Search results for "Licata"

Molecular and biometric data on Carabus (Macrothorax) morbillosus Fabricius, 1792 (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from Mid Mediterranean areas

2022

The present study was carried out using molecular and biometric data of Carabus (Macrothorax) morbillosus from mid-Mediterranean areas to determine additional information on basal relationships among its representative subspecies. To this aim, two different kinds of approach were employed, including a morphometric analysis of four morphological parameters (i.e., elytra length, elytra width, pronotum length, pronotum width) of 128 specimens, and a Bayesian genetic analysis of 44 cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) partial sequences (i.e., 38 examined for the first time and six retrieved from GenBank database). Representative populations of C. (M.) morbillosus were sampled in four countries, n…

Hydration dependence of mean square displacements, relaxation times and calorimetric glass transition in myoglobin hydrated powders

2012

A calorimetric study of ternary protein-trehalose-water systems: matrix glass transition and protein thermal denaturation

2010

Anharmonic onsets in polypeptides revealed by neutron scattering: experimental ecidences and quantitative description of energy resolution dependence

2012

Immobilization of proteins in silica gel: Biochemical and biophysical properties

2015

The development of silica-based sol-gel techniques compatible with the retention of protein structure and function started more than 20 years ago, mainly for the design of biotechnological devices or biomedical applications. Silica gels are optically transparent, exhibit good mechanical stability, are manufactured with different geometries, and are easily separated from the reaction media. Biomolecules encapsulated in silica gel normally retain their structural and functional properties, are stabilized with respect to chemical and physical insults, and can sometimes exhibit enhanced activity in comparison to the soluble form. This review briefly describes the chemistry of protein encapsulat…

Investigating protein structure and dynamics through wide-angle X-ray solution scattering

2016

Wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) is a powerful tool that can be used to gain information on the structure and dynamics of proteins and other biomolecules in solution. Improved methods for the calculation of WAXS patterns from available or putative protein models allow to better exploit the structural information contained in the experimental data. These methods, together with recent applications of static and time-resolved WAXS, are briefly reviewed.

Phasor-FLIM for a direct investigation of Transportan 10 interactions with model membranes

2023

Transportan 10 (TP10), a short and positive charged peptide, belonging to the family of the cell penetrating peptides has gained increasing attention for its antimicrobial and anticancer activity but also for its applications in drug delivery as it is able to translocate therapeutic molecules in cellular environment. Due to the complexity of the phenomena involved in cellular uptake and following processes, which strongly depend on the membrane lipid composition, structural details of the peptide (e.g., charge, hydrophobicity, steric hindrance) and environmental conditions, it is not easy to understand the general rules governing them. Here, we combine spectroscopic techniques and fluoresce…

Molecular mechanisms underlying proteins-membrane interaction

Proteomic analysis of extracellular vesicles shed in vitro by MDA MB 231 breast carcinoma cells

2010

Cross talk between tumor cells and connective tissue plays a key role in tumor progression. The communication is due to the release of signalling molecules from both tumor cells and surrounding stromal cells. Several secreted proteins lack the N-terminal signal peptides and, therefore, they are secreted by alternative unconventional processes such as secretion mechanism mediated by vesicle shedding in the extracellular matrix. Actually, a certain number of proteins, playing roles in some aspects of tumor progression, have been found in shed vesicles. For example, EMMPRIN, carried out in vesicles shed by tumor cells, stimulates matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) production in stromal fibroblasts…

Cancer invasion ad metastasis: discovering new targets for diagnosis and therapeutics

2009

Cancer invasion and metastases are the hallmarks of malignant tumors and the cause of most cancer deaths. Molecular alterations that arise during cancer progression and that generate abnormal gene products, activated signal transduction pathways, and altered cancer cell-host stroma interactions can be considered targets of therapeutic drugs. Some of these drugs have already entered clinical trials, while others have shown promising results. In this review, we examine some of the successive steps of the metastatic process: cancer cell migration and invasion of the tumor microenvironment, angiogenesis and following extravasation focusing on the deranged signalling pathways underlying the mali…