0000000000634147
AUTHOR
Giorgio Bertolazzi
showing 21 related works from this author
miR-1207-5p Can Contribute to Dysregulation of Inflammatory Response in COVID-19 via Targeting SARS-CoV-2 RNA
2020
The present study focuses on the role of human miRNAs in SARS-CoV-2 infection. An extensive analysis of human miRNA binding sites on the viral genome led to the identification of miR-1207-5p as potential regulator of the viral Spike protein. It is known that exogenous RNA can compete for miRNA targets of endogenous mRNAs leading to their overexpression. Our results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 virus can act as an exogenous competing RNA, facilitating the over-expression of its endogenous targets. Transcriptomic analysis of human alveolar and bronchial epithelial cells confirmed that the CSF1 gene, a known target of miR-1207-5p, is over-expressed following SARS-CoV-2 infection. CSF1 enhances macr…
Constitutive psgl-1 correlates with cd30 and tcr pathways and represents a potential target for immunotherapy in anaplastic large t-cell lymphoma
2021
Simple Summary P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1), coded by the SELPLG gene, is the major ligand of selectins and plays a pivotal role in tethering, rolling and extravasation of immune cells. PSGL-1 involvement in core molecular programs, such as SYK, PLCγ2, PI3Kγ or MAPK pathways, suggests additional functions beyond the modulation of cell trafficking. Recently, several studies identified a novel mechanism responsible for PSGL-1-mediated immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment and proved a novel concept of PSGL-1 as a critical checkpoint molecule for tumor immunotherapy. The immunotherapeutic approach has gained an ever-growing interest in the treatment of several hematolog…
A multivariate statistical test for differential expression analysis
2022
AbstractStatistical tests of differential expression usually suffer from two problems. Firstly, their statistical power is often limited when applied to small and skewed data sets. Secondly, gene expression data are usually discretized by applying arbitrary criteria to limit the number of false positives. In this work, a new statistical test obtained from a convolution of multivariate hypergeometric distributions, the Hy-test, is proposed to address these issues. Hy-test has been carried out on transcriptomic data from breast and kidney cancer tissues, and it has been compared with other differential expression analysis methods. Hy-test allows implicit discretization of the expression profi…
Programmed cell death 1 genetic variant and liver damage in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
2023
Background and aims: Programmed cell death 1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PDL-1) axis has been reported to modulate liver inflammation and progression to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Here, we examined whether the PDCD1 variation is associated with NAFLD severity in individuals with liver biopsy. Methods: We examined the impact of PDCD1 gene variants on HCC, as robust severe liver disease phenotype in UK Biobank participants. The strongest genetic association with the rs13023138 G>C variation was subsequently tested for association with liver damage in 2889 individuals who underwent liver biopsy for suspected nonalcoholi…
Boolean Networks: A Primer
2021
Abstract Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) stand out as a relevant example where omics-data approaches have been extensively and successfully employed. For instance, an outstanding outcome of the Autism Genome Project relies in the identification of biomarkers and the mapping of biological processes potentially implicated in ASDs’ pathogenesis. Several of these mapped processes are related to molecular and cellular events (e.g., synaptogenesis and synapse function, axon growth and guidance, etc.) that are required for the development of a correct neuronal connectivity. Interestingly, these data are consistent with results of brain imaging studies of some patients. Despite these remarkable pr…
In situ transcriptional profile of a germinal center plasmablastic burst hints at MYD88/CD79B mutants-enriched Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphomas
2021
AbstractThe germinal center (GC) reaction results in the selection of B-cells acquiring effector Ig secreting ability by progressing towards plasmablastic differentiation. This transition is associated with exclusion from the GC microenvironment. The aberrant expansion of plasmablastic elements within the GC fringes configures an atypical condition, the biological characteristics of which have not been defined yet. We investigated the in situ immunophenotypical and transcriptional characteristics of a non-clonal germinotropic expansion of plasmablastic elements (GEx) occurring in the tonsil of a young patient. Compared to neighboring GC and peri-follicular regions, the GEx showed a distinct…
Spatial transcriptome of a germinal center plasmablastic burst hints at MYD88/CD79B mutants-enriched diffuse large B-cell lymphomas
2022
The GC reaction results in the selection of B cells acquiring effector Ig secreting ability by progressing toward plasmablastic differentiation. This transition is associated with exclusion from the GC microenvironment. The aberrant expansion of plasmablastic elements within the GC fringes configures an atypical condition, the biological characteristics of which have not been defined yet. We investigated the in situ immunophenotypical and transcriptional characteristics of a nonclonal germinotropic expansion of plasmablastic elements (GEx) occurring in the tonsil of a young patient. Compared to neighboring GC and perifollicular regions, the GEx showed a distinctive signature featuring key r…
RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets.
