Search results for "Review"
showing 10 items of 4492 documents
KRAS mutations testing in non-small cell lung cancer: the role of Liquid biopsy in the basal setting
2020
In advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Viral Oncogene Homolog (KRAS) testing may soon acquire a predictive significance to select patients for AMG510 treatment. Since tissue samples are not always available, liquid biopsy may represent a viable option for KRAS testing. Here, we review the last three years clinical practice performed on 194 plasma based liquid biopsies by next generation sequencing (NGS) SiRe(®) panel. In particular, 36 (18.6%) KRAS mutated cases were identified, with an overall median allelic frequency of 5.0% (ranging between 0.2% and 46.8%). No concomitant mutations were observed in the other NSCLC clinical relevant genes includ…
Exosomes as diagnostic and predictive biomarkers in lung cancer
2017
The concept of exosomes has evolved from be considered garbage bags to the demonstration that exosomes could play very interesting roles and functions, from biomarkers detection to the potential of work as drug delivery systems. It has been widely proved that exosomes can contain key molecules important for the tumour development. The current review summarizes the latest investigations developed in the field of predictive exosomal biomarkers. The microRNAs (miRNAs) are the more known molecules due to their amount inside the exosomes and the sensitivity of the techniques available for their study. However, exosomal proteins, RNA and DNA are becoming an interesting and more feasible field of …
New insights in non-small-cell lung cancer: circulating tumor cells and cell-free DNA
2017
Lung cancer is the second most frequent tumor and the leading cause of death by cancer in both men and women. Increasing knowledge about the cancer genome and tumor environment has led to a new setting in which morphological and molecular characterization is needed to treat patients in the most personalized way in order to achieve better outcomes. Since tumor products can be detected in body fluids, the liquid biopsy, particularly, peripheral blood, has emerged as a new source for lung cancer biomarker's analysis. A variety of tumor components can be used for this purpose. Among them, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) should be especially considered. Different…
Vaccine and immune cell therapy in non-small cell lung cancer
2018
Abstract: Despite new advances in therapeutics, lung cancer remains the first cause of mortality among different types of malignancies. To improve survival, different strategies have been developed such as chemotherapy combinations, targeted therapies and more recently immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is based on the capability of the immune system to differentiate cancer cells from normal cells to fight against the tumor. The two main checkpoint inhibitors that have been widely studied in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4. However, interactions between tumor and immune system are much more complex with several different elements that take part and probably many new i…
Bacterial-viral load and the immune response in stable and exacerbated COPD: significance and therapeutic prospects.
2016
Silvestro Ennio D’Anna,1 Bruno Balbi,2 Francesco Cappello,3,4 Mauro Carone,2 Antonino Di Stefano21Department of Rehabilitation, Cardiorespiratory Unit, Fondazione Istituto G. Giglio di Cefalù, 2Pneumology Unit and Laboratory of Cytoimmunopathology of Heart and Lung, Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, IRCCS, Veruno (NO) and Cassano delle Murge (BA), 3Human Anatomy Section, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; 4Euro-Mediterranean Institute of Science and Technology, Palermo, ItalyAbstract: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by persistent airflow limitation and an abnormal inflammatory respon…
Small Rab GTPases in Intracellular Vesicle Trafficking: The Case of Rab3A/Raphillin-3A Complex in the Kidney
2021
Small Rab GTPases, the largest group of small monomeric GTPases, regulate vesicle trafficking in cells, which are integral to many cellular processes. Their role in neurological diseases, such as cancer and inflammation have been extensively studied, but their implication in kidney disease has not been researched in depth. Rab3a and its effector Rabphillin-3A (Rph3A) expression have been demonstrated to be present in the podocytes of normal kidneys of mice rats and humans, around vesicles contained in the foot processes, and they are overexpressed in diseases with proteinuria. In addition, the Rab3A knockout mice model induced profound cytoskeletal changes in podocytes of high glucose fed a…
Eukaryotic RNA Polymerases: The Many Ways to Transcribe a Gene
2021
In eukaryotic cells, three nuclear RNA polymerases (RNA pols) carry out the transcription from DNA to RNA, and they all seem to have evolved from a single enzyme present in the common ancestor with archaea. The multiplicity of eukaryotic RNA pols allows each one to remain specialized in the synthesis of a subset of transcripts, which are different in the function, length, cell abundance, diversity, and promoter organization of the corresponding genes. We hypothesize that this specialization of RNA pols has conditioned the evolution of the regulatory mechanisms used to transcribe each gene subset to cope with environmental changes. We herein present the example of the homeostatic regulation …
Neuroprotective effects of physical activity via the adaptation of astrocytes
2021
The multifold benefits of regular physical exercise have been largely demonstrated in human and animal models. Several studies have reported the beneficial effects of physical activity, both in peripheral tissues and in the central nervous system (CNS). Regular exercise improves cognition, brain plasticity, neurogenesis and reduces the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, making timeless the principle of “mens sana in corpore sano” (i.e., a healthy mind in a healthy body). Physical exercise promotes morphological and functional changes in the brain, acting not only in neurons but also in astrocytes, which represent the most numerous glial cells in the brain. The multiple effects of exerc…
Physical fitness assessment in Goalball: A scoping review of the literature
2020
Background Goalball is a Paralympic sport for visually impaired athletes. Although it is widely practiced, a great variety of tests are adopted to evaluate athletes' physical fitness. Therefore, the objective was to identify the physical fitness tests adopted in this sport to find the common aspects between them and, eventually, to propose a standard operating procedure. Methods The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines were adopted. The studies were extracted from PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. A selection process by title, abstract, and full-text, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, was …
Hypoxia‐induced non‐coding rnas controlling cell viability in cancer
2021
Hypoxia, a characteristic of the tumour microenvironment, plays a crucial role in cancer progression and therapeutic response. The hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF-1α, HIF-2α, and HIF-3α), are the master regulators in response to low oxygen partial pressure, modulating hypoxic gene expression and signalling transduction pathways. HIFs’ activation is sufficient to change the cell phenotype at multiple levels, by modulating several biological activities from metabolism to the cell cycle and providing the cell with new characteristics that make it more aggressive. In the past few decades, growing numbers of studies have revealed the importance of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) as molecular mediators i…