.In MM with light chain secretion, the presence of renal failure is almost always associated with a monoclonal protein, and in these cases a kidney biopsy is usually not needed to confirm the cause of the lesion. At the same time, MGUS patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) and monoclonal protein require renal biopsy to exclude amyloidosis, hypertensive or diabetic nephropathy.Renal biopsy is associated with an increased expectancy of complications; therefore, it is urgent to search for new markers for non-invasive determination of neoplastic kidney damage. The article presents the results of the study of the role of galectin-3 as a marker of kidney damage in patients with MGUS and newly diagnosed MM of the Gomel region.

Optimization of the technique of shunt placement in the most appropriate anatomical area and subsequent early postoperative management of the patient is aimed to facilitate their elimination of potentially preventable causes of re-admissions for ascites, hydrothorax, and bleeding from esophageal varices after performing TIPS. The use of the proposed methodological approaches made it possible to select the optimal localization of the portal vein branch puncture point, and contributed to the prevention of technical failures and complications of this stage of the operation. In our opinion, the use of autohemomagnetotherapy in the early postoperative period helped prevent the progression of hepatic encephalopathy and early shunt thrombosis.Preliminary analysis of the results of TIPS in our own modification.This article provides the results of TIPS performed to five patients in our own modification. A distinctive feature of our technique at the stage of portal vein puncture was the choice of the optimal point of its localization based on the anatomical variant of the divergence of the right anterior branch of the portal vein. Autohemomagnetotherapy was performed daily for 5 days in the postoperative period. All patients successfully underwent surgery. Recurrence of ascites and episodes of bleeding from esophageal varicose veins were not observed during postoperative follow-up of these patients for a period of 17 to 32 months. Regression of the size of varices was observed in all patients during endoscopic examination one year later. The reproducibility of the surgical intervention, its effectiveness and safety should be noted. It is advisable to carry out further studies of the effectiveness of the technique in randomized controlled trials.