Latest PUBLICATIONS

  • Clinical Trials With Mesenchymal Stem Cells: An Update.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on Cell transplantation
    by Squillaro T, Peluso G, Galderisi U
    DOI: 10.3727/096368915X689622

    In the last year, the promising features of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), including their regenerative properties and ability to differentiate into diverse cell lineages, have generated great interest among researchers whose work has offered intriguing perspectives on cell-based therapies for various diseases. Currently the most commonly used adult stem cells in regenerative medicine, MSCs, can be isolated from several tissues, exhibit a strong capacity for replication in vitro, and can differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. However, heterogeneous procedures for isolating and cultivating MSCs among laboratories have prompted the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) to issue criteria for identifying unique populations of these cells. Consequently, the isolation of MSCs according to ISCT criteria has produced heterogeneous, nonclonal cultures of stromal cells containing stem cells with different multipotent properties, committed progenitors, and differentiated cells. Though the nature and functions of MSCs remain unclear, nonclonal stromal cultures obtained from bone marrow and other tissues currently serve as sources of putative MSCs for therapeutic purposes, and several findings underscore their effectiveness in treating different diseases. To date, 493 MSC-based clinical trials, either complete or ongoing, appear in the database of the US National Institutes of Health. In the present article, we provide a comprehensive review of MSC-based clinical trials conducted worldwide that scrutinizes biological properties of MSCs, elucidates recent clinical findings and clinical trial phases of investigation, highlights therapeutic effects of MSCs, and identifies principal criticisms of the use of these cells. In particular, we analyze clinical trials using MSCs for representative diseases, including hematological disease, graft-versus-host disease, organ transplantation, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and diseases in the liver, kidney, and lung, as well as cardiovascular, bone and cartilage, neurological, and autoimmune diseases.

  • Pneumococcal serotype distribution in adults with invasive disease and in carrier children in Italy: Should we expect herd protection of adults through infants' vaccination?
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics
    by Azzari C, Cortimiglia M, Nieddu F, Moriondo M, Indolfi G, Mattei R, Zuliani M, Adriani B, Degl'Innocenti R, Consales G, Aquilini D, Bini G, Di Natale ME, Canessa C, Ricci S, de Vitis E, Mangone G, Bechini A, Bonanni P, Pasinato A, Resti M
    DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2015.1102811

    The 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) produced a significant herd protection in unvaccinated adult population mostly because of pneumococcus carriage decrease in vaccinated children. It is not known if the 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine can give similar effect on adults. Aims of the work were to evaluate whether the 6 additional serotypes are present in nasopharynx of children and serotype distribution in invasive pneumococcal infections (IPD) in adults. Realtime-PCR was used to evaluate pneumococcal serotypes in adults with confirmed IPD and in nasopharyngeal swabs (NP) from 629 children not vaccinated or vaccinated with PCV7 and resident in the same geographical areas. Two hundred twenty-one patients (116 males, median 67.9 years) with IPD were studied (pneumonia n = 103, meningitis n = 61 sepsis n = 50, other n = 7). Two hundred twelve were serotyped. The most frequent serotypes were 3, (31/212; 14.6%), 19A, (19/212; 9.0%), 12 (17/212; 8.0%), 7F, (14/212; 6.6%). In NP of children, the frequency of those serotypes causing over 50% of IPD in adults was very low, ranging from 0.48% for serotype 7F to 7.9% for serotype 19A. On the other side serotype 5, very frequent in NP (18.7%) caused <1% IPD. In conclusion serotypes causing IPD in adults are very rarely found in children NP. We suggest that herd protection obtainable with the additional 6 serotypes included in PCV13 may be more limited than that demonstrated with PCV7 in the past. In order to reduce the burden of disease in adults, adults should be offered a specific vaccination program with highly immunogenic PCV.

