The role of low doses of chemicals or chemical mixtures in carcinogenesis is still an open research field. On June 23rd of this year, the Journal Carcinogenesis published a special issue on this topic entitled "Assessing the Carcinogenic Potential of Low Dose Exposures to Chemical Mixtures in the Environment" (http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/Suppl_1?etoc), result of the work of 174 researchers working on cancer research in several and prominent institutions all over the world. The ...

Il trasporto cellulare mediante vescicole opera, secondo gli stessi principi generali, in organismi differenti quali uomo e lievito. Tale sistema è cruciale per una serie di processi fisiologici in cui la fusione delle vescicole deve avvenire sotto stretto controllo, mediante il rilascio di ormoni e citochine. Difetti nel trasporto si traducono in vari tipi di malattie tra cui una serie di disturbi neurologici ed immunologici. Il simposio di una giornata organizzato dall'Istituto di Biochimica ...

Through a joint study carried out in cooperation with Italian scientists, among which ISN-CNR researchers, a total of 1972 ALS cases were identified. The study population included: 333 Italian ALS cases who carried the C9ORF72expansion, 1639 Italian ALS not carrying the C9ORF72 expansion and 1043 controls.  In this study the large series of Italian ALS patients with C9ORF72 GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansion, compared to age-, gender- and ethnic-matched controls, did not reveal an ...

Systems medicine is a flourishing discipline that stimulates widespread research interests. The highlighted map in Fig.1 presents a health ecosystem, which is a connected community of living and non-living elements whose cooperation forms a complex space of relations, decisions and actions. The wealth of health- and disease-related data from biomedical, environmental, clinical and social studies is the product of such ecosystem, which continues to generate new challenges together with ...

Down syndrome, also known as Trisomy 21, is associated, albeit with varying severity, with intellectual disability, premature aging, propensity to develop a disease similar to Alzheimer's, and the onset of some types of leukemia. Several studies have associated this phenotype with increased oxidative stress. A research conducted by a team of IGM researchers coordinated by Ennio Prosperi, in collaboration with the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Pavia, have shown that ...

Il DNA è costantemente minacciato nella sua integrità. A proteggerlo o a rimediare quando viene danneggiato ci pensa il cosiddetto DNA damage response, che provvede a prevenire che venga danneggiato e a ripararlo se questo accade. Nella genesi tumorale l'attivazione di un oncogene è un evento necessario. In passato abbiamo scoperto che gli oncogeni danneggiano il DNA sottoponendolo ad una replicazione "eccessiva", non regolata e perciò prona alla rottura. Abbiamo recentemente scoperto che un ...

Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the CNR of Pavia, IFOM and the Department of Biosciences of the University of Milan, have shown that the protein Nova2, until now considered only present in the brain, is also expressed by the cells of the blood vessels and is directly related to their development. The study, published in Nature Communications, was supported by AIRC - Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro. The formation of new blood vessels, a process called ...

The most efficacy drug therapy employed to treat Parkinson's disease is the levodopa but, for obscure reasons, after few years this induces motor complications called dyskinesias. The Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology-CNR of Catanzaro, in collaboration with the Institute of Neurology of the Policlinico "Magna Graecia" Catanzaro, has shed new light on the neurobiological correlates of this motor complication demonstrating the efficacy of neurostimulation. This research has been ...

A mild decrease of oxygen supply to the brain can selectively impair the brain's arousal levels and behavioral responses, but not orienting of spatial attention and executive control functions. This is indicated by the findings of a study carried out by the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology in collaboration with the University of Milan Bicocca. These findings were presented at the "2014 Society for Neuroscience" Annual Congress, the largest and most influential Neuroscience ...

Bernd Pulverer, Chief Editor of the EMBO Journal, will give an overview on the peer reviewed research paper which remains the main conduit for the exchange of research discoveries. With the growth and diversification of global research, publishing in selected journals and citation metrics are increasingly employed as surrogates for quality in research assessment. Consequently, the pressures to publish in only a handful of journals have increased, with the risk of hampering scientific progress. ...

