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Etiology of respiratory virus infections among 1699 hospitalized patients (HP) was determined by PCR during the period of increased influenza activity in 2012 - 2013 season. The rate of accidence of influenza virus in dependence of gender, age, social and demographic factors and previous vaccination was analysed. Young children dominated in the age structure of HP, while the elderly were hospitalized very rarely. According to results obtained rate of influenza detection in HP was significantly higher among adults in comparison with children (63,5 and 30,7% of investigated patients, correspondingly). Respiratory syncytial virus and rhinoviruses were detected the most regularly (8.7 and 3.1%, correspondingly) in children, parainfluenza and adenoviruses were registered rarely (1.4 and 2.1%, correspondingly). Rate of detection of coronaviruses and bocavirus was low and varied in the range 0.3 - 0.6%. Indicated above ARI agents among hospitalized adults were detected rarely (0 - 1.5%) with exception of RSV which was detected among elderly (75 - 84 years) in 5.9% cases. No metapneumovirus cases were detected among HP in indicated period. Although males dominated (58%) among HP influenza cases, regardless of the type/subtype, were registered more frequently among girls in comparison with the boys of the same age groups. Influenza cases were registered more frequenly as well among smoking than in not smoking patients. Young children dominated in the age structure of HP, while the elderly were hospitalized very rarely.

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Detection of molecular markers characteristic to malignant cells is the key task of molecular genetic studies in oncohematology, aiming for timely diagnosis of the diseases and evaluation of their progression, like as relapse risks. Exosomes are among the most promising objects for such studies. They represent a fraction of extracellular membrane particles ranging from 30 to 150 nm in size, presumably containing such tumor markers. These vesicles are found in blood serum and other biological fluids, being important participants in cell-cell interactions capable of transferring various biopolymers, which can also mediate the reprogramming of the functions of the recipient cells and influence the development of resistance to therapy. On the basis of exosomes, one may optimize such a novel diagnostic approach as fluid biopsy which is minimally invasive, and, therefore, can also be used as a specific monitoring tool for prediction of tumor relapse development.

In this paper, we analyze the etiology of the diseases occurring during two consecutive influenza epidemic seasons in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. The analysis is based on the results of the PCR diagnostics of the clinical samples collected from patients hospitalized in three St. Petersburg hospitals with influenza like illnesses (ILI). It was shown that the influenza virus A(H1N1)pdm09 was the dominant causative agent during the 2012-2013 epidemic season while, in the 2013-2014 season, A(H3N2) virus was predominant among adults and children. The influenza B virus activity was high in the 2012-2013 season and low in the 2013-2014 season. During both seasons, the main causative agent for the hospitalization of young children was respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), followed by rhinovirus and influenza virus. The rate of involvement of parainfluenza, adenovirus, metapneumovirus and coronavirus was low and was negligible for bocavirus. Children 0-2 and 3-6 years old formed the group of patients that was affected by acute respiratory infection agents the most. Children younger than 3 months old were the major group of the intensive care unit (ICUs) patients and only 27.5% of them were adults. RSV and rhinovirus were the leading cause of ILI among the children admitted to ICU. Among the adult patients admitted to the ICU, only influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2) and B viruses were detected during both influenza seasons.According to the results of the antigenic and genetic analysis, most influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2) viruses circulating in St. Petersburg matched the vaccine strains recommended by the WHO for vaccine composition in the