Search results for "Original article"
showing 10 items of 1187 documents
Theabrownin triggersDNAdamage to suppress human osteosarcoma U2OScells by activating p53 signalling pathway
2018
Abstract Osteosarcoma becomes the second leading cause of cancer death in the younger population. Current outcomes of chemotherapy on osteosarcoma were unsatisfactory to date, demanding development of effective therapies. Tea is a commonly used beverage beneficial to human health. As a major component of tea, theabrownin has been reported to possess anti‐cancer activity. To evaluate its anti‐osteosarcoma effect, we established a xenograft model of zebrafish and employed U2OS cells for in vivo and in vitro assays. The animal data showed that TB significantly inhibited the tumour growth with stronger effect than that of chemotherapy. The cellular data confirmed that TB‐triggered DNA damage an…
Ticket to Ride: Targeting Proteins to Exosomes for Brain Delivery.
2017
Exosomes represent an attractive vehicle for the delivery of biomolecules. However, mechanisms for loading functional molecules into exosomes are relatively unexplored. Here we report the use of the evolutionarily conserved late-domain (L-domain) pathway as a mechanism for loading exogenous proteins into exosomes. We demonstrate that labeling of a target protein, Cre recombinase, with a WW tag leads to recognition by the L-domain-containing protein Ndfip1, resulting in ubiquitination and loading into exosomes. Our results show that Ndfip1 expression acts as a molecular switch for exosomal packaging of WW-Cre that can be suppressed using the exosome inhibitor GW4869. When taken up by floxed …
Insect pathogenicity in plant-beneficial pseudomonads: phylogenetic distribution and comparative genomics
2016
Bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas occupy diverse environments. The Pseudomonas fluorescens group is particularly well-known for its plant-beneficial properties including pathogen suppression. Recent observations that some strains of this group also cause lethal infections in insect larvae, however, point to a more versatile ecology of these bacteria. We show that 26 P. fluorescens group strains, isolated from three continents and covering three phylogenetically distinct sub-clades, exhibited different activities toward lepidopteran larvae, ranging from lethal to avirulent. All strains of sub-clade 1, which includes Pseudomonas chlororaphis and Pseudomonas protegens, were highly insecticidal…
H-ferritin and proinflammatory cytokines are increased in the bone marrow of patients affected by macrophage activation syndrome
2017
Summary Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is hyperinflammatory life-threatening syndrome, associated typically with high levels of serum ferritin. This is an iron storage protein including heavy (H) and light (L) subunits, categorized on their molecular weight. The H-/L subunits ratio may be different in tissues, depending on the specific tissue and pathophysiological status. In this study, we analysed the bone marrow (BM) biopsies of adult MAS patients to assess the presence of: (i) H-ferritin and L-ferritin; (ii) CD68+/H-ferritin+ and CD68+/L-ferritin+; and (iii) interleukin (IL)-1β, tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and interferon (IFN)-γ. We also explored possible correlations of these re…
Five-year follow-up results of aerobic and impact training on bone mineral density in early breast cancer patients
2021
Summary A 12-month exercise program reversibly prevented hip bone loss in premenopausal women with early breast cancer. The bone-protective effect was maintained for 2 years after the end of the program but was lost thereafter. Purpose Breast cancer survivors are at an increased risk for osteoporosis and fracture. This 5-year follow-up of a randomized impact exercise intervention trial evaluated the maintenance of training effects on bone among breast cancer patients. Methods Five hundred seventy-three early breast cancer patients aged 35–68 years and treated with adjuvant therapy were allocated into a 12-month exercise program or a control group. Four hundred forty-four patients (77%) were…
Analysis of T and NK cell subsets in Sicilian population from young to supercentenarian: the role of age and gender
2021
Summary Ageing dramatically affects number and function of both innate and adaptive arms of immune system, particularly T cell subsets, contributing to reduced vaccination efficacy, decreased resistance to infections and increased prevalence of cancer in older people. In the present paper, we analysed the age‐related changes in the absolute number of lymphocytes in 214 Sicilian subjects, and in the percentages of T and natural killer (NK) cells in a subcohort of donors. We compared these results with the immunophenotype of the oldest living Italian supercentenarian (aged 111 years). The results were also sorted by gender. The correlation between number/percentage of cells and age in all ind…
Corrigendum: Intraventricular injections of mesenchymal stem cells activate endogenous functional remyelination in a chronic demyelinating murine mod…
2017
Current treatments for demyelinating diseases are generally only capable of ameliorating the symptoms, with little to no effect in decreasing myelin loss nor promoting functional recovery. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown by many researchers to be a potential therapeutic tool in treating various neurodegenerative diseases, including demyelinating disorders. However, in the majority of the cases, the effect was only observed locally, in the area surrounding the graft. Thus, in order to achieve general remyelination in various brain structures simultaneously, bone marrow-derived MSCs were transplanted into the lateral ventricles (LVs) of the cuprizone murine model. In this manner…
AP2α controls the dynamic balance between miR-126&126* and miR-221&222 during melanoma progression
2016
Accumulating evidences have shown the association between aberrantly expressed microRNAs (miRs) and cancer, where these small regulatory RNAs appear to dictate the cell fate by regulating all the main biological processes. We demonstrated the responsibility of the circuitry connecting the oncomiR-221&222 with the tumor suppressors miR-126&126∗ in melanoma development and progression. According to the inverse correlation between endogenous miR-221&222 and miR-126&126∗, respectively increasing or decreasing with malignancy, their enforced expression or silencing was sufficient for a reciprocal regulation. In line with the opposite roles of these miRs, protein analyses confirmed the reverse ex…
HMG-CoA reductase promotes protein prenylation and therefore is indispensible for T-cell survival.
2017
AbstractStatins are a well-established family of drugs that lower cholesterol levels via the competitive inhibition of the enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR). In addition, the pleiotropic anti-inflammatory effects of statins on T cells make them attractive as therapeutic drugs in T-cell-driven autoimmune disorders. Since statins do not exclusively target HMGCR and thus might have varying effects on different cell types, we generated a new mouse strain allowing for the tissue-specific deletion of HMGCR. Deletion of HMGCR expression in T cells led to a severe decrease in their numbers with the remaining cells displaying an activated phenotype, with an increased pro…
Parthenolide and DMAPT exert cytotoxic effects on breast cancer stem-like cells by inducing oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and necrosis
2016
Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are aggressive forms of breast carcinoma associated with a high rate of recidivism. In this paper, we report the production of mammospheres from three lines of TNBC cells and demonstrate that both parthenolide (PN) and its soluble analog dimethylaminoparthenolide (DMAPT) suppressed this production and induced cytotoxic effects in breast cancer stem-like cells, derived from dissociation of mammospheres. In particular, the drugs exerted a remarkable inhibitory effect on viability of stem-like cells. Such an effect was suppressed by N-acetylcysteine, suggesting a role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in the cytotoxic effect. Instead z-VAD, a ge…