Carbon nanoparticles with antimicrobial properties, such as fullerenes, can be distinguished among the promising means of combating pathogens characterized by resistance to commercial antibiotics. However, they have a number of limitations for their use in medicine. In particular, the insolubility of carbon nanoparticles in water leads to a low biocompatibility and especially strong aggregation when transferred to liquid media. To overcome the negative factors and enhance the action of fullerenes in an extended range of applications, for example, in antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, we created new water-soluble complexes containing, in addition to C60 fullerene, purified detonation nanodiamonds (AC960) and/or polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The in vitro antibacterial activity and toxicity to human cells of the three-component complex C60+AC960+PVP were analyzed in comparison with binary C60+PVP and C60+AC960. All complexes showed a low toxicity to cultured human skin fibroblasts and ECV lines, as well as significant antimicrobial activity, which depend on the type of microorganisms exposed, the chemical composition of the complex, its dosage and exposure time. Complex C60+PVP+AC960 at a concentration of 175 µg/mL showed the most stable and pronounced inhibitory microbicidal/microbiostatic effect.

The search for new substances capable of inhibiting the growth of microorganisms is relevant. Therefore, an assessment was made of the effect of carbon nanoparticles on the growth and biofilm formation of microbial isolates from the surfaces of anthropogenic environmental objects. It has been established that carbon nanoparticles on the C60 + PVP + AC960 diamond platform are able to suppress the growth, reproduction and ability to biofilm formation of gram-positive and gram-negative prokaryotes, as well as fungi of the genus Candida and Aspergillus. Under the influence of C60+AC960 fullerenes, the biofilm-generation ability of Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans was significantly inhibited. These data provide a basis for further study of these compounds as a promising antimicrobial agent. Keywords: Antimicrobial action, carbon nanoparticles, biofilm formation, fullerenes, nanodiamonds.

The field of higher education can be called one of those that the COVID-19 pandemic has had the most impact on a global scale. The changes affected, first of all, the format of communication. The aim of the study was to study the preferences of students in the use of social networks, instant messengers for communication, platforms for posting content, video conferencing services for online lectures and consultations during the periods of May-June and November-December 2020. The study showed that in the period May-June 2020, respondents preferred WhatsApp in 50% of cases, email 42.8%, video conferencing services Zoom Meetings 3.6%, Google Meet web application 3.6%. That testified to the role of mobile means of communication in the educational process. The second survey, which took place in November-December 2020, showed a trend of using Zoom Meetings at 50%, email at 28.6%, WhatsApp at 7.2% of cases. According to the respondents, Zoom Meetings proved to be the most convenient tool (72.4%), which, according to users, has a functional interface (75.8%), the ability to share a screen (89.6%), an audio recording and video recording service of a conference ( 96.5%. In turn, Skype was considered convenient for video conferencing by only 13.8% of respondents, along with this, a big minus was noted — there was no possibility of screen sharing. Thus, it is difficult to overestimate the impact of the pandemic on the transition of higher educational institutions to a remote form of work, which radically changed communication in the electronic information and educational environment of universities and posed the problem for the teaching staff in an extremely short time to master digital tools for implementing the educational process using distance learning technologies.

The modifi cation of the antilysozyme (ALA) and antihemoglobin (АНbА) activities in Staphylococcus aureus and opportunistic staphylococcus species isolated from the mucous membrane of the tonsils under conditions of microbial associations was studied. An original method for assessing the infl uence of associative microorganisms on the modifi cation of the biological properties of symbionts has been developed and tested, based on assessing the level of the studied trait of bacteria grown in the presence of sterile metabolites of associated cultures. The results are presented in the form of arithmetic mean and standard deviation (M±σ). It was found that interactions in an indigen-indigen pair isolated from healthy people are more often characterized by a decrease in ALA and АНbА (in more than 50 % of cases). Amplifi cation of ALA and АНbА (in 78-90 % of cases) in pathogen-pathogen and indigen-pathogen pairs can be used to diff erentiate microsymbiocenosis of bacterial carriers from patients. An increase in АНbА in the pathogen-indigen pair and both studied signs in the indigen-indigen pair can be informative indicators for diff erentiating the microbiocenosis of patients with chronic tonsillitis from the biocenosis of healthy and bacterial carriers. The activity of associative pairs of bacteria isolated from the mucous membrane of the tonsils depends on the types of microbocenoses and may be one of the indicators for the diff erentiation of microbocenoses.