It takes just 300 ms to our brain to understand whether one person's facial mimic and body language are consistent with her inner feelings and mental states or with a verbal description of her feelings and mentations. And, when they are not, that person's verbal message has a short life in our brain. Indeed, our brain very quickly compares the inputs deriving from areas processing facial expressions, and face and body mimics (including the mirror neurons system) with the visceral feelings of ...

Dejà-vù is a fascinating and mysterious psychological phenomenon investigated by philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists. However, until now there is not a clear scientific theory able to explain this phenomenon. The Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology-CNR of Catanzaro, in collaboration with the Institute of Neurology of the Policlinico "Magna Graecia" Catanzaro, has shed new light on the neurobiological correlates underlying Dejà-vù. This research has been ...

The joint efforts of Italian researchers, among which ISN-CNR researchers and American researchers from National Institute of Aging (NIA), NIH, Bethesda allowed the identification of a new gene ALS-related, Matrin 3 on Chromosome 5. MATR3 is an RNA- and DNA-binding protein that interacts with TDP-43, a disease protein linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. The work is published on Nature Neuroscience. Mutations in the Matrin 3 gene cause familial amyotrophic ...

La professoressa Maria Concetta Morrone, docente di Fisiologia dell'Ateneo di Pisa ed associata all'Istituto di Neuroscienze del CNR, si è aggiudicata un finanziamento di 2,5 milioni di euro per il periodo 2014-2018 con una ricerca nel campo delle neuroscienze cognitive. "Early cortical sensory plasticity and adaptability in human adults" - questo il titolo del progetto finanziato - si propone di indagare la plasticità e la capacità di adattamento del cervello degli adulti, con studi ...

The mammalian neurons can live as long as the body that has generated them. The limit of their existence would not, therefore, written in the genes. In practice, the brain can survive the body. This is demonstrated by an Italian experiment in which rat neurons were transplanted into the brain of a rat, where they set perfectly. The research was coordinated by the neurosurgeon Magrassi Lorenzo, who works at the University of Pavia, at the Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo and the lnstitute of ...

Macromolecules (DNA, proteins, and lipids) in all cells are constantly damaged by reactive oxygen species (ROS). In particular, ROS cause 1,000-7,000 DNA damages per day. Due to its lowest redox potential, the base guanine is mostly affected, resulting in the formation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine. This modified base instructs incorporation of adenosine, instead of cytidine, by replicative DNA polymerases, potentially leading to GC ->TA transversion mutations. DNA polymerase lambda is the most ...

It is time to rethink platelet count reference intervals actually used to define "normal" a person basing on his sex and age. A study recently published in PLOS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0054289) analyzed about 41.000 subjects involving 3 CNR Institutes and other research facilities, and showed that women had steadily more platelets than men. The number of platelets decreases quickly in childhood, stabilizes in adulthood, and further decreases in oldness. Furthermore a ...

ATXN-1 intermediate poly-CAG expansions with CAT interruptions are a risk factor for ALS. The study, conducted by Dr. Conforti, ISN-CNR, together with Prof. La Bella from the ALS Clinical Research Center of Palermo, has demonstrated that both ATXN-1 and ATXN-2 PolyQ intermediate expansions are independently associated to an increased risk for ALS. The PolyQ lengths of ATXN-1 and ATXN-2 in 405 sALS, 13 fALS and 296 unrelated controls without history of neurodegenerative disorders were assessed. ...

The Huntington's disease (Huntington's Disease, HD) is a hereditary nuerodegenerativa pathology, in which a particular sequence of three nucleotides (CAG), is "expanded", that is inserted in multiple copies at the beginning of the Huntingtin protein gene. When the number of these triplets exceeds a threshold value, the resulting protein in neurons assumes its pathological form, causing the degeneration of neurons. The mechanism by which the number of CAG triplets is expanded is not perfectly ...

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability (ID) and a leading cause of autism, frequently associated with epilepsy and abnormal behavior. In most cases FXS is caused by the silencing of the FMR1 gene and ensuing lack of Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP), an RNA binding protein involved in RNA metabolism and protein synthesis. A large number of mRNAs linked to FMRP have recently been identified and extensive research has contributed to clarify ...

