Curcumin and Andrographolide Co-Administration Safely Prevent Steatosis Induction and ROS Production in HepG2 Cell Line

2023

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an emerging chronic liver disease worldwide. Curcumin and andrographolide are famous for improving hepatic functions, being able to reverse oxidative stress and release pro-inflammatory cytokines, and they are implicated in hepatic stellate cell activation and in liver fibrosis development. Thus, we tested curcumin and andrographolide separately and in combination to determine their effect on triglyceride accumulation and ROS production, identifying the differential expression of genes involved in fatty liver and oxidative stress development. In vitro steatosis was induced in HepG2 cells and the protective effect of curcumin, andrographolide, and…

Anti-inflammatory properties of an aldehydes-enriched fraction of grapefruit essential oil

2023

Chronic inflammation is linked to the development of numerous diseases and is accompanied by increased cytokine secretion. Macrophages provide a first line of defense against pathogens that under inflammatory stimuli release pro-inflammatory cytokines. The essential oil (EO) fractions obtained from Citrus spp. rich in different compounds have gained the attention of both researchers and users during the last decades. In particular, grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) peel is rich in phenolics and flavonoids with several health benefits, including anti-inflammatory actions. Additionally, its EO consists of a large number of compounds such as monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, alcohols, aldehydes, esters…

Biological Properties of a Citral-Enriched Fraction of Citrus limon Essential Oil

2020

Lemon essential oil (LEO) is a well-known flavoring agent with versatile biological activities. In the present study, we have isolated and characterized four citral-enriched fractions of winter LEO. We reported that in murine and human macrophages the pre-treatment with a mix of these fractions (Cfr-LEO) reduces the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-&alpha

P1.17 How to Visualize Exosomes in NSCLC: “The New Guest Star in the Liquid Biopsy Movie”

2019

Tumour cell-derived small extracellular vesicles modulate macrophage immunosuppressive phenotype associated with PD-L1 expression

2020

Introduction: Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a key role in promoting tumour progression, by exerting an immunosuppressive phenotype associated with M2 polarization and with the expression of CD204 and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). It is well known that tumour-derived extracellular vesicles (TEVs) play a pivotal role in the tumour microenvironment, influencing TAM behaviour. The study was aimed to examine the effect of TEVs derived from colon cancer and multiple myeloma cells on macrophage functions. Methods: Non-polarized macrophages (M0) differentiated from THP-1 cells were co-cultured, for 3 up to 48 hours, with TEVs derived from a colon cancer cell line, SW480, and m…

Epidemiological dynamics of norovirus GII.4 variant New Orleans 2009.

2015

Norovirus (NoV) is one of the major causes of diarrhoeal disease with epidemic, outbreak and sporadic patterns in humans of all ages worldwide. NoVs of genotype GII.4 cause nearly 80–90 % of all NoV infections in humans. Periodically, some GII.4 strains become predominant, generating major pandemic variants. Retrospective analysis of the GII.4 NoV strains detected in Italy between 2007 and 2013 indicated that the pandemic variant New Orleans 2009 emerged in Italy in the late 2009, became predominant in 2010–2011 and continued to circulate in a sporadic fashion until April 2013. Upon phylogenetic analysis based on the small diagnostic regions A and C, the late New Orleans 2009 NoVs circulati…

Multiple myeloma-derived exosomes are enriched of amphiregulin (AREG) and activate the epidermal growth factor pathway in the bone microenvironment l…

2019

Background Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal plasma cell malignancy associated with osteolytic bone disease. Recently, the role of MM-derived exosomes in the osteoclastogenesis has been demonstrated although the underlying mechanism is still unknown. Since exosomes-derived epidermal growth factor receptor ligands (EGFR) are involved in tumor-associated osteolysis, we hypothesize that the EGFR ligand amphiregulin (AREG) can be delivered by MM-derived exosomes and participate in MM-induced osteoclastogenesis. Methods Exosomes were isolated from the conditioned medium of MM1.S cell line and from bone marrow (BM) plasma samples of MM patients. The murine cell line RAW264.7 and primary human CD1…

