Search results for "Bioinformatic"

Derivation of clinical-grade human embryonic stem cells.

2006

Embryonic stem cells proliferate in vitro while maintaining an undifferentiated state, and are capable of differentiating into most cell types under appropriate conditions. These properties imply great potential in the treatment of various diseases and disabilities. In fact, the first clinical trials with hESC for treating spinal cord injuries will begin next year. However, therapeutic application of human embryonic stem cell derivatives is compromised by the exposure of existing lines to animal and human components, with the subsequent risk of contamination with retroviruses and other pathogens, which can be transmitted to patients. The scientific community is striving to avoid the use of …

MicroRNAs: Promising New Antiangiogenic Targets in Cancer

2014

[EN] MicroRNAs are one class of small, endogenous, non-coding RNAs that are approximately 22 nucleotides in length; they are very numerous, have been phylogenetically conserved, and involved in biological processes such as development, differentiation, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. MicroRNAs contribute to modulating the expression levels of specific proteins based on sequence complementarity with their target mRNA molecules and so they play a key role in both health and disease. Angiogenesis is the process of new blood vessel formation from preexisting ones, which is particularly relevant to cancer and its progression. Over the last few years, microRNAs have emerged as critical regulat…

HSP60 expression during carcinogenesis: a molecular “Proteus” of carcinogenesis?

2005

Sir, I read with much interest the comprehensive review by Ciocca and Calderwood (2005) in which they analyze the diagnostic, prognostic, predictive, and treatment values of a number of Hsps in oncology. Concerning the implications of Hsps in cancer diagnosis in particular, they report that since “Hsps are overexpressed in a wide range of malignant cells and tissues … Hsp detection is not useful in diagnostic immunopathology.” Nevertheless, “Hsp expression levels can help indicate the presence of abnormal changes during the process of carcinogenesis.” The authors support this remark by reference to several papers by our group (Cappello et al 2002–2003, 2003a, 2003b, 2003c) in which we demon…

Can Alzheimer disease be a form of type 3 diabetes?

2012

Alzheimer disease (AD) and metabolic syndrome are two highly prevalent pathological conditions of Western society due to incorrect diet, lifestyle, and vascular risk factors. Recent data have suggested metabolic syndrome as an independent risk factor for AD and pre-AD syndrome. Furthermore, biological plausibility for this relationship has been framed within the “metabolic cognitive syndrome” concept. Due to the increasing aging of populations, prevalence of AD in Western industrialized countries will rise in the near future. Thus, new knowledge in the area of molecular biology and epigenetics will probably help to make an early molecular diagnosis of dementia. An association between metabo…

Molecular evidence for the inverse comorbidity between central nervous system disorders and cancers detected by transcriptomic meta-analyses.

2014

There is epidemiological evidence that patients with certain Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders have a lower than expected probability of developing some types of Cancer. We tested here the hypothesis that this inverse comorbidity is driven by molecular processes common to CNS disorders and Cancers, and that are deregulated in opposite directions. We conducted transcriptomic meta-analyses of three CNS disorders (Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Schizophrenia) and three Cancer types (Lung, Prostate, Colorectal) previously described with inverse comorbidities. A significant overlap was observed between the genes upregulated in CNS disorders and downregulated in Cancers, as wel…

Therapeutic Modulation of Urinary Bladder Function: Multiple Targets at Multiple Levels

2015

Storage dysfunction of the urinary bladder, specifically overactive bladder syndrome, is a condition that occurs frequently in the general population. Historically, pathophysiological and treatment concepts related to overactive bladder have focused on smooth muscle cells. Although these are the central effector, numerous anatomic structures are involved in their regulation, including the urothelium, afferent and efferent nerves, and the central nervous system. Each of these structures involves receptors for—and the urothelium itself also releases—many mediators. Moreover, hypoperfusion, hypertrophy, and fibrosis can affect bladder function. Established treatments such as muscarinic antago…

Chances in the Brain Cells, From Epigenetic To the Future

2014

Copyright: © 2014 Valles SL. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Both oxidative damage and inflammation are elevated in brain from neurodegenerative patients [1], but their pathogenic significance remains unclear. Central nervous system has its own resident immune system, in which glial cells not only serve such as supportive and nutritive roles for neuron cells, also engage in several inflammatory processes that defend the central nervous system from pathogens and help it to recover from stres…

CNS involvement in OFD1 syndrome: a clinical, molecular, and neuroimaging study

2014

Background Oral-facial-digital type 1 syndrome (OFD1; OMIM 311200) belongs to the expanding group of disorders ascribed to ciliary dysfunction. With the aim of contributing to the understanding of the role of primary cilia in the central nervous system (CNS), we performed a thorough characterization of CNS involvement observed in this disorder. Methods A cohort of 117 molecularly diagnosed OFD type I patients was screened for the presence of neurological symptoms and/or cognitive/behavioral abnormalities on the basis of the available information supplied by the collaborating clinicians. Seventy-one cases showing CNS involvement were further investigated through neuroimaging studies and neur…

Evidence of a chromosomal polymorphism unique to Cercopithecini. A key factor in the Tribe definition ?

2015

Liquid Biopsy in Cancer Patients: The Hand Lens to Investigate Tumor Evolution

2017

In recent years the treatment of cancer patients has profoundly changed due to a better comprehension of the biological processes underlying tumor development and progression. Several tumors are defined as “oncogene addicted” and this discovery has led the way to the development of target therapies that are able to specifically kill cancer cells sparing normal cells from toxicity. Nowadays treatment decision is strictly dependent on the molecular characterization of the tumor; thus the path of cancer patients’ survival is tissue dependent but this may have several limitations. Indeed a single tissue biopsy represents only a snapshot limited in time and space but we are learning that tumor e…