Search results for " Transgenic"
showing 10 items of 522 documents
Living Forms (of Art). Edoardo Kac's Transgenic Art between Ethics and Aesthetics
2013
Nel corso del Novecento si è assistito ad un intenso sviluppo della fisica e della biologia, grazie all’ausilio di nuovi strumenti tecnologici che hanno ampliato l’orizzonte della ricerca. Le sperimentazioni su organismi geneticamente modificati (come la famosa clonazione della pecora Dolly) hanno spesso generato scalpore, turbando le coscienze. Tali interventi sono tollerati in quei settori come la medicina in cui possono portare benefici all’esistenza dell’uomo, mentre suscitano inquietudine e perplessità in campo artistico dove l’intervento sulle forme viventi, non trovando giustificazione sul principio di utilità, sembra sfociare nel futile edonismo. Tenendo presente il dibattito avviat…
Creatività e arte transgenica
2012
Il brasiliano Edoardo Kac è stato tra i primi artisti biotecnologici ad applicare l’ingegneria genetica all’arte, dando avvio a quella che egli stesso nel 1998 ha definito Transgenic Art. Le sue creazioni di animali fluorescenti hanno turbato le coscienze e sono state spesso superficialmente reputate un’esibizione di mera spettacolarità al fine di emulare, non più solo a livello metaforico, il potere creativo di Dio. In realtà gli organismi fluorescenti che hanno conferito a Kac popolarità mediatica non s’iscrivono nella categoria della creatività volta a conferire nuovo prestigio all’artista-dio, secondo l’analogia imperante nel Rinascimento e nel Romanticismo, bensì in quell’estetica del …
Effects of the silencing of sorbitol dehydrogenase on sugar partitioning in vegetative sinks in apple
2011
Transgenic overexpression of corticotropin releasing hormone provides partial protection against neurodegeneration in an in vivo model of acute excit…
2008
Abstract Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) is the central modulator of the mammalian hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. In addition, CRH affects other processes in the brain including learning, memory, and synaptic plasticity. Moreover, CRH has been shown to play a role in nerve cell survival under apoptotic conditions and to serve as an endogenous neuroprotectant in vitro . Employing mice overexpressing murine CRH in the CNS, we observed a differential response of CRH-overexpressing mice (CRH-COE hom -Nes) to acute excitotoxic stress induced by kainate compared with controls (CRH-COE con -Nes). Interestingly, CRH-overexpression reduced the duration of epileptic seizures and pre…
Suppression and Replacement Gene Therapy for Autosomal Dominant Disease in a Murine Model of Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa
2011
For dominantly inherited disorders development of gene therapies, targeting the primary genetic lesion has been impeded by mutational heterogeneity. An example is rhodopsin-linked autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa with over 150 mutations in the rhodopsin gene. Validation of a mutation-independent suppression and replacement gene therapy for this disorder has been undertaken. The therapy provides a means of correcting the genetic defect in a mutation-independent manner thereby circumventing the mutational diversity. Separate adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors were used to deliver an RNA interference (RNAi)-based rhodopsin suppressor and a codon-modified rhodopsin replacement gene res…
Interleukin 10 restores lipopolysaccharide-induced alterations in synaptic plasticity probed by repetitive magnetic stimulation
2020
Systemic inflammation is associated with alterations in complex brain functions such as learning and memory. However, diagnostic approaches to functionally assess and quantify inflammation-associated alterations in synaptic plasticity are not well-established. In previous work, we demonstrated that bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced systemic inflammation alters the ability of hippocampal neurons to express synaptic plasticity, i.e., the long-term potentiation (LTP) of excitatory neurotransmission. Here, we tested whether synaptic plasticity induced by repetitive magnetic stimulation (rMS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used in clinical practice, is affected by LPS-induc…
Low cholesterol stimulates the nonamyloidogenic pathway by its effect on the α-secretase ADAM 10
2001
Biochemical, epidemiological, and genetic findings demonstrate a link between cholesterol levels, processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), and Alzheimer's disease. In the present report, we identify the α-secretase ADAM 10 ( a d isintegrin a nd m etalloprotease) as a major target of the cholesterol effects on APP metabolism. Treatment of various peripheral and neural cell lines with either the cholesterol-extracting agent methyl-β-cyclodextrin or the hydroxymethyl glutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin resulted in a drastic increase of secreted α-secretase cleaved soluble APP. This strong stimulatory effect was in the range obtained with phorbol esters and was further increa…
Evaluation of a novel monoclonal antibody against tumor-associated MUC1 for diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer
2019
There is still a great unmet medical need concerning diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer which could be addressed by utilizing specific molecular targets. Tumor-associated MUC1 is expressed on over 90 % of all breast cancer entities and differs strongly from its physiological form on epithelial cells, therefore presenting a unique target for breast cancer diagnosis and antibody-mediated immune therapy. Utilizing an anti-tumor vaccine based on a synthetically prepared glycopeptide, we generated a monoclonal antibody (mAb) GGSK-1/30, selectively recognizing human tumor-associated MUC1. This antibody targets exclusively tumor-associated MUC1 in the absence of any binding to MUC1 on health…
Physical exercise neuroprotects ovariectomized 3xTg-AD mice through BDNF mechanisms.
2014
Postmenopausal women may be more vulnerable to cognitive loss and Alzheimer's disease (AD) than premenopausal women because of their deficiency in estrogens, in addition to their usually older age. Aerobic physical exercise has been proposed as a therapeutic approach for maintaining health and well-being in postmenopausal women, and for improving brain health and plasticity in populations at high risk for AD. To study the neuroprotective mechanisms of physical exercise in a postmenopausal animal model, we submitted previously ovariectomized, six-month old non-transgenic and 3xTg-AD mice to three months of voluntary exercise in a running wheel. At nine months of age, we observed lower grip s…
Progressive Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Contributes to Hepatocarcinogenesis in Fatty Acyl-CoA Oxidase 1–Deficient Mice
2011
Fatty acyl-coenzyme A oxidase 1 (ACOX1) knockout (ACOX1(-/-)) mice manifest hepatic metabolic derangements that lead to the development of steatohepatitis, hepatocellular regeneration, spontaneous peroxisome proliferation, and hepatocellular carcinomas. Deficiency of ACOX1 results in unmetabolized substrates of this enzyme that function as biological ligands for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) in liver. Here we demonstrate that sustained activation of PPARα in ACOX1(-/-) mouse liver by these ACOX1 substrates results in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Overexpression of transcriptional regulator p8 and its ER stress-related effectors such as the pseudokinase tribbles h…