Theoretical and experimental study of the kinetics of particle chains near electrodes in dielectrophoretic devices

2014

Using a three dimensional coupled Monte Carlo-Poisson algorithm and experimental results we studied the role of the particle-particle dipole interaction on the kinetics of a system of human cells suspended in a static liquid medium under the action of an oscillating non-uniform electric field generated by polynomial electrodes. We found that the kinetics of the cells during negative/repulsive dielectrophoresis depends on the local distribution of particles. If the cells have generated long chains during positive/attractive dielectrophoresis, such chains can hinder subsequent detachment resulting in a reduction of the separation/manipulation efficiency of dielectrophoretic device. This effec…

Developing liver spheroids for elucidating the role of colorectal cancer-derived smallextracellular vesicles in the pre-metastatic niche formation

2022

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common tumor in the world frequently associated with liver metastasiscausing unfavorable prognosis. A recent study performed in our laboratory has demonstrated that CRC small extracellular vesi-cles (SEVs) induce an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) of hepatocytes (heps) driving them to actively participate inthe pre-metastatic niche formation, probably contributing to form a liver fibrotic microenvironment. Since 2D cell cultures par-tially reflect the structural complexity of the in vivo microenvironment to give more power to our functional model, we switchedto use hepatocyte spheroids (HeSPHs), which can give us more proper…

Tumor-Derived Small Extracellular Vesicles Induce Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Expression and PD-L1 Regulation in M0 Macrophages via IL-6/STAT3 and TLR4…

2021

Tumor-associated macrophages play a key role in promoting tumor progression by exerting an immunosuppressive phenotype associated with the expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). It is well known that tumor-derived small extracellular vesicles (SEVs) affect the tumor microenvironment, influencing TAM behavior. The present study aimed to examine the effect of SEVs derived from colon cancer and multiple myeloma cells on macrophage functions. Non-polarized macrophages (M0) differentiated from THP-1 cells were co-cultured with SEVs derived from a colorectal cancer (CRC) cell line, SW480, and a multiple myeloma (MM) cell line, MM1.S. The expression of PD-L1, interleukin-6 (IL-6), a…

Plant extracellular vesicles: the safe for bioactive compounds

2021

Abstract If researchers within the field of extracellular vesicles are fascinated by the discovery of what was previously defined as cell rubbish bags and are today considered as important vehicles of biological information, it is even more fascinating to understand that each day, through the diet, we come into contact with vesicles from the plant kingdom, a safe for various compounds with different properties. This chapter will, therefore, focus on the description of studies carried out to date on vesicles originating from the plant kingdom. Above all we will describe the content of the vesicles, looking at the proteomic, lipidomic and nucleic acid composition; we will further discuss the …

Exosomes in semen: opportunities as a new tool in prostate cancer diagnosis

2017

Abstract: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer in men. Nowadays, it is diagnosed through the test of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and rectal examination; however, there is still debate about the PSA-based diagnosis. Seminal fluid (SF), contains a high concentration of subcellular lipid-bound microparticles, traditionally termed "prostasomes", that are extracellular vesicles (EVs) released into the extracellular space by prostate gland's epithelial cells. These vesicles, first described in 1982 promote motility of sperm cells, regulation of sperm cell capacitation, acrosome reaction and immune suppression within the female reproductive tract. It was demonstrated that pros…

Improving extracellular vesicles visualization: From static to motion

2020

AbstractIn the last decade, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have become a hot topic. The findings on EVs content and effects have made them a major field of interest in cancer research. EVs, are able to be internalized through integrins expressed in parental cells, in a tissue specific manner, as a key step of cancer progression and pre-metastatic niche formation. However, this specificity might lead to new opportunities in cancer treatment by using EVs as devices for drug delivery. For future applications of EVs in cancer, improved protocols and methods for EVs isolation and visualization are required. Our group has put efforts on developing a protocol able to track the EVs for in vivo intern…

