Ricerc@Sapienza

Notch signaling is considered a rational target in the therapy of several cancers, particularly those harbouring Notch gain of function mutations, including T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Although currently available Notch-blocking agents are showing anti-tumor activity in preclinical studies, they are not effective in all the patients and often cause severe side-effects, limiting their widespread therapeutic use.

The C, N and O 1s excitation and ionization processes of 5X-uracil (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) were investigated using near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and X-ray photoemission (XPS) spectroscopies. This study aims at the fine assessment of the effects of the functionalization of uracil molecules by halogen atoms having different electronegativity and bound to the same molecular site. Two DFT-based approaches, which rely on different paradigms, have been used to simulate the experimental spectra and to assign the corresponding features.

Maurizio Botta was born in Manziana, near Rome (Italy), on May 1950. He built his background in chemistry at Sapienza University of Rome, and then, he received his Ph.D. in 1979 at the University of Brunswick (Canada) working at the total synthesis of complex natural products under the supervision of Prof. Karel Wiesner. From 1980 to 1987, he was a Researcher at the Sapienza University of Roma, and thanks to a NATO grant, he spent one year in 1985–1986 working as a postdoctoral associate in the group of Prof.

Introduction: Hedgehog (Hh) signaling plays a pivotal role in tissue development and stemness, and its deregulation is found in many different tumors. Several efforts have been devoted to discovery of Hh inhibitors, including three drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), targeting the upstream receptor smoothened (SMO). However, SMO mutations or SMO-independent Hh pathway activation raise the need for novel Hh inhibitors. Areas covered: This review describes Hh inhibitors with anticancer potential patented in the period 2015–present.