2019
Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules mediating the translational repression and degradation of target mRNAs in the cell. Mature miRNAs are used as a template by the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) to recognize the complementary mRNAs to be regulated. To discern further RISC functions, we analyzed the activities of two RISC proteins, AGO2 and GW182, in the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line. Methods We performed three RIP-Chip experiments using either anti-AGO2 or anti-GW182 antibodies and compiled a data set made up of the miRNA and mRNA expression profiles of three samples for each experiment. Specifically, we analyzed the input sample, the immunoprecipita…
Salivary Microbiota Composition in Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review.
2022
Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, in recent years, an increase in the incidence of OSCC has been registered, and the mortality rate is still high. This systematic review aims to identify a potential association between the composition of salivary microbiota and OSCC. Materials and Methods: The protocol for this study was designed following the PRISMA guidelines. Records were identified using different search engines (e.g., Medline/PubMed). Observational studies, in human subjects with histological diagnosis of OSCC, concerning the analysis of salivary microbiota, were selected. …
An improvement of ComiR algorithm for microRNA target prediction by exploiting coding region sequences of mRNAs
2020
AbstractMicroRNA are small non-coding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate the expression levels of messenger RNAs. MicroRNA regulation activity depends on the recognition of binding sites located on mRNA molecules. ComiR is a web tool realized to predict the targets of a set of microRNAs, starting from their expression profile. ComiR was trained with the information regarding binding sites in the 3’utr region, by using a reliable dataset containing the targets of endogenously expressed microRNA in D. melanogaster S2 cells. This dataset was obtained by comparing the results from two different experimental approaches, i.e., inhibition, and immunoprecipitation of the AGO1 protein--a comp…
RNA Sequencing of Primary Cutaneous and Breast-Implant Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphomas Reveals Infrequent Fusion Transcripts and Upregulat…
2021
Simple Summary Cutaneous and breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphomas are usually localized neoplasms with an indolent clinical course compared to systemic ALCL. However comparative analyses of the molecular features of these two entities have not yet been reported. We performed targeted RNA sequencing, which revealed that fusion transcripts, although infrequent, might represent additional pathogenetic events in both diseases. We also found that these entities display upregulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway and show enrichment in genes of the neurotrophin signaling pathway. These findings advance our knowledge regarding the pathobiology of cALCL and BI-ALCL and point to additi…
Additional file 4: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Overview of gene expression levels in IP and FT samples. Focus on the enriched genes in AGO2-IP and GW182-IP vs FT samples. The reported expression levels are computed as the average values of the three performed experimental replicates. (PDF 1423 kb)
Additional file 6: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Wilcoxon test p-values summary. Wilcoxon test p-values (log10) obtained by comparing the variable values associated with the enriched/underrepresented genes sets. Three different miRNA target prediction tools (Targetscan, PITA and miRanda) were used to compute the necessary binding sites (BS) matrices. The BS matrices used to compute the p-values in the last panel were obtained by considering BS predicted by at least two of the three prediction tools. In each panel, the variables computed with the three AGO2 IN profiles were used to distinguish enriched and underrepresented genes in AGO2-IP vs FT and the variables computed with the three GW182 IN profiles were used to distinguish enriched a…
Additional file 7: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Summary of miRNA expression profiles shuffling effects. ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the performance of F6 and F4d variables, computed with simulated miRNA profiles, in distinguishing enriched/underrepresented genes in AGO2 or GW182-IP samples. Each panel reports the AUC values obtained with simulated variables. Each boxplot refers to AUC values obtained with a specific set of simulations, where the expression profile of a set of miRNAs was shuffled. The boxplot in the center was obtained by shuffling all miRNAs. The boxplots from the center to the right refer to simulations where all the miRNAs were shuffled with the exception of n top expressed miRNAs, n increasing in the right …
