showing 38 related works from this author
Interventions to Slow Aging in Humans: Are We Ready?
2015
The workshop entitled 'Interventions to Slow Aging in Humans: Are We Ready?' was held in Erice, Italy, on October 8-13, 2013, to bring together leading experts in the biology and genetics of aging and obtain a consensus related to the discovery and development of safe interventions to slow aging and increase healthy lifespan in humans. There was consensus that there is sufficient evidence that aging interventions will delay and prevent disease onset for many chronic conditions of adult and old age. Essential pathways have been identified, and behavioral, dietary, and pharmacologic approaches have emerged. Although many gene targets and drugs were discussed and there was not complete consens…
TheSCH9 protein kinase mRNA contains a long 5′ leader with a small open reading frame
1993
The SCH9 yeast gene, that was previously identified as a suppressor of cdc25 and ras1- ras2-ts temperature-sensitive mutants, encodes a putative protein kinase that positively regulates the progression of yeast cells through the G1 phase of the cell cycle. We have determined the structure of the SCH9 transcription unit, using primer extension and S1 mapping techniques. The corresponding mRNA included an unusually long 5' region of more than 600 nucleotides preceding the major open reading frame (ORF). While the latter corresponded to a protein of 824 amino acids, an upstream open reading frame (uORF) within the 5' leader could potentially encode a 54 amino acid peptide. To investigate the r…
The phenylketonuria mouse model: a meeting review
2002
a Department of Biological Sciences, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, USA b OASI Istituto per la ricerca sul ritardo mentale e l’involuzione cerebrale, Troina, Sicily, Italy c Department of Biopathology and Biomedical Methodology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Sicily, Italy d Department of Psychology, University of Rome, and Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy e McGill University—Montreal Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Montreal, Que., Canada f Laboratory of Cerebral Metabolism, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Prolonged Fasting Reduces IGF-1/PKA to Promote Hematopoietic-Stem-Cell-Based Regeneration and Reverse Immunosuppression
2016
SummaryImmune system defects are at the center of aging and a range of diseases. Here, we show that prolonged fasting reduces circulating IGF-1 levels and PKA activity in various cell populations, leading to signal transduction changes in long-term hematopoietic stem cells (LT-HSCs) and niche cells that promote stress resistance, self-renewal, and lineage-balanced regeneration. Multiple cycles of fasting abated the immunosuppression and mortality caused by chemotherapy and reversed age-dependent myeloid-bias in mice, in agreement with preliminary data on the protection of lymphocytes from chemotoxicity in fasting patients. The proregenerative effects of fasting on stem cells were recapitula…
Screening of subtelomeric rearrangements in autistic disorder: identification of a partial trisomy of 13q34 in a patient bearing a 13q;21p translocat…
2006
Within the framework of a FISH screening protocol to detect cryptic subtelomeric rearrangements in autistic disorder (AD), a patient bearing three copies of the subtelomeric portion of the q arm of chromosome 13 has been identified. Beside AD, the patient also has severe mental retardation and displays several dysmorphic features. Further FISH analyses revealed that the trisomy was caused by the translocation of a 13q subtelomeric fragment to the acrocentric tip of one chromosome 21 [46,XY.ish der(21) t(13;21) (q34;p13)(D13S1825+)]. Gene dosage experiments carried out with three multiallelic polymorphisms of the subtelomeric region of chromosome 13q showed that the putative length of the tr…
Yeast vectors for the integration/expression of any sequence at theTYR1 locus
2007
We have constructed new yeast vectors for targeted integration and conditional expression of any sequence at the Saccharomyces cerevisiae TYR1 locus which becomes disrupted. We show that vector integration is not neutral, causing prototrophy for tyrosine and auxotrophy for the vector's selectable marker (uracil or leucine, depending on the vector used). This feature allows a double screening of transformed yeast cells, improving the identification of colonies with the desired chromosomal structure. The GAL10 gene promoter has been added to drive conditional expression of cloned sequences. Using these vectors, chromosomal structure verification of recombinant clones is no longer necessary, s…
Metodo per la costruzione di insiemi di sequenze nucleotidiche per la preparazione di oligonucleotidi utilizzabili per l'analisi di organismi di cui …
2005
brevetto
Phosphorylation of an Overexpressed Yeast Ras2 Protein During the G1 Phase of the Cell Cycle
1994
RAS proteins regulate growth and differentiation in evolutionarily distant systems such as vertebrates and yeast (for reviews, see Tamanoi, 1988; Gibbs and Marshall, 1989; Broach and Deschenes, 1990). At the moleular level, a key function of the yeast RAS1 and RAS2 proteins (collectively referred to as RAS) is to positively regulate the production of cyclic AMP at the onset of the G1 phase of the cell cycle (Toda et al., 1985; De Vendittis et al., 1986). At this stage, RAS proteins are transiently activated by the noncovalent binding of a GTP molecule. Reversal of the effect occurs by the hydrolytic splitting of the ’γ-phosphate of GTP, that leaves a functionally inactive RASGDP complex, th…
Assessing Chronological Aging in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
2012
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most studied model organisms for the identification of genes and mechanisms that affect aging. The chronological lifespan (CLS) assay, which monitors the survival of a non-dividing population, is one of the two methods to study aging in yeast. To eliminate potential artifacts and identify genes and signaling pathways that may also affect aging in higher eukaryotes, it is important to determine CLS by multiple methods. Here, we describe these methods as well as the assays to study macromolecular damage during aging in yeast, with a focus on genomic instability.
