Spontaneous cell death in the semilunar ganglion during fetal and postnatal life in the ox, sheep, goat and guinea pig.

A massive cell loss occurs in the semilunar ganglion. It is the result of either a casting-off of the semilunar ganglion cells into the cavernous sinus or a transformation of several cells into polyhedral cells with an epithelial-like organization, a process which immediately precedes their further degeneration.     

Assessment of cetacean–fishery interactions in the marine food web of the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea,Central Mediterranean Sea)

Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries - The exploitation of fishery resources acts as a driving force on cetaceans both directly, by determining their fishing mortality or injury as by-catch...     

Effects of some prostaglandins on plasma levels of prolactin in the rat]

In ovariectomized rats treated with estradiol benzoate the ICV introduction of PGE1, 11-deoxy-13,14-didehydro-16S-methyl-PGE2, PGI2 or 6 H-PGI1 produces a marked increase of the plasma prolactin levels. These results suggest that the PGs play a role in the regulation of the prolactin secretion.     

Calmodulin Sensitivity of the Flagellar Membrane Adenylate Cyclase and Signaling of Motile Responses by cAMP in Gametes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Cyclic AMP (cAMP) has been shown to be a primary signal of the agglutination-induced mating events of flagellar tip activation, cell wall loss, and mating structure activation in the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Pasquale and Goodenough, Cell Biol. 105 (1987), 2279–2293). The flagellar membrane adenylate cyclase of Chlamydomonas is here shown to be inhibited in vitro by EGTA, La³⁺, and trifluoperazine, and to be stimulated in the presence of calcium by incubation with exogenous calmodulin. Also, the motility of detergent-extracted models of Chlamydomonas is shown to be enhanced by cAMP. These observations suggest the hypothesis that the twitching motility characteristic of agglutinating Chlamydomonas gametes may be signaled by cAMP produced locally within the flagella by a calmodulin-sensitive adenylate cyclase.     

Drug repositioning strategy for the identification of novel telomere-damaging agents: A role for NAMPT inhibitors

Drug repositioning strategy represents a valid tool to accelerate the pharmacological development through the identification of new applications for already existing compounds. In this view, we aimed at discovering molecules able to trigger telomere-localized DNA damage and tumor cell death. By applying an automated high-content spinning-disk microscopy, we performed a screening aimed at identifying, on a library of 527 drugs, molecules able to negatively affect the expression of TRF2, a key protein in telomere maintenance. FK866, resulting from the screening as the best candidate hit, was then validated at biochemical and molecular levels and the mechanism underlying its activity in telomere deprotection was elucidated both in vitro and in vivo. The results of this study allow us to discover a novel role of FK866 in promoting, through the production of reactive oxygen species, telomere loss and deprotection, two events leading to an accumulation of DNA damage and tumor cell death. The ability of FK866 to induce telomere damage and apoptosis was also demonstrated in advanced preclinical models evidencing the antitumoral activity of FK866 in triple-negative breast cancer—a particularly aggressive breast cancer subtype still orphan of targeted therapies and characterized by high expression levels of both NAMPT and TRF2. Overall, our findings pave the way to the development of novel anticancer strategies to counteract triple-negative breast cancer, based on the use of telomere deprotecting agents, including NAMPT inhibitors, that would rapidly progress from bench to bedside.     

Cloning and expression of the genes for ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase from Spirulina platensis

The genes for the large and small subunits of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase have been cloned from the filamentous cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis. The two genes, located very closely on a 4.6 kbp DNA fragment, appear to be expressed although to a different extent in minicells of Escherichia coli. The amount of large subunit produced in the bacterial host represents at least 10% of the total protein.     

Synthesis and structure–activity relationships of fibrate-based analogues inside PPARs

In an effort to develop safe and efficacious compounds for the treatment of metabolic disorders, new compounds based on a combination of clofibric acid, the active metabolite of clofibrate, and lipophilic groups derived from natural products chalcone and stilbene were synthesised. Some of them were found to be active at micromolar concentrations only on PPARα or PPARγ, while others were identified as dual agonists PPARα/γ.     

Role of alpha-fetoprotein in selection of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma waiting for liver transplantation: must we reconsider it?

Background: Milan criteria (MC) represent the most commonly adopted criteria for the selection of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) waiting for liver transplantation (LT). However, MC are exclusively based on morphological aspects. The aim of the present study was to evaluate pre-LT-detectable biological parameters, to compare them with morphological ones in terms of tumor recurrence prediction and patient survival. Methods: A cohort of 153 consecutive adult patients who underwent LT for HCC on cirrhosis from January 1999 to March 2009 was retrospectively analyzed. Results: HCC recurrence was observed in 12 patients (7.8%). At multivariate logistic regression analysis, serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was the unique independent negative risk factor for the development of HCC recurrence (odds ratio 2.0, p=0.03). Adopting a cutoff value of 210 ng/mL, patients who presented serum AFP =210 ng/mL showed a 5-year survival rate of 23.3% versus 76.2% observed in patients with pre-LT serum AFP <210 ng/mL (log-rank test: <0.0001). Conclusions: In our experience, AFP was the strongest predictor of HCC recurrence, stronger than tumor morphology. AFP could ameliorate the selection of LT candidates. Further studies to evaluate the combination of morphological and biological criteria are needed.