  • Heidenhain variant in two patients with inherited V210I Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on The International journal of neuroscience
    by Imbriani P, Marfia GA, Marciani MG, Poleggi A, Pocchiari M, Puoti G, Caltagirone C, Pisani A
    DOI: 10.3109/00207454.2015.1047017

    To report two members of the same family carrying the valine to isoleucine point mutation of the prion protein gene (PRNP) and presenting with visual symptoms as initial manifestation as in the "Heidenhain variant" of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

  • Altered natural killer cells subsets distribution in children with hepatitis C following vertical transmission.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics
    by Indolfi G, Mangone G, Moriondo M, Serranti D, Bartolini E, Azzari C, Resti M
    DOI: 10.1111/apt.13430

    Natural killer (NK) cells number, phenotypes and function have been evaluated in many studies in adults with hepatitis C as compared with healthy controls or dynamically during interferon-based and interferon-free treatments. Overall, in adults with chronic infection number of circulating NK cells has been reported to be lower when compared to spontaneous resolvers and healthy subjects. Different studies yielded inconsistent findings due to patient and virus heterogeneity.

  • An Age-Standardized Prevalence Estimate and a Sex and Age Distribution of Myotonic Dystrophy Types 1 and 2 in the Rome Province, Italy.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on Neuroepidemiology
    by Vanacore N, Rastelli E, Antonini G, Bianchi ML, Botta A, Bucci E, Casali C, Costanzi-Porrini S, Giacanelli M, Gibellini M, Modoni A, Novelli G, Pennisi EM, Petrucci A, Piantadosi C, Silvestri G, Terracciano C, Massa R
    DOI: 10.1159/000444018

    Prevalence estimates for the 2 forms of myotonic dystrophy types 1 and 2 (DM1 and DM2) are not exhaustive or non-available. Our aim was to estimate the minimum prevalence of DM1 and DM2 in Italy in the Rome province, applying standards of descriptive epidemiology.

  • Activation of Melanocortin Receptors MC 1 and MC 5 Attenuates Retinal Damage in Experimental Diabetic Retinopathy.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on Mediators of inflammation
    by Rossi S, Maisto R, Gesualdo C, Trotta MC, Ferraraccio F, Kaneva MK, Getting SJ, Surace E, Testa F, Simonelli F, Grieco P, Merlino F, Perretti M, D'Amico M, Di Filippo C
    DOI: 10.1155/2016/7368389

    We hypothesize that melanocortin receptors (MC) could activate tissue protective circuit in a model of streptozotocin- (STZ-) induced diabetic retinopathy (DR) in mice. At 12-16 weeks after diabetes induction, fluorescein angiography (FAG) revealed an approximate incidence of 80% microvascular changes, typical of DR, in the animals, without signs of vascular leakage. Occludin progressively decreased in the retina of mice developing retinopathy. qPCR of murine retina revealed expression of two MC receptors, Mc1r and Mc5r. The intravitreal injection (5 μL) of the selective MC1 small molecule agonist BMS-470539 (33 μmol) and the MC5 peptidomimetic agonist PG-901 (7.32 nM) elicited significant protection with regular course and caliber of retinal vessels, as quantified at weeks 12 and 16 after diabetes induction. Mouse retina homogenate settings indicated an augmented release of IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, MIP-1α, MIP-2α, MIP-3α, and VEGF from diabetic compared to nondiabetic mice. Application of PG20N or AGRP and MC5 and MC1 antagonist, respectively, augmented the release of cytokines, while the agonists BMS-470539 and PG-901 almost restored normal pattern of these mediators back to nondiabetic values. Similar changes were quantified with respect to Ki-67 staining. Finally, application of MC3-MC4 agonist/antagonists resulted to be inactive with respect to all parameters under assessment.

  • ALS5/SPG11/KIAA1840 mutations cause autosomal recessive axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on Brain : a journal of neurology
    by Montecchiani C, Pedace L, Lo Giudice T, Casella A, Mearini M, Gaudiello F, Pedroso JL, Terracciano C, Caltagirone C, Massa R, St George-Hyslop PH, Barsottini OG, Kawarai T, Orlacchio A
    DOI: 10.1093/brain/awv320

    Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a group of hereditary peripheral neuropathies that share clinical characteristics of progressive distal muscle weakness and atrophy, foot deformities, distal sensory loss, as well as diminished tendon reflexes. Hundreds of causative DNA changes have been found, but much of the genetic basis of the disease is still unexplained. Mutations in the ALS5/SPG11/KIAA1840 gene are a frequent cause of autosomal recessive hereditary spastic paraplegia with thin corpus callosum and peripheral axonal neuropathy, and account for ∼ 40% of autosomal recessive juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The overlap of axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease with both diseases, as well as the common autosomal recessive inheritance pattern of thin corpus callosum and axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease in three related patients, prompted us to analyse the ALS5/SPG11/KIAA1840 gene in affected individuals with autosomal recessive axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. We investigated 28 unrelated families with autosomal recessive axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease defined by clinical, electrophysiological, as well as pathological evaluation. Besides, we screened for all the known genes related to axonal autosomal recessive Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT2A2/HMSN2A2/MFN2, CMT2B1/LMNA, CMT2B2/MED25, CMT2B5/NEFL, ARCMT2F/dHMN2B/HSPB1, CMT2K/GDAP1, CMT2P/LRSAM1, CMT2R/TRIM2, CMT2S/IGHMBP2, CMT2T/HSJ1, CMTRID/COX6A1, ARAN-NM/HINT and GAN/GAN), for the genes related to autosomal recessive hereditary spastic paraplegia with thin corpus callosum and axonal peripheral neuropathy (SPG7/PGN, SPG15/ZFYVE26, SPG21/ACP33, SPG35/FA2H, SPG46/GBA2, SPG55/C12orf65 and SPG56/CYP2U1), as well as for the causative gene of peripheral neuropathy with or without agenesis of the corpus callosum (SLC12A6). Mitochondrial disorders related to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2 were also excluded by sequencing POLG and TYMP genes. An additional locus for autosomal recessive Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2H on chromosome 8q13-21.1 was excluded by linkage analysis. Pedigrees originated in Italy, Brazil, Canada, England, Iran, and Japan. Interestingly, we identified 15 ALS5/SPG11/KIAA1840 mutations in 12 families (two sequence variants were never reported before, p.Gln198* and p.Pro2212fs*5). No large deletions/duplications were detected in these patients. The novel mutations seemed to be pathogenic since they co-segregated with the disease in all pedigrees and were absent in 300 unrelated controls. Furthermore, in silico analysis predicted their pathogenic effect. Our results indicate that ALS5/SPG11/KIAA1840 is the causative gene of a wide spectrum of clinical features, including autosomal recessive axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

  • Evaluation of Ocular Gene Therapy in an Italian Patient Affected by Congenital Leber Amaurosis Type 2 Treated in Both Eyes.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on Advances in experimental medicine and biology
    by Testa F, Maguire AM, Rossi S, Marshall K, Auricchio A, Melillo P, Bennett J, Simonelli F
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-17121-0_71

    Gene therapy clinical trials with gene augmentation therapy for Leber Congenital Amaurosis have shown partial reversal of retinal dysfunction. Most studies described the effect of treatment in a single eye and limited evidence is reported in literature about patients treated in both eyes. In this chapter, we present the findings of a young patient treated in both eyes. Efficacy of the treatment was assessed with Best Corrected Visual Acuity, Goldman Visual Field testing, Esterman computerized binocular visual field and Microperimetric testing. Post-treatment results showed improvement of visual function in both eyes, in particular, a strong amelioration was observed after the first injection, by using conventional monocular tests. Moreover, the treatment in the second eye resulted in a further improvement of binocular visual functionality, as easily detected by computerized binocular visual field. In conclusion, our data suggest that gene therapy can inhibit retinal degeneration and can be safe and effective in restoring visual functionality in young subjects treated in both eyes. Finally, new outcome measurements, in particular binocular computerized visual field parameters, can therefore be useful to quantify overall visual gain in patients undergoing gene therapy in both eyes.

  • Rouleau version of the Clock Drawing Test: age- and education-adjusted normative data from a wide Italian sample.
    Publication Date: 01/01/2016, on The Clinical neuropsychologist
    by Siciliano M, Santangelo G, D'Iorio A, Basile G, Piscopo F, Grossi D, Trojano L
    DOI: 10.1080/13854046.2016.1241893

    The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is widely used as a screening tool for discriminating cognitively normal individuals from patients with mild dementia. The aim of present study was to provide normative values for a 10-point quantitative scoring system proposed by Rouleau and colleagues (1992), including CDT total score and subscales score assessing representation of clock face (RC), layout of numbers (LN), and position of hands (PH), in a large sample of Italian healthy individuals.