Curcumin inhibits in vitro and in vivo chronic myelogenous leukemia cells growth : a possible role for exosomal disposal of miR-21

2015

// Simona Taverna 1 , Marco Giallombardo 1 , Marzia Pucci 1 , Anna Flugy 1 , Mauro Manno 2 , Samuele Raccosta 2 , Christian Rolfo 3 , Giacomo De Leo 1 , Riccardo Alessandro 1, 4 1 Dipartimento di Biopatologia e Metodologie Biomediche, Sezione di Biologia e Genetica, Universita di Palermo, Italy 2 Istituto di Biofisica, CNR, Palermo, Italy 3 Phase I - Early Clinical Trials Unit Oncology Department and Center of Oncological Research (CORE), University Hospital Antwerp & Antwerp University, Belgium 4 Istituto di Biomedicina e Immunologia Molecolare (IBIM), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Palermo, Italy Correspondence to: Riccardo Alessandro, e-mail: riccardo.alessandro@unipa.it Keywords: e…

Extracellular vesicles: small bricks for tissue repair/regeneration

2017

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nano-sized membrane vesicles involved in intercellular communication. EVs have pleiotropic actions in physiological and pathological conditions. The ability of EVs to transports proteins, drugs and nucleic acid, to target specific cells and to increase the stability of therapeutic cargo, make EVs interesting as new devices for the treatment of human disease. In a recently published issue of European journal of pharmaceutical sciences, Silva and colleagues reviewed the ability of EVs to modulate tissue repair and regeneration, focusing on their roles and therapeutic potential as immunomodulatory messengers. In this perspective, we discussed the open questions…

Anti-Human CD9 Fab Fragment Antibody Blocks the Extracellular Vesicle-Mediated Increase in Malignancy of Colon Cancer Cells.

2022

Intercellular communication between cancer cells themselves or with healthy cells in the tumor microenvironment and/or pre-metastatic sites plays an important role in cancer progression and metastasis. In addition to ligand–receptor signaling complexes, extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as novel mediators of intercellular communication both in tissue homeostasis and in diseases such as cancer. EV-mediated transfer of molecular activities impacting morphological features and cell motility from highly metastatic SW620 cells to non-metastatic SW480 cells is a good in vitro example to illustrate the increased malignancy of colorectal cancer leading to its transformation and aggressive b…

Extracellular vesicles as miRNA nano-shuttles : dual role in tumor progression

2018

[EN] Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) have a pleiotropic role in cancer, interacting with target cells of the tumor microenvironment, such as fibroblasts, immune and endothelial cells. EVs can modulate tumor progression, angiogenic switch, metastasis, and immune escape. These vesicles are nano-shuttles containing a wide spectrum of miRNAs that contribute to tumor progression. MiRNAs contained in extracellular vesicles (EV-miRNAs) are disseminated in the extracellular space and are able to influence the expression of target genes with either tumor suppressor or oncogenic functions, depending on both parental and target cells. Metastatic cancer cells can balance their oncogenic pote…

Colorectal cancer-derived small extracellular vesicles induce TGFβ1-mediated epithelial to mesenchymal transition of hepatocytes

2023

Abstract Background Metastatic disease is the major cause of cancer-related deaths. Increasing evidence shows that primary tumor cells can promote metastasis by preparing the local microenvironment of distant organs, inducing the formation of the so-called “pre-metastatic niche”. In recent years, several studies have highlighted that among the tumor-derived molecular components active in pre-metastatic niche formation, small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) play a crucial role. Regarding liver metastasis, the ability of tumor-derived sEVs to affect the activities of non-parenchymal cells such as Kupffer cells and hepatic stellate cells is well described, while the effects on hepatocytes, the m…

Curcumin modulates chronic myelogenous leukemia exosomes composition and affects angiogenic phenotype, via exosomal miR-21