Longevity: Lesson from model organisms
2019
Research on longevity and healthy aging promises to increase our lifespan and decrease the burden of degenerative diseases with important social and economic effects. Many aging theories have been proposed, and important aging pathways have been discovered. Model organisms have had a crucial role in this process because of their short lifespan, cheap maintenance, and manipulation possibilities. Yeasts, worms, fruit flies, or mammalian models such as mice, monkeys, and recently, dogs, have helped shed light on aging processes. Genes and molecular mechanisms that were found to be critical in simple eukaryotic cells and species have been confirmed in humans mainly by the functional analysis of…
PAH gene mutations in the Sicilian population: association with minihaplotypes and expression analysis.
2001
Abstract The molecular basis of PAH deficiency in the Sicilian population is characterized by a marked heterogeneity, with 44 mutations at a single locus identified by a "gene-scanning" approach and accounting for a detection rate of 91%. The remaining 9% of PAH alleles does not bear mutations in any of the 13 exons and 24 exon/intron junctions. Three mutations IVS10nt-11 G > A, R261Q, and A300S accounted for 30.5%, whereas the remaining mutations were found at relative frequencies of less than 5% and 20 mutations were observed once only. Five mutations have been detected only in Sicilians so far. By studying the association of mutations with intragenic STR-VNTR haplotypes ("minihaplotypes"…
A Periodic Diet that Mimics Fasting Promotes Multi-System Regeneration, Enhanced Cognitive Performance, and Healthspan
2015
SummaryProlonged fasting (PF) promotes stress resistance, but its effects on longevity are poorly understood. We show that alternating PF and nutrient-rich medium extended yeast lifespan independently of established pro-longevity genes. In mice, 4 days of a diet that mimics fasting (FMD), developed to minimize the burden of PF, decreased the size of multiple organs/systems, an effect followed upon re-feeding by an elevated number of progenitor and stem cells and regeneration. Bi-monthly FMD cycles started at middle age extended longevity, lowered visceral fat, reduced cancer incidence and skin lesions, rejuvenated the immune system, and retarded bone mineral density loss. In old mice, FMD c…
Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality in the 65 and Younger but Not Older Population
2014
SummaryMice and humans with growth hormone receptor/IGF-1 deficiencies display major reductions in age-related diseases. Because protein restriction reduces GHR-IGF-1 activity, we examined links between protein intake and mortality. Respondents aged 50–65 reporting high protein intake had a 75% increase in overall mortality and a 4-fold increase in cancer death risk during the following 18 years. These associations were either abolished or attenuated if the proteins were plant derived. Conversely, high protein intake was associated with reduced cancer and overall mortality in respondents over 65, but a 5-fold increase in diabetes mortality across all ages. Mouse studies confirmed the effect…
Ras-pathway has a dual role in yeast galactose metabolism
2007
AbstractIn the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae the genes involved in galactose metabolism (GAL1,7,10) are transcriptionally activated more than a 1000-fold in the presence of galactose as the sole carbon source in the culture media. In the present work, we monitored the activity of the GAL10 gene promoter in different Ras-cAMP genetic backgrounds. We demonstrate that overexpression of C-terminus of the nucleotide exchange factor Cdc25p stimulates GAL10 transcription in yeast strains carrying the contemporary deletion of both RAS genes. Moreover, the deletion of the chromosomal CDC25 gene provokes impaired growth on galactose based media in yeast strain lacking both RAS genes and adenylate cy…