  • Synthesis of cyclic N (1)-pentylinosine phosphate, a new structurally reduced cADPR analogue with calcium-mobilizing activity on PC12 cells.
    Publication Date: 22/12/2015, on Beilstein journal of organic chemistry
    by Mahal A, D'Errico S, Borbone N, Pinto B, Secondo A, Costantino V, Tedeschi V, Oliviero G, Piccialli V, Piccialli G
    DOI: 10.3762/bjoc.11.289

    Cyclic N (1)-pentylinosine monophosphate (cpIMP), a novel simplified inosine derivative of cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) in which the N (1)-pentyl chain and the monophosphate group replace the northern ribose and the pyrophosphate moieties, respectively, was synthesized. The role played by the position of the phosphate group in the key cyclization step, which consists in the formation of a phosphodiester bond, was thoroughly investigated. We have also examined the influence of the phosphate bridge on the ability of cpIMP to mobilize Ca(2+) in PC12 neuronal cells in comparison with the pyrophosphate bridge present in the cyclic N (1)-pentylinosine diphosphate analogue (cpIDP) previously synthesized in our laboratories. The preliminary biological tests indicated that cpIMP and cpIDP induce a rapid increase of intracellular Ca(2+) concentration in PC12 neuronal cells.

  • Mastication induces long-term increases in blood perfusion of the trigeminal principal nucleus.
    Publication Date: 17/12/2015, on Neuroscience
    by Viggiano A, Manara R, Conforti R, Paccone A, Secondulfo C, Lorusso L, Sbordone L, Di Salle F, Monda M, Tedeschi G, Esposito F
    DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.10.017

    Understanding mechanisms for vessel tone regulation within the trigeminal nuclei is of great interest because some headache syndromes are due to dysregulation of such mechanisms. Previous experiments on animal models suggest that mastication may alter neuron metabolism and blood supply in these nuclei. To investigate this hypothesis in humans, arterial spin-labeling magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure blood perfusion within the principal trigeminal nucleus (Vp) and in the dorsolateral-midbrain (DM, including the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus) in healthy volunteers, before and immediately after a mastication exercise consisting of chewing a gum on one side of the mouth for 1 h at 1 bite/s. The side preference for masticating was evaluated with a chewing test and the volume of the masseter muscle was measured on T1-weighted MRI scans. The results demonstrated that the mastication exercise caused a perfusion increase within the Vp, but not in the DM. This change was correlated to the preference score for the side where the exercise took place. Moreover, the basal Vp perfusion was correlated to the masseter volume. These results indicate that the local vascular tone of the trigeminal nuclei can be constitutively altered by the chewing practice and by strong or sustained chewing.

  • A case of progressive frontal lobe syndrome in a sporadic form of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: A singular overlap with fronto-temporal dementia?
    Publication Date: 15/12/2015, on Journal of the neurological sciences
    by Coppola C, Saracino D, Califano F, Barbarulo AM, Di Fede G, Piccoli E, Tagliavini F, Di Iorio G, Rossi G
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2015.08.1533

  • Combined LC-MS/MS and Molecular Networking Approach Reveals New Cyanotoxins from the 2014 Cyanobacterial Bloom in Green Lake, Seattle.
    Publication Date: 15/12/2015, on Environmental science & technology
    by Teta R, Della Sala G, Glukhov E, Gerwick L, Gerwick WH, Mangoni A, Costantino V
    DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b04415

    Cyanotoxins obtained from a freshwater cyanobacterial collection at Green Lake, Seattle during a cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom in the summer of 2014 were studied using a new approach based on molecular networking analysis of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) data. This MS networking approach is particularly well-suited for the detection of new cyanotoxin variants and resulted in the discovery of three new cyclic peptides, namely microcystin-MhtyR (6), which comprised about half of the total microcystin content in the bloom, and ferintoic acids C (12) and D (13). Structure elucidation of 6 was aided by a new microscale methylation procedure. Metagenomic analysis of the bloom using the 16S-ITS rRNA region identified Microcystis aeruginosa as the predominant cyanobacterium in the sample. Fragments of the putative biosynthetic genes for the new cyanotoxins were also identified, and their sequences correlated to the structure of the isolated cyanotoxins.

