Ricerc@Sapienza

The majority of cancers are associated to cachexia, a severe form of weight loss mostly accounted for by skeletal muscle wasting. Cancer patients are often treated with chemotherapy, whose side effects are at times neglected or underestimated. Paradoxically, chemotherapy itself can induce muscle wasting with severe, cancer-independent effects on muscle homeostasis.

One of the major limits of chemotherapy is depending on the ability of the cancer cells
to elude and adapt to dierent drugs. Recently, we demonstrated how the activation of the M2
muscarinic receptor could impair neuroblastoma cell proliferation. In the present paper, we investigate
the possible eects mediated by the preferential M2 receptor agonist arecaidine propargyl ester (APE)
on drug resistance in two neuroblastoma cell lines, SK-N-BE and SK-N-BE(2C), a sub-clone presenting

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.

The complex obtained by the reaction of cisplatin and 2?-deoxyadenosine-5?-monophosphate (5?-dAMP) in water has been isolated and detected by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The so-formed cis-[PtCl(NH3)2(5?-dAMP)]+ complex has been studied in detail by infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) spectroscopy in two spectral ranges, namely, 700–1900 and 2800–3800 cm–1, backed by quantum-chemical calculations at the B3LYP/LACV3P/6-311G** level of theory.

The primary complex obtained from cisplatin and l-histidine in water has been detected and isolated by electrospray ionization. The so-obtained cis-[PtCl(NH3)2(histidine)]+ complex has been characterized in detail by high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS), tandem MS, IR multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) spectroscopy, and by quantum chemical calculations. The structural features revealed by IRMPD spectroscopy indicate

Kinetically inert platinum(IV) complexes are receiving growing attention as promising candidates in the effort to develop safe and valid alternatives to classical square-planar Pt(II) complexes currently used in antineoplastic therapy. Their antiproliferative activity requires intracellular Pt(IV)–Pt(II) reduction (activation by reduction).

The monofunctional primary complexes cis-[PtCl(NH3)2(L)]+, formed by the reaction of cisplatin, a major chemotherapeutic agent, with four nucleobases L, i.e., uracil (U), 2-thiouracil (2SU), 4-thiouracil (4SU), and 2,4-dithiouracil (24dSU), have been studied by a combination of infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) action spectroscopy in both the fingerprint (900-1900 cm-1) and the N-H/O-H stretching (3000-3800 cm-1) ranges, energy-resolved collision-induced dissociation (CID) mass spectrometry, and density functional calculations at the B3LYP/LACVP/6-311G** level.

The primary intermediates resulting from the interaction of cisplatin, cis-(PtCl2(NH3)2], most widespread antitumor drug, with biomolecular targets are characterized. Electrospray ionization is used to deliver ions formed in solution into the gas phase where they are structurally interrogated by vibrational "action" spectroscopy in conjunction with quantum chemical calculations. The aquation products, cis-[PtX(NH3)2(H2O)]+ (X = Cl, OH), lying along the path responsible for biological activity, are shown to display distinctive features responding to ligation pattern and optimized geometry.