Publications by authors named "A Di Stilo"

Chronic use of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) is limited by serious side effects, such as tolerance and endothelial dysfunction of coronary and resistance arteries. Although GTN is used as a drug since more than 130 years, the mechanisms of the vasodilatory effects and of tolerance development to organic nitrates are still incompletely elucidated. New synthesized organic nitrates with and without antioxidant properties were characterized for their ex vivo tolerance profile, in order to investigate the oxidative stress hypothesis of nitrate tolerance.

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Article Synopsis
  • Human cardiac mesenchymal cells (CMSCs) are essential for therapy, but their function is disrupted by diabetes due to metabolic changes and lasting epigenetic effects.
  • The study aims to understand how α-ketoglutarate (αKG) influences DNA demethylation processes in these cells.
  • Results show that diabetic CMSCs have increased levels of DNA methylation and that restoring αKG can help reactivate important DNA repair proteins, reversing some diabetic epigenetic changes.
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A number of new nitric oxide (NO)-precursors were synthesized by grafting nitrate-containing moieties on the structures of the benzyloxy isonipecotanilide derivatives 1 and 2 already reported as moderately potent antiplatelet agents. Various nitrooxy (ONO2)-alkyl side chains were covalently linked to the piperidine nitrogen of the parent compounds through carbamate and amide linkage, and the synthesis of a benzyl nitrate analog (15) of compound 1 was also achieved. The in vitro vasodilatory activities, as well as platelet anti-aggregatory effects, of the newly synthesized organic nitrates were assessed.

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This study proposes an alternative technique to prevent heat degradation induced by classic procedures of bioactive compound extraction, comparing classical maceration/decoction in hot water of polyphenols from Mango (Mangifera indica L.) (MI) with ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) in a water solution of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) at room temperature and testing their biological activity on TNFα-induced endothelial dysfunction. Both extracts counteracted TNFα effects on EAhy926 cells, down-modulating interleukin-6, interleukin-8, cyclooxygenase-2 and intracellular adhesion molecule-1, while increasing endothelial nitric oxide synthase levels.

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Pyroptosis is a caspase-1-dependent pro-inflammatory form of programmed cell death implicated in the pathogenesis of autoinflammatory diseases as well as in disorders characterized by excessive cell death and inflammation. Activation of NLRP3 inflammasome is a key event in the pyroptotic cascade. In this study, we describe the synthesis and chemical tuning of α,β-unsaturated electrophilic warheads toward the development of antipyroptotic compounds.

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