Additional file 5: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Venn diagram of lists of enriched genes. The considered lists are: AGO2-IP (UP_AGO2 set), the list of enriched genes detected by Fan et al. [13] (UP_AGO2_Fan) and our list of enriched genes in GW182-IP sample (UP_GW182). The reported p-values refer to the closest intersection set of genes and are computed with one tail Fisher-test. (PDF 34 kb)
Additional file 1: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Analysis of miRNA expression in AGO2 and GW182-IP samples. a) miRNA expression level in AGO2-IP samples (average value from the three performed experiments) vs the expression level in IN samples (average value from the three performed experiments). The Pearson correlation values reported on the top of the picture were computed by using all the expressed miRNA, and the top 100 or 50 expressed miRNAs. The colored points refer to miRNA that have been validated by RT-PCR data. Green points refer to hsa-miR-141-3p, hsa-miR-21-5p, hsa-let-7f-5p, hsa-miR-16-5p, hsa-miR-24-3p, hsa-miR-27a-3p, hsa-miR-23a-3p. The red point refers to hsa-miR-1260a. b) Comparison of IP/IN ratios obtained by RT-PCR dat…
Additional file 8: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function of 3â UTR and coding region length of IP-Enriched genes. Enriched genes in AGO (1â 4) and in GW182 protein family IP selected by considering log2 IP-Enrichment of transcript greater than 1. Data are downloaded from Landthaler et al. [14]. The Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function of the 3â UTR length (top) and coding region length (bottom) of genes enriched exclusively by AGO-IP (red line), GW182-IP (blue line) and both IPs (black line) are reported. The reported p-value is computed by performing a Wilcoxon test to compare the length distributions of genes enriched exclusively in AGO-IP and in GW182-IP. (PDF 145 kb)
Additional file 9: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Summary of miRNA expression profiles switch between experiment replicas. ROC analysis of F6&F4d SVM model trained with variables calculated with miRNA expression profiles from each of the three anti-AGO2 RIP experiments. SVM models were used to classify the top 1000 and the bottom 1000 genes with respect to the IP/FT mRNA expression ratio, computed for each of the three AGO2 RIP experiments. (PDF 653 kb)
MicroRNA Interaction Networks
2021
La tesi di Giorgio Bertolazzi è incentrata sullo sviluppo di nuovi algoritmi per la predizione dei legami miRNA-mRNA. In particolare, un algoritmo di machine-learning viene proposto per l'upgrade del web tool ComiR; la versione originale di ComiR considerava soltanto i siti di legame dei miRNA collocati nella regione 3'UTR dell'RNA messaggero. La nuova versione di ComiR include nella ricerca dei legami la regione codificante dell'RNA messaggero. Bertolazzi’s thesis focuses on developing and applying computational methods to predict microRNA binding sites located on messenger RNA molecules. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by binding target messenger RNA molecules (mRNAs). Therefo…
Additional file 3: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Summary of enriched and underrepresented genes. Summary of enriched and underrepresented genes in AGO2 and GW182-IP vs FT comparisons performed by SAMR (column 2–3). The enrichment results obtained with the REA algorithm are reported in columns 4–5. Columns 6 and 7 report the 3’UTR and Coding region (CR) lengths respectively. In columns 8–21 we report the number of binding sites predicted by Targetscan in the 3’UTR and the Coding region of seven highly expressed miRNAs. (XLS 294 kb)
Additional file 2: of RIP-Chip analysis supports different roles for AGO2 and GW182 proteins in recruiting and processing microRNA targets
2019
Gene set enrichment analysis results with seven top expressed miRNA predicted targets sets. Predicted targets of miRNAs (column 1) were predicted with three different target prediction tools (column 2). The total number of predicted targets is indicated in column 3. Five lists of genes were analyzed. For each list of genes the number of genes in common with the predicted targets and the associated hypergeometric test pvalue are provided. The total number of genes considered in the analysis is 16,392. The five considered lists are: a list of genes enriched in AGO2 IP sample from [13]; lists of genes enriched in AGO2 IP vs IN and IP vs FT samples; lists of genes enriched in GW182 IP vs IN and…