2016

Abstract: Tumor derived exosomes are vesicles which contain proteins and microRNAs that mediate cell-cell communication and are involved in angiogenesis and tumor progression. Curcumin derived from the plant Curcuma longa, shows anticancer effects. Exosomes released by CML cells treated with Curcumin contain a high amount of miR-21 that is shuttled into the endothelial cells in a biologically active form. The treatment of HUVECs with CML Curcu-exosomes reduced RhoB expression and negatively modulated endothelial cells motility. We showed that the addition of CML control exosomes to HUVECs caused an increase in IL8 and VCAM1 levels, but Curcu-exosomes reversed these effects thus attenuating …

Extracellular Vesicles and Tumor-Immune Escape: Biological Functions and Clinical Perspectives

2020

The modulation of the immune system is one of the hallmarks of cancer. It is now widely described that cancer cells are able to evade the immune response and thus establish immune tolerance. The exploration of the mechanisms underlying this ability of cancer cells has always attracted the scientific community and is the basis for the development of new promising cancer therapies. Recent evidence has highlighted how extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent a mechanism by which cancer cells promote immune escape by inducing phenotypic changes on different immune cell populations. In this review, we will discuss the recent findings on the role of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (TEVs) in re…

Exosomes as diagnostic and predictive biomarkers in lung cancer

2017

The concept of exosomes has evolved from be considered garbage bags to the demonstration that exosomes could play very interesting roles and functions, from biomarkers detection to the potential of work as drug delivery systems. It has been widely proved that exosomes can contain key molecules important for the tumour development. The current review summarizes the latest investigations developed in the field of predictive exosomal biomarkers. The microRNAs (miRNAs) are the more known molecules due to their amount inside the exosomes and the sensitivity of the techniques available for their study. However, exosomal proteins, RNA and DNA are becoming an interesting and more feasible field of …

Amphiregulin contained in NSCLC-exosomes induces osteoclast differentiation through the activation of EGFR pathway

2017

AbstractNon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The majority of patients are diagnosed in advanced disease stage. Bone metastasis is the most frequent complication in NSCLC resulting in osteolytic lesions. The perfect balance between bone-resorbing osteoclasts and bone-forming osteoblasts activity is lost in bone metastasis, inducing osteoclastogenesis. In NSCLC, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway is constitutively activated. EGFR binds Amphiregulin (AREG) that is overexpressed in several cancers such as colon, breast and lung. Its levels in plasma of NSCLC patients correlate with poor prognosis and AREG was recently …

Curcumin modulates chronic myelogenous leukemia exosomes composition and affects angiogenic phenotype, via exosomal miR-21.

2016

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Curcumin induces selective packaging of miR-21 in exosomes released by Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia cells

2015

Effects of exosomes released by NSCLC cells on osteoclasts differentiation in ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANITA’, ROMA AICC

2016

Effects of exosomes released by NSCLC cells on osteoclasts differentiation.

Effects of exosomes released by NSCLC cells on osteoclasts differentiation Pucci M., Taverna S., Corrado C., Giallombardo M., Rolfo C. and Alessandro R. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has a poorly 5-year survival rate, as a consequence of the delay in the detection of the disease. The majority of patients are diagnosed in an advanced disease stage. Bone metastasis is the most frequent complication in NSCLC resulting in osteolytic lesions. The perfect balance between bone-resorbing osteoclasts (OCs) and bone-forming osteoblasts (OBs) activity is lost in bone metastasis, inducing osteoclastogenesis. Most of the patients with lung cancer are treated with EGFR inhibitors (TKIs). Numerous st…

Additional file 1: of Multiple myeloma-derived exosomes are enriched of amphiregulin (AREG) and activate the epidermal growth factor pathway in the b…

2019

Figure S1. Evaluation by quantitative Real Time PCR of mRNA expression of AREG in HMCLs (A) and in MM1.S cells and exosomes (B). (TIFF 2501 kb)

Additional file 2: of Multiple myeloma-derived exosomes are enriched of amphiregulin (AREG) and activate the epidermal growth factor pathway in the b…

2019

Figure S2. Schematic representation of the role of MM-exosomes in bone microenvironment. (TIF 3372 kb)