1,721,114 research outputs found
A long journey to the cytosol: what do we know about entry of typeI RIPs inside a mammalian cell?
No full textInnovative Therapies against Human Glioblastoma Multiforme
No full textGlioblastoma multiforme is the most invasive and aggressive brain tumor in humans, and despite the latest chemical and radiative therapeutic approaches, it is still scarcely sensitive to these treatments and is generally considered an incurable disease. This paper will focus on the latest approaches to the treatment of this cancer, including the new chemicals such as proautophagic drugs and kinases inhibitors, and differentiating agents. In this field, there have been opening new perspectives as the discovery of possible specific targets such as the EGFRvIII, a truncated form of the EGF receptor. Antibodies against these targets can be used as proapoptotic agents and as possible carriers for chemicals, drugs, radioisotopes, and toxins. In this paper, we review the possible mechanism of action of these therapies, with particular attention to the combined use of toxic substances (for example, immunotoxins) and antiproliferative/differentiating compounds (i.e., ATRA, PPARγ agonists). All these aspects will be discussed in the view of progress clinical trials and of possible new approaches for directed drug formulations.</jats:p
Towards a Stem Architecture Description Language for Self-Adaptive Systems
No full textIn the software domain, self-adaptive systems are able to modify their behavior at run-time to respond to internal and external changes. In life science, biological cells are power entities able to adapt to the (unpredictable) situations they incur in, in a complete decentralized fashion. We are working on a new architectural paradigm for self-adaptive software systems inspired by the adaptation mechanism coming from the cell life-cycle. In order to address the complexity and the variety of self adaptive systems we found that the cell lifecycle is interesting for three main features: i) their ability to specialize behaviors starting from the most general one, i.e. the stem cell, ii) the cell ability to make regular use of the programmed death mechanism (apoptosis) to get rid of obsolete behaviors. iii) a sort of architectural principle that allows the living organisms to be very efficient systems by maintaining the right trade off between general/universal cells (stem cells)and specialized/labouring ones. In this poster paper we present our STEM paradigm by proposing new roles and architectural structure that will be part of the STEM architecture description language
The amino acid sequence and oxygen binding properties of the single hemoglobin of the cold-adapted antartic teleost Gymnodraco acuticeps
No full textA ribosomal protein is specifically recognized by saporin, a plant toxin which inhibits protein synthesis
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Utilizzo terapeutico di un dominio della proteina umana LGALS3BP denominato D2 nell’arteriopatia obliterante periferica e nelle ulcere cutanee croniche. Therapeutic use of a domain of the human LGALS3BP protein called D2 in peripheral arterial disease and chronic skin ulcers.
No full textLa presente invenzione riguarda l’utilizzo farmacologico di uno specifico dominio della proteina umana LGALS3BP (nota anche come Mac-2 BP o Gal-3BP o 90K) caratterizzato dalla sequenza amminoacidica riportata nella tabella 1 e qui denominato D2. Gli inventori hanno scoperto che tale dominio è in grado di mediare processi fisiologici, incluso la rigenerazione tissutale e l’angiogenesi, che sono essenziali per la
cura delle patologie ischemiche e la guarigione delle ulcere diabetiche del piede. Per tali patologie non esistono attualmente farmaci efficaci e specifici, compresi gli antiinfiammatori.
Nella presente invenzione viene dimostrato che la somministrazione di
D2 a dosi inferiori a 1 mg, porta a una significativa riduzione del tempo di guarigione di ferite sperimentali nell’animale e a un aumento del flusso sanguigno in un modello murino di ischemia degli arti posteriori. La sostituzione di alcuni aminoacidi con altri amino acidi (< 5% del totale) nella sequenza di D2 non porta a sostanziali modifiche
dell’attività farmacologica
Ricin and Saporin: Plant Enzymes for the Research and the Clinics
No full textMany plants produce enzymes with N-glycosidase activity, also known as Ribosome Inactivating Proteins.
These proteins remove a specific adenine residue from the ribosomal RNA (28S in eukaryotes) inducing the block of protein
synthesis by inhibiting the binding of the Elongation Factor 2. Both eukaryotic and prokaryotic ribosomes (with different
sensitivity) can irreversibly be damaged by the action of these enzymes, suggesting their use as cytotoxic drugs. In
fact several applications of targeted N-glycosidases have been developed (i.e. immunotoxins) for the treatment of human
diseases such as leukaemia, but biotechnological development has furthermore suggested new applications of targeted Nglycosidases
(i.e. Ig192-saporin) that are now used as powerful tools for cell biology research. The high number of enzymes
available and the possibility to express these proteins as recombinant products, allow to predict new formulations
and applications discussed in this paper starting from the example of the model toxins ricin and saporin
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