Search results for " Laboratorio"
showing 10 items of 107 documents
Mast cells contribute to autoimmune diabetes by releasing interleukin-6 and failing to acquire a tolerogenic IL-10+ phenotype
2017
Mast cells (MCs) are innate immune cells that exert positive and negative immune modulatory functions capable to enhance or limit the intensity and/or duration of adaptive immune responses. Although MCs are crucial to regulate T cell immunity, their action in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases is still debated. Here we demonstrate that MCs play a crucial role in T1D pathogenesis so that their selective depletion in conditional MC knockout NOD mice protects them from the disease. MCs of diabetic NOD mice are overly inflammatory and secrete large amounts of IL-6 that favors differentiation of IL-17-secreting T cells at the site of autoimmunity. Moreover, while MCs of control mice acquire…
AKT3 Expression in Mesenchymal Colorectal Cancer Cells Drives Growth and Is Associated with Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
2021
Simple Summary Colorectal cancer can be subdivided into four distinct subtypes that are characterised by different clinical features and responses to therapies currently used in the clinic to treat this disease. One of those subtypes, called CMS4, is associated with a worse prognosis and poor response to therapies compared to other subtypes. We therefore set out to explore what proteins are differentially expressed and used in CMS4 to find potential new targets for therapy. We found that protein AKT3 is highly expressed in CMS4, and that active AKT3 inhibits a protein that stalls growth of cancer cells (p27KIP1). We can target AKT3 with inhibitors which leads to strongly reduced growth of c…
CHK1 inhibitor sensitizes resistant colorectal cancer stem cells to nortopsentin
2021
Summary Limited therapeutic options are available for advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). Herein, we report that exposure to a neo-synthetic bis(indolyl)thiazole alkaloid analog, nortopsentin 234 (NORA234), leads to an initial reduction of proliferative and clonogenic potential of CRC sphere cells (CR-CSphCs), followed by an adaptive response selecting the CR-CSphC-resistant compartment. Cells spared by the treatment with NORA234 express high levels of CD44v6, associated with a constitutive activation of Wnt pathway. In CR-CSphC-based organoids, NORA234 causes a genotoxic stress paralleled by G2-M cell cycle arrest and activation of CHK1, driving the DNA damage repair of CR-CSphCs, regardless…
Magnetic Nanoparticle-Based Hyperthermia Mediates Drug Delivery and Impairs the Tumorigenic Capacity of Quiescent Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells
2021
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the tumor cell subpopulation responsible for resistance to chemotherapy, tumor recurrence, and metastasis. An efficient therapy must act on low proliferating quiescent-CSCs (q-CSCs). We here investigate the effect of magnetic hyperthermia (MHT) in combination with local chemotherapy as a dual therapy to inhibit patient-derived colorectal qCR-CSCs. We apply iron oxide nanocubes as MHT heat mediators, coated with a thermoresponsive polymer (TR-Cubes) and loaded with DOXO (TR-DOXO) as a chemotherapeutic agent. The thermoresponsive polymer releases DOXO only at a temperature above 44 °C. In colony-forming assays, the cells exposed to TR-Cubes with MHT reveal that qC…
Betulinic Acid Kills Colon Cancer Stem Cells
2016
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered to be the origin of cancer and it is suggested that they are resistant to chemotherapy. Current therapies fail to eradicate CSCs and therefore selecting a resistant cell subset that is able to facilitate tumor recurrences. Betulinic acid (BetA) is a broad acting natural compound, shown to induce cell death via the inhibition of the stearoyl-CoA- desaturase (SCD- 1). This enzyme converts saturated fatty acids into unsaturated fatty acids and is over-expressed in tumor cells. Here we show that BetA induces rapid cell death in all colon CSCs tested and is able to affect the CSCs directly as shown, via the loss of clonogenic capacity. Similar results were…
Cancer stem cell-based models of colorectal cancer reveal molecular determinants of therapy resistance
2016
Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) therapy mainly relies on the use of conventional chemotherapeutic drugs combined, in a subset of patients, with epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR]-targeting agents. Although CRC is considered a prototype of a cancer stem cell (CSC)-driven tumor, the effects of both conventional and targeted therapies on the CSC compartment are largely unknown. We have optimized a protocol for colorectal CSC isolation that allowed us to obtain CSC-enriched cultures from primary tumor specimens, with high efficiency. CSC isolation was followed by in vitro and in vivo validation, genetic characterization, and drug sensitivity analysis, thus generating panels of CSC lines w…
ROS and Lipid Droplet accumulation induced by high glucose exposure in healthy colon and Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells
2020
Lipid Droplets (LDs) are emerging as crucial players in colon cancer development and maintenance. Their expression has been associated with high tumorigenicity in Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs), so that they have been proposed as a new functional marker in Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells (CR-CSCs). They are also indirectly involved in the modulation of the tumor microenvironment through the production of pro-inflammatory molecules. There is growing evidence that a possible connection between metabolic alterations and malignant transformation exists, although the effects of nutrients, primarily glucose, on the CSC behavior are still mostly unexplored. Glucose is an essential fuel for cancer cells, an…
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 …
Imparare dall'architettura
2022
Il Laboratorio di progettazione architettonica della prima annualità si rivolge ad allievi che, per quanto non abbiano alcuna esperienza sulla pratica del progetto, sono chiamati, da subito, a confrontarsi con il fare progettuale, e ciò a differenza di quanto, in genere, accade in altri ambiti di apprendimento dell’esercizio di professioni specialistiche come quella dell’architetto. L’incipit, ovvero l’inizio, l’azione dell’incipĕre rappresenta, quindi, l’avvio, il principio, l’incominciare di un percorso formativo in cui tutti, benché neofiti, sono chiamati a un’immediata e iniziale frequenza del “saper fare” riguardo alla progettazione architettonica. E se il divenire dell’architettura, a…
INCIPIT LAB
2022
Il libro descrive un’esperienza didattica condotta dall’anno accademico 2015/2016 al 2017/2018 e segna l’avvio del coordinamento di Incipit Lab. Tale iniziativa ha offerto un confronto, a livello nazionale e internazionale, fra i laboratori di progettazione architettonica del primo anno accademico. La sperimentazione effettuata trova la sua origine nel coordinamento dei laboratori di primo anno del Corso di Studi in Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo con il coinvolgimento, inoltre, del Laboratorio di Architettura e Composizione I del Corso di Studi in Ingegneria Edile-Architettura, dello stesso Ateneo. Incipit Lab. propone, attraverso un coordinamento, giunto al suo sesto a…