Tor-Sch9 deficiency activates catabolism of the ketone body-like acetic acid to promote trehalose accumulation and longevity
2014
In mammals, extended periods of fasting leads to the accumulation of blood ketone bodies including acetoacetate. Here we show that similar to the conversion of leucine to acetoacetate in fasting mammals, starvation conditions induced ketone body-like acetic acid generation from leucine in S. cerevisiae. Whereas wild-type and ras2Δ cells accumulated acetic acid, long-lived tor1Δ and sch9Δ mutants rapidly depleted it through a mitochondrial acetate CoA transferase-dependent mechanism, which was essential for lifespan extension. The sch9Δ-dependent utilization of acetic acid also required coenzyme Q biosynthetic genes and promoted the accumulation of intracellular trehalose. These results indi…
Association between IGF-1 levels ranges and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis
2022
The association between IGF-1 levels and mortality in humans is complex with low levels being associated with both low and high mortality. The present meta-analysis investigates this complex relationship between IGF-1 and all-cause mortality in prospective cohort studies. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Cochrane Library up to September 2019. Published studies were eligible for the meta-analysis if they had a prospective cohort design, a hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for two or more categories of IGF-1 and were conducted among adults. A random-effects model with a restricted maximum likelihood heterogeneity variance estimator w…
Approaches to study yeast cell aging and death
2014
For millennia, yeast has been exploited to obtain fermentation products, such as foods and beverages. For c. 50 years, yeast has been an established model organism for basic and applied research, and more specifically, for c. 15 years, this unicellular organism has been applied to dissect molecular mechanisms of cell aging and programmed cell death. In this review, we present an overview of approaches to study cell aging and death in yeast, including lifespan assessments, calorie restriction, cell viability, survival, and death markers.
Editorial: Cell Stress, Metabolic Reprogramming, and Cancer
2018
Suggestive evidence for association of D2S2188 marker (2q31.1) with autism in 143 Sicilian (Italian) TRIO families
2005
We have screened 143 Sicilian (Italian) families with one autistic child to verify, by a linkage disequilibrium approach, the involvement of the 2q31.1 region in the cause of the disease in these families. Our study design includes the use of intrafamilial association to prevent a population stratification bias and ethnic homogeneity of the sample. The results of our analysis provided suggestive evidence of the occurrence of transmission disequilibrium between autism and the D2S2188 polymorphism in Sicilian TRIO families, a finding which provides further and independent support to the hypothesis of the existence of a susceptibility gene (or genes) for autism on chromosome 2q.
A Radical Signal Activates the Epigenetic Regulation of Longevity
2013
Hormesis is an adaptive stress response implicated in longevity regulation. Schroeder et al. (2013) have now connected stress, epigenetic changes, and aging in yeast by showing that mitochondria-derived reactive oxygen species modulate the chromatin binding capacity of the histone demethylase Rph1p at subtelomeres, resulting in lifespan extension.
Dietary restriction: could it be considered as speed bump on tumor progression road?