A joint study between IFOM (FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology) in Milan and the Institute ofg Molecular Genetics - National Research Council (IGM-CNR) of Pavia, with the support of AIRC and Telethon, published in Cell, confirms the key role of senataxina in regulating the process of transcription and replication of DNA. Its mutation affects two serious neurodegenerative diseases and may play a role in cancer formation. Reference: Chiara Lucca, Daniele Piccini, Walter Carotenuto, Marco ...

A study of the Institute of Neurological Sciences at the CNR reveals a protein called thymosin beta 4, as a specific marker for patients with CJD. The result allows to diagnose a rare but fatal disease, with very high efficiency, comparable to that currently only achieved by post-mortem examinations. Researchers at the Institute of Neurological Sciences of the National Research Council (Isn-Cnr) in Mangone (Cosenza), in collaboration with University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Regional Hospital ...

Unlike laypersons' brain, professional basketball players brain's mirror neurons system (MNS) can automatically detect incorrect basketball playing actions in four tenths of a second. This was revealed by a study of the Bicocca University of Milan and the CNR-IBFM just published in Scientific Reports.Nature.

Cytokinesis is the final step in cell division. Errors at this stage prevent the final separation of the newly formed cells and give rise to a single cell, defined as polyploid, harbouring an abnormal chromsome content. Polyploidy promotes in turn chromosomal instability, a hallmark of cancer. Here Rinaldo and collaborators show that HIPK2, a kinase involved in many cell fate decisions during development and in response to stress, controls cytokinesis and prevents the formation of polyploid ...

Nicotine improves the capacity of the 'working memory', the store where information is temporarily stocked in order to re-use it during cognitive processing, through the activation of regions of the frontal and prefrontal cortices of the right hemisphere in the human brain. It also appears to impair brain processing underpinning motor response choice and execution. These are the outcomes of a study carried out by the CNR-IBFM and the Bicocca University of Milan suggesting that the ...

Looking at images usually linked to a sound activates the superior temporal auditory cortex in a tenth of a second. The study carried out by the University of Milan-Bicocca and Ibfm-CNR reveals, besides other neurophysiological mechanisms, why seeing the labial fosters language comprehension and why the off-sync distorts it so heavily. The auditory cortex is activated by vision too. Looking at pictures linked to a sound, for instance a saxophonist with his bulging cheeks blowing into his ...

The cell response to endogenous DNA damage is still largely unexplored. The paper published on Nucleic Acids Research by Alessandra Montecucco laboratory demonstrates that splicing factor SRSF1 is hyper-phosphorylated in response to increased levels of replication-dependent DNA damage in DNA ligase I defective cells. This is accompanied by a change in alternative splicing events controlled by SRSF1 such as the production of Ron oncogene and caspase 9 alternative mRNAs. Both SRSF1 phosphorylation ...

A large research project identifies 68 regions of the genome that regulate the formation and structure of the blood cells, affecting in many diseases. Millions of genetic variants were analyzed in 70,000 individuals. The study, carried out in collaboration between 100 research institutions, of which nine Italian, was published in Nature. The joint efforts of researchers from four different continents, pertaining to one hundred research institutions, nine of which Italian, identify genetic ...

Cellular DNA is constantly exposed to endogenous and exogenous damaging agents, such as free oxygen radicals, UV light and carcinogenic pollutants. The resulting chemical modifications of DNA bases, alter the genetic information contained in the cellular genome, causing mutations. Cells have evolved specialized enzymes, the so called translesion DNA polymerases, capable of retrieving the correct information from damaged DNA. Failure or misregulation of these mechanisms can lead to cancer. The ...

A study conducted by IGM-CNR researchers and published in the European Journal of Human Genetics, has established the importance of a human single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human genome in the smoking behavior in the Italian population. In 2008, some studies had identified a biallelic variant present in the gene cluster CHRNA5-A3-B4 as associated to the smoker's addiction to large amounts of nicotine consumption (> 10 cigarettes per day). The same nucleotide variant has been ...