Search results for " Regulation"
showing 10 items of 3187 documents
The challenge of personal data protection in the era of digital economy
2018
The actual impact and effectiveness of the GDPR that comes into effect on May 25, 2018 will only be evident in the course of next years. Today, however it is crucial to understand how will the GDPR change the EU data protection playfield and if the new regulation is capable to address growing personal data and privacy challenges emerging from further digitalisation in the long term. The research question of this paper is: How capable and effective is the newly adopted EU data protection legislation to address the growing future privacy and data protection concerns associated with expansion of the Digital Economy?
Germline correction of an epimutation related to Silver-Russell syndrome.
2015
Like genetic mutations, DNA methylation anomalies or epimutations can disrupt gene expression and lead to human diseases. However, unlike genetic mutations, epimutations can in theory be reverted through developmental epigenetic reprograming, which should limit their transmission across generations. Following the request for a parental project of a patient diagnosed with Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS), and the availability of both somatic and spermatozoa DNA from the proband and his father, we had the exceptional opportunity to evaluate the question of inheritance of an epimutation. We provide here for the first time evidence for efficient reversion of a constitutive epimutation in the sperm…
The impact on port competition of the integration of port and inland transport services
2015
The performance of the transport chain is important for the efficiency and competitiveness of an economy. In the context of port competition, there has been an increasing cooperation between firms involved in the intermodal transport chain including seaport services. This paper examines the economic incentives and welfare implications to the integration of port activities with inland transport services under inter-ports competition. Although ports find it advantageous to engage in such integration process it may be detrimental to welfare, since shippers’ aggregate surplus decreases – noting that farther away users benefit at the expense of those closer to the ports. Several scenarios not le…
Production of Antibacterial Compounds from Actinomycetes
2016
Actinomycetes are soil-dwelling Gram-positive bacteria, industrially relevant as producers of a wide range of bioactive secondary metabolites, including many antibiotics of clinical and commercial importance.The understanding of actinomycete biology has been based on extensive studies on the model organism Streptomyces coelicolor over many years and on the availability of its complete genome sequence. This bacterium has an unusual complex developmental cycle that includes programmed cell death phenomena that make this bacterium a multicellular prokaryotic model.Morphological differentiation in S. coelicolor is strictly related to physiological differentiation: indeed the onset of morphologi…
The abrogation of the HOXB7/PBX2 complex induces apoptosis in melanoma through the miR-221&222-c-FOS pathway.
2013
Cutaneous melanoma is the fastest increasing cancer worldwide. Although several molecular abnormalities have been associated with melanoma progression, the underlying mechanisms are still largely unknown and few targeted therapies are under evaluation. Here we show that the HOXB7/PBX2 dimer acts as a positive transcriptional regulator of the oncogenic microRNA-221 and -222. In addition, demonstrating c-FOS as a direct target of miR-221&222, we identify a HOXB7/PBX2→miR-221&222 →c-FOS regulatory link, whereby the abrogation of functional HOXB7/PBX2 dimers leads to reduced miR-221&222 transcription and elevated c-FOS expression with consequent cell death. Taking advantage of the treatment wit…
COX-2-dependent and COX-2-independent mode of action of celecoxib in human liver cancer cells.
2011
Celecoxib (Celebrex((R)), Pfizer) is a selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor with chemopreventive and antitumor effects. However, it is now well known that celecoxib has several COX-2-independent activities. To better understand COX-2-independent molecular mechanisms underlying the antitumor activity of celecoxib, we investigated the expression profile of the celecoxib-treated COX-2-positive (Huh7) and COX-2-negative (HepG2) liver cancer cell lines, using microarray analysis. Celecoxib treatment resulted in significantly altered expression levels of 240 and 403 transcripts in Huh7 and HepG2 cells, respectively. Confirmation of the microarray results was performed for selected genes b…
Chemically modified tetracyclines induce cytotoxic effects against J774 tumour cell line by activating the apoptotic pathway
2003
Here, we have studied the effects of chemically modified tetracyclines (CMTs) on apoptosis both at the level of the cytoplasmic proteolytic caspase cascade, and on Bcl-2 and c-myc mRNA expression in the J774 macrophage cell line. The results indicate that CMTs induce morphological changes consistent with apoptotic events, as clearly demonstrated both by the acridine orange and ethidium bromide staining, and by TUNEL and fragmentation ELISA assays. Furthermore, the analysis of the cell cycle by flow cytometry shows an evident apoptotic sub-G0G1 peak, without important modifications in the cell cycle distribution. CMTs induce programmed cell death (PCD) in a dose-dependent manner and CMT-8 is…
Short-term exposure to cadmium affects the expression of stress response and apoptosis-related genes in immortalized epithelial cells from the human …
2009
Abstract It is known that cadmium (Cd) evokes cell responses that not only involve protective reactions against toxicity but also induces cell death. Increasing interest has been recently focused on the elucidation of the cellular and molecular aspects of Cd-dependent regulation of gene expression in different model systems. Here, we examined the effects of short-term (24 h) exposure of immortalized non-tumoral HB2 cells from human breast epithelium to CdCl2 at 50 μM concentration, corresponding to the IC50 for this time of incubation. The possible occurrence of apoptosis-related events was evaluated via analysis of the physical state of the DNA and of the membrane localization of phosphaty…
Ischemic Preconditioning: Postischemic Structural Changes in the Brain
2008
Ischemic brain damage can be prevented or at least significantly reduced when there is a preceding brief ischemic period that does not exceed the threshold for tissue damage--a phenomenon termed "ischemic preconditioning" (ischemic PC). Experimental PC in rodents is now considered to be a model for transient ischemic attacks in humans, and there is increasing hope for translating the knowledge of underlying mechanisms in the animal models into the clinic to enhance endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms in patients with stroke. However, although PC was originally defined as a subtoxic stimulus without any morphologic damage, there is a growing body of evidence from studies using sensitive te…
Novel ways to sensitise gastrointestinal cancer to apoptosis.
2009
Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are major health problems, being the most common cancers worldwide. Resistance to apoptosis is closely linked to carcinogenesis and enables malignant cells to evade therapy-induced cell death. In the recent past, the increasing understanding of molecular pathways of apoptosis has provided novel targets in cancer therapy. Several drugs, either inhibiting antiapoptotic signalling or actively inducing apoptosis in cancer cells, have already entered clinical trials. Until now, agents targeting apoptosis pathways are primarily being tested alone or in combination with chemotherapy. In the near future, personalized combination therapies will probably be beneficial fo…