2016
Dietary restrictions, including fasting (or long-term starvation), calorie restriction (CR), and short-term starvation (STS), are considered a strong rationale that may protect against various diseases, including age-related diseases and cancer. Among dietary approaches, STS, in which food is not consumed during designed fasting periods but is typically not restricted during designated feeding periods, seems to be more suitable, because other dietary regimens involving prolonged fasting periods could worsen the health conditions of cancer patients, being they already naturally prone to weight loss. Until now, the limited amount of available data does not point to a single gene, pathway, or …
Lack of association of HOXA1 and HOXB1 mutations and autism in Sicilian (Italian) patients
2003
Lack of association of HOXA1 and HOXB1 mutations and autism in Sicilian (Italian) patients
Longevity: epigenetic and biomolecular aspects
2015
AbstractMany aging theories and their related molecular mechanisms have been proposed. Simple model organisms such as yeasts, worms, fruit flies and others have massively contributed to their clarification, and many genes and pathways have been associated with longevity regulation. Among them, insulin/IGF-1 plays a key and evolutionary conserved role. Interestingly, dietary interventions can modulate this pathway. Calorie restriction (CR), intermittent fasting, and protein and amino acid restriction prolong the lifespan of mammals by IGF-1 regulation. However, some recent findings support the hypothesis that the long-term effects of diet also involve epigenetic mechanisms. In this review, w…
Conserved role of Ras-GEFs in promoting aging: from yeast to mice
2011
RasGRF1 is a Ras-guanine nucleotide exchange factor implicated in a variety of physiological processes including learning and memory and glucose homeostasis. To determine the role of RASGRF1 in aging, lifespan and metabolic parameters were analyzed in aged RasGrf1(-/-) mice. We observed that mice deficient for RasGrf1(-/-) display an increase in average and most importantly, in maximal lifespan (20% higher than controls). This was not due to the role of Ras in cancer because tumor-free survival was also enhanced in these animals. Aged RasGrf1(-/-) displayed better motor coordination than control mice. Protection against oxidative stress was similarly preserved in old RasGrf1(-/-). IGF-I lev…
Calorie Restriction in Mammals and Simple Model Organisms
2014
Calorie restriction (CR), which usually refers to a 20–40% reduction in calorie intake, can effectively prolong lifespan preventing most age-associated diseases in several species. However, recent data from both human and nonhumans point to the ratio of macronutrients rather than the caloric intake as a major regulator of both lifespan and health-span. In addition, specific components of the diet have recently been identified as regulators of some age-associated intracellular signaling pathways in simple model systems. The comprehension of the mechanisms underpinning these findings is crucial since it may increase the beneficial effects of calorie restriction making it accessible to a broad…
Effect of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Table Olives on the ImmuneInflammatory Responses: Potential Clinical Applications
2017
Background and Objective: Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is the common element among the Mediterranean countries. It can be considered a nutraceutical and functional food, thanks to its bioactive compounds. It can act and modulate different processes linked to ageing and age-related diseases related to a common chronic low grade inflammation. Depending on the cultivar, the growth conditions, the period of harvesting, the productive process and time of product storage, EVOO could contain different amount of vegetal components. Of course, the same is for table olives. Methods: The aim of our review is to summarize the effects of EVOO and table olives on the immunemediated inflammatory respons…
Intermittent and Periodic Fasting, Hormones, and Cancer Prevention
2021
Simple Summary Hormonal and growth factor alterations, related to an elevated food consumption and excessive adiposity, affect the regulation of genes involved in cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation and DNA repair, allowing cells to survive and proliferate despite the accumulation of mutations which lead to malignant transformation. The growth hormone/insulin growth factor-1 (GH/IGF-1)/ insulin pathway and its downstream effectors, in fact, are known to promote aging and/or age-related diseases, including cancer, in many model organisms. The restriction of nutrients is established to have strong effects on levels of hormones and growth factors, delaying the incidence…
Analysis of the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor gene in Italian patients with autism spectrum disorders
2008
The gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) was implicated for the first time in the pathogenesis of Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by Ishikawa-Brush et al. [Ishikawa-Brush et al. (1997): Hum Mol Genet 6: 1241-1250]. Since this original observation, only one association study [Marui et al. (2004): Brain Dev 26: 5-7] has further investigated, though unsuccessfully, the involvement of the GRPR gene in ASD. With the aim of contributing further information to this topic we have sequenced the entire coding region and the intron/exon junctions of the GRPR gene in 149 Italian autistic patients. The results of this study led to the identification of four novel point mutations, two of which, that…
1818P Body mass index (BMI) is not a cancer risk factor for BRCA1/2 carriers: A systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies
2021
Serine- and Threonine/Valine-Dependent Activation of PDK and Tor Orthologs Converge on Sch9 to Promote Aging
2014
Dietary restriction extends longevity in organisms ranging from bacteria to mice and protects primates from a variety of diseases, but the contribution of each dietary component to aging is poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that glucose and specific amino acids promote stress sensitization and aging through the differential activation of the Ras/cAMP/PKA, PKH1/2 and Tor/S6K pathways. Whereas glucose sensitized cells through a Ras-dependent mechanism, threonine and valine promoted cellular sensitization and aging primarily by activating the Tor/S6K pathway and serine promoted sensitization via PDK1 orthologs Pkh1/2. Serine, threonine and valine activated a signaling network in which Sch…
Efficacy of a fasting-mimicking diet in functional therapy for depression: A randomised controlled pilot trial.
