Ricerc@Sapienza

Brain tumors come in many types and differ greatly in outcome. They are classified by the cell of origin (astrocytoma, ependymoma, meningioma, medulloblastoma, glioma), although more recently molecular markers are used in addition to histology. Brain tumors are graded (from I to IV) to measure their malignancy. Glioblastoma, one of the most common adult primary brain tumors, displays the highest malignancy (grade IV), and median survival of about 15 months.

Accumulation of oxidative insults on molecular and supramolecular levels could compromise renewal potency and architecture in the aging skin.

Because histamine is a modulator of cancer cell proliferation and invasiveness, this study aimed at investigating the effect of Lathyrus sativus–derived diamine oxidase (LSAO) and its mechanism of action on Caco‐2 cell line, considering that LSAO catalizes the oxidative deamination of histamine to the corresponding aldehyde, NH3 and H2O2. Histamine (0.01–1 μM) caused a proliferative effect on Caco‐2 cells promoting cell migration, invasion and nitric oxide and vascular endothelial growth factor release.

Background. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. The treatment choice for advanced stage of lung cancer may depend on histotype, performance status (PS), age, and comorbidities. In the present study, we focused on the effect of metronomic vinorelbine treatment in elderly patients with advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods. From January 2016 to December 2016, 44 patients affected by non- small cell lung cancer referred to our oncology day hospital were progressively analyzed.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) represent a class of covalently closed RNAs, derived from non-canonical splicing events, which are expressed in all eukaryotes and often conserved among different species. We previously showed that the circRNA originating from the ZNF609 locus (circ-ZNF609) acts as a crucial regulator of human primary myoblast growth: indeed, the downregulation of the circRNA, and not of its linear counterpart, strongly reduced the proliferation rate of in vitro cultured myoblasts.

The role of muscarinic receptors has been largely documented over the past few decades. Recently we demonstrated that the activation of M2 muscarinic receptors arrested cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in glioblastoma and in other tumour types. This paper aims to evaluate the expression of the M2 muscarinic receptor subtypes in different neuroblastoma cell lines and its role in the control of cell proliferation and survival. Neuroblastoma is the most common solid extracranial tumour, appearing during childhood and displaying a differentiated clinical behaviour.

In adult mammals, neural stem cells (NSCs) reside in specialized niches at the level of selected CNS regions, such as the subventricular zone (SVZ). The signalling pathways that regulate NSCs proliferation and differentiation remain poorly understood. The early growth response gene 1 (Egr-1) is an important transcription factor, widely studied in the adult mammalian brain, mediating the activation of target genes by a variety of extracellular stimuli.

Among the literature reports on the possible effects of the seasonal cycle, made of temperature and photoperiod variations, on spontaneous proliferation in the brain of adult fresh water, earth-dwelling Anamnia and heterothermic Amniota, one autoradiographic study was conducted on experimentally brain injured and normal Rana esculenta, collected in the wild in spring and in autumn, and another immunohistochemical study was conducted on brain injured Podarcis hispanica caught in nature in summer.

The mechanisms by which microRNAs control pediatric high-grade gliomas (pHGGs) have
yet to be fully elucidated. Our studies of patient-derived pHGG tissues and of the pHGG cell line
KNS42 revealed down-regulation in these tumors of three microRNAs, specifically miR-107, miR-181c,
and miR-29a-3p. This down-regulation increases the proliferation of KNS42 cells by de-repressing
expression of the Notch2 receptor (Notch2), a validated target of miR-107 and miR-181c and a