Measles is an acute viral infectious disease caused by an RNA-containing virus of Morbilliviridae genus. This infectious disease is characterized by the development of catarrhal syndrome, general intoxication syndrome and specific exanthema. The virus is transmitted from person to person by airborne mechanism, when coughing, sneezing and exhaling air droplets during conversation. It is shown that measles is characterized by long-term immunosuppression, which persists for a long period after the patient's clinical recovery and normalization of blood parameters that can lead to an exacerbation of various chronic and autoimmune diseases. Taking into account the impairment of cytokine and immunological reactivity observed in adult patients with measles infection, violations of the dynamics of interferon levels elevation and immunosuppression caused by the virus itself, as well as the lack of studies on autoantibody levels in patients with measles of varying severity, investigating autoimmune markers is of great relevance as can be used to predict and prevent the development and activation of autoimmune responses. The purpose of the study is to determine the involvement of autoimmune reactions in the immunopathogenesis of measles infection in individuals with various degrees of severity of the disease. The study included 65 patients with a diagnosis of measles who were treated at the Kharkiv region clinical infectious hospital in the period for 2017 – 2019. Depending on the severity of the disease and the presence of complications the patients included in the study were divided into 4 groups. The control group consisted of 20 voluntary donors who at the time of blood sampling had no clinical signs of measles, had no contact with infected patients, and had no exclusion criteria.
All patients included in the study were tested for serum levels of antibodies to cell membrane phospholipids, IgG to liver and kidney microsomes (anti-LKM-1), and IgG to native DNA (ADNA 2) on the 1st and 10th day of hospital stay. These indicators were assessed by the method of solid-phase enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) using test systems manufactured by “Granum” LLC (Ukraine), EUROIMMUNE (Germany) and BioRad (USA). Statistical processing of the obtained results was carried out using the Statistica 6.0 software. When interpreting the significance of the difference in results, the Student's criterion was used; the critical value of the significance level was considered to be p ˂ 0.05. Results and discussion. It was found that on the day of admission to the hospital there was an increase in the level of autoantibodies to native DNA, liver and kidney microsomes, as well as cell membrane phospholipids in all groups of patients. In dynamics (on the 10th day of hospital stay), the patients of groups 1-4 demonstrated a decrease in the level of all types of autoantibodies; in the patients who had a severe course of the disease and developed complications development, the levels was higher than in the control group. The obtained data indicate that with the development of measles infection against the background of activation of general and specific immune response, there is an activation of autoimmune reactions, whose activity fades as the infectious process goes away. Autoimmune reactions under a favourable clinical course of measles infection, most likely, are not aggressive but protective by their nature and are aimed at eliminating infected and damaged cells. Patients with measles of varying severity have increased levels of autoantibodies to native DNA, liver and kidney microsomes, as well as cell membrane phospholipids. It has been found out that the levels of autoantibodies do not go beyond the reference values, but in severe disease, borderline values of autoantibodies are recorded in a significant number of patients. The study of autoantibody levels can be recommended in cases of severe measles infection, both with and without complications, to predict and prevent the development of autoimmune pathology.
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