2020
Objective: This randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of adding a fasting‐mimicking diet to a structured psychotherapy protocol for treating depression.Design: Of 20 patients with depression, 10 were randomly assigned to psychotherapy and dieting (i.e., experimental group) and the other 10 to psychotherapy only (i.e., control group). Patients in both groups received20 individual sessions of functional therapy along with nutrition consultation. Patients in the control group were instructed to maintain their usual daily diets. Results: Both treatments were effective in reducing depression as well as increasing self‐esteem and quality of life. The experimental group showed improved…
Yeast Chronological Lifespan: Longevity Regulatory Genes and Mechanisms
2022
S. cerevisiae plays a pivotal role as a model system in understanding the biochemistry and molecular biology of mammals including humans. A considerable portion of our knowledge on the genes and pathways involved in cellular growth, resistance to toxic agents, and death has in fact been generated using this model organism. The yeast chronological lifespan (CLS) is a paradigm to study age-dependent damage and longevity. In combination with powerful genetic screening and high throughput technologies, the CLS has allowed the identification of longevity genes and pathways but has also introduced a unicellular “test tube” model system to identify and study macromolecular and cellular damage lead…
DXYS156: a multi-purpose short tandem repeat locus for determination of sex, paternal and maternal geographic origins and DNA fingerprinting
2002
In forensic science and in legal medicine Y chromosomal typing is indispensable for sex determination, for paternity testing in the absence of the father and for distinguishing males in multiple rape cases. Another potential application is the estimation of paternal geographic origin or family name from a crime stain to narrow down the range of suspects and thus reduce costs of mass screenings. However, Y typing alone cannot provide a sufficiently resolved DNA fingerprint as required for court convictions. Thus, there is a dilemma whether or not to sacrifice valuable material for the sake of extensive Y chromosomal investigations when stain DNA is limited (typically allowing only few PCR am…
Acetic acid and acidification accelerate chronological and replicative aging in yeast
2012
Yeast is widely regarded as one of the most valuable model systems to study aging and particularly the genetics of aging. Researchers have established two different methods to study yeast aging known as the replicative lifespan (RLS) and the chronological lifespan (CLS). These have led to the identification of many mammalian genes that affect aging suggesting that they will continue to shed light on the fundamental biology of aging. In spite of the clear differences underpinning the mitotic cellular potential (RLS) and the survival in the non-dividing mode (CLS), the two models are clearly regulated by partly overlapping regulatory mechanism. This idea is supported by the observation that c…
Metodo per la indicizzazione approssimata e il reperimento di sequenze che si ripetono all'interno di sequenze
2005
brevetto
Nutrient sensing pathways as therapeutic targets for healthy ageing
2017
Introduction: In the present paper, the authors have discussed anti-aging strategies which aim to slow the aging process and to delay the onset of age-related diseases, focusing on nutrient sensing pathways (NSPs) as therapeutic targets. Indeed, several studies have already demonstrated that both in animal models and humans, dietary interventions might have a positive impact on the aging process through the modulation of these pathways. Areas covered: Achieving healthy aging is the main challenge of the twenty-first century because lifespan is increasing, but not in tandem with good health. The authors have illustrated different approaches that can act on NSPs, modulating the rate of the ag…
mtDNA analysis of the human remains buried in the sarcophagus of Federico II
2005
Abstract The sarcophagus containing the remains of Federico II, located in the Cathedral of Palermo (Sicily, Italy), was opened on 1998 to perform a multidisciplinary survey [1]. Next to the remains of Federico II and in close contact with them were laying two other skeletons belonging, according to historical records, to Pietro II di Aragona and to an anonymous person (“The Third Individual”), probably a woman. The bones appeared severely deteriorated. Chemical analysis performed on bone samples excluded that the bodies underwent some kind of embalming process. The analysis of mtDNA from bone samples taken from the three skeletons was successful in only one of the two labs involved. The HV…
Mitochondrion at the Crossroad Between Nutrients and Epigenome.
2019
Epigenetic profile is the link between the regulation of nuclear gene expression and the environment. The most important factors capable of significantly affecting the cellular environment are the amount and quality of nutrients available. Mitochondria are both involved in the production of some of the molecules capable of directly affecting the epigenome and have a critical role in the conversion of nutrients into usable energy. Carbohydrate and fats are converted into ATP, acetyl-CoA, SAM, and NADH. These high-energy substrates are, in turn, capable of driving the epigenetic profile. We describe substances capable of affecting this mechanism. On the other hand, nutritional interventions c…