  • High Fat Diet and Inflammation - Modulation of Haptoglobin Level in Rat Brain.
    Publication Date: 15/12/2015, on Frontiers in cellular neuroscience
    by Spagnuolo MS, Mollica MP, Maresca B, Cavaliere G, Cefaliello C, Trinchese G, Scudiero R, Crispino M, Cigliano L
    DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2015.00479

    Obesity and dietary fats are well known risk factors for the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. The analysis of specific markers, whose brain level can be affected by diet, might contribute to unveil the intersection between inflammation/obesity and neurodegeneration. Haptoglobin (Hpt) is an acute phase protein, which acts as antioxidant by binding free haemoglobin (Hb), thus neutralizing its pro-oxidative action. We previously demonstrated that Hpt plays critical functions in brain, modulating cholesterol trafficking in neuroblastoma cell lines, beta-amyloid (Aβ) uptake by astrocyte, and limiting Aβ toxicity on these cells. A major aim of this study was to evaluate whether a long term (12 or 24 weeks) high-fat diet (HFD) influences Hpt and Hb expression in rat hippocampus. We also assessed the development of obesity-induced inflammation by measuring hippocampal level of TNF-alpha, and the extent of protein oxidation by titrating nitro-tyrosine (N-Tyr). Hpt concentration was lower (p < 0.001) in hippocampus of HFD rats than in control animals, both in the 12 and in the 24 weeks fed groups. HFD was also associated in hippocampus with the increase of Hb level (p < 0.01), inflammation and protein oxidative modification, as evidenced by the increase in the concentration of TNF-alpha and nitro-tyrosine. In fact, TNF-alpha concentration was higher in rats receiving HFD for 12 (p < 0.01) or 24 weeks (p < 0.001) compared to those receiving the control diet. N-Tyr concentration was more elevated in hippocampus of HFD than in control rats in both 12 weeks (p = 0.04) and 24 weeks groups (p = 0.01), and a positive correlation between Hb and N-Tyr concentration was found in each group. Finally, we found that the treatment of the human glioblastoma-astrocytoma cell line U-87 MG with cholesterol and fatty acids, such as palmitic and linoleic acid, significantly impairs (p < 0.001) Hpt secretion in the extracellular compartment. We hypothesize that the HFD-dependent decrease of Hpt in hippocampus, as associated with Hb increase, might enhance the oxidative stress induced by free Hb. Altogether our data, identifying Hpt as a molecule modulated in the brain by dietary fats, may represent one of the first steps in the comprehension of the molecular mechanisms underlying the diet-related effects in the nervous system.

  • A New N-Acyl Homoserine Lactone Synthase in an Uncultured Symbiont of the Red Sea Sponge Theonella swinhoei.
    Publication Date: 11/12/2015, on Applied and environmental microbiology
    by Britstein M, Devescovi G, Handley KM, Malik A, Haber M, Saurav K, Teta R, Costantino V, Burgsdorf I, Gilbert JA, Sher N, Venturi V, Steindler L
    DOI: 10.1128/AEM.03111-15

    Sponges harbor a remarkable diversity of microbial symbionts in which signal molecules can accumulate and enable cell-cell communication, such as quorum sensing (QS). Bacteria capable of QS were isolated from marine sponges; however, an extremely small fraction of the sponge microbiome is amenable to cultivation. We took advantage of community genome assembly and binning to investigate the uncultured majority of sponge symbionts. We identified a complete N-acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-QS system (designated TswIR) and seven partial luxI homologues in the microbiome of Theonella swinhoei. The TswIR system was novel and shown to be associated with an alphaproteobacterium of the order Rhodobacterales, here termed Rhodobacterales bacterium TS309. The tswI gene, when expressed in Escherichia coli, produced three AHLs, two of which were also identified in a T. swinhoei sponge extract. The taxonomic affiliation of the 16S rRNA of Rhodobacterales bacterium TS309 to a sponge-coral specific clade, its enrichment in sponge versus seawater and marine sediment samples, and the presence of sponge-specific features, such as ankyrin-like domains and tetratricopeptide repeats, indicate a likely symbiotic nature of this bacterium.