Publications by authors named "Costantino P"

Plants evolved several strategies to cope with the ever-changing environment. One example of this is given by seed germination, which must occur when environmental conditions are suitable for plant life. In the model system Arabidopsis thaliana seed germination is induced by light; however in nature, seeds of several plant species can germinate regardless of this stimulus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The current scientific evidence suggests that surgical navigation (SN) can contribute to improve oncologic outcomes in sinonasal and craniofacial surgery. The present study investigated the feasibility of intraoperative SN and its role in improving the outcomes of surgically treated sinonasal and craniofacial tumors. This prospective study compared navigation-guided surgery for sinonasal or craniofacial malignancies with a pair-matched cohort (1:2 matching) of patients operated without SN.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The space environment poses various stressors on plant physiology, including both abiotic factors like radiation, altered gravity, and light conditions, as well as biotic interactions with pathogens and beneficial organisms.
  • An overview of these stressors reveals how they affect plant growth and development in space.
  • Understanding these effects is essential for future space missions and can improve plant breeding and agricultural practices on Earth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Recent evidence supports the efficacy of surgical navigation (SN) in improving outcomes of sinonasal and craniofacial oncologic surgery. This study aims to demonstrate the utility of SN as a tool for integrating surgical, radiologic, and pathologic information. Additionally, a system for recording and mapping biopsy samples has been devised to facilitate sharing of spatial information.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Skull base chordomas are rare, locally osseo-destructive lesions that present unique surgical challenges due to their involvement of critical neurovascular and bony structures at the craniovertebral junction (CVJ). Radical cytoreductive surgery improves survival but also carries significant morbidity, including the potential for occipitocervical (OC) destabilization requiring instrumented fusion. The published experience on OC fusion after CVJ chordoma resection is limited, and the anatomical predictors of OC instability in this context remain unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objectives: Internal jugular vein (IJV) stenosis is associated with several neurological disorders including idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and pulsatile tinnitus. In cases of extreme bony compression causing stenosis in the infracondylar region, surgical decompression might be necessary. We aim to examine the safety and efficacy of surgical IJV decompression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In plants, developmental plasticity allows for the modulation of organ growth in response to environmental cues. Being in contact with soil, roots are the first organ that responds to various types of soil abiotic stress such as high salt concentration. In the root, developmental plasticity relies on changes in the activity of the apical meristem, the region at the tip of the root where a set of self-renewing undifferentiated stem cells sustain growth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

During organogenesis, a key step toward the development of a functional organ is the separation of cells into specific domains with different activities. Mutual inhibition of gene expression has been shown to be sufficient to establish and maintain these domains during organogenesis in several multicellular organisms. Here, we show that the mutual inhibition between the PLETHORA transcription factors (PLTs) and the ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATORs (ARRs) transcription factors is sufficient to separate cell division and cell differentiation during root organogenesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Auxin Response Factor 8 plays a key role in late stamen development: its splice variants ARF8.4 and ARF8.2 control stamen elongation and anther dehiscence.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this work, arsenic (As) accumulation and distribution over time in Pteris vittata young fronds from adult plants and in whole plantlets, grown on a highly contaminated As-soil, was determined by μ-XRF. A linear increase in As content up to 60 days was found in young fronds at different times, and a progressive distribution from the apex to the base of the fronds was observed. In whole plantlets, As signal was detectable from 9 to 20 days in the apex of a few fronds and fiddleheads.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients continue to suffer a poor prognosis. The blood brain barrier (BBB) comprises one of the obstacles for therapy, creating a barrier that decreases the bioavailability of chemotherapeutic agents in the central nervous system. Previously, a vascularized temporoparietal fascial scalp flap (TPFF) lining the resection cavity was introduced in a trial conducted in our institution, in newly-diagnosed GBM patients in an attempt to bypass the BBB after initial resection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to investigate the distribution of EBV and HPV stratified according to histological NPC type.

Materials & Methods: We performed a meta-analysis to produce pooled prevalence estimates in a random-effects model. We also performed calculations for attributable fractions of viral combinations in NPC, stratified according to histological type.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In both animals and plants, development involves anatomical modifications. In the root of Arabidopsis thaliana, maturation of the ground tissue (GT)-a tissue comprising all cells between epidermal and vascular ones-is a paradigmatic example of these modifications, as it generates an additional tissue layer, the middle cortex (MC). In early post-embryonic phases, the Arabidopsis root GT is composed of one layer of endodermis and one of cortex.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Technology platforms are an important strategy to facilitate the design, development and implementation of vaccines to combat high-burden diseases that are still a threat for human populations, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and to address the increasing number and global distribution of pathogens resistant to antimicrobial drugs. Generalized Modules for Membrane Antigens (GMMA), outer membrane vesicles derived from engineered Gram-negative bacteria, represent an attractive technology to design affordable vaccines. Here, we show that GMMA, decorated with heterologous polysaccharide or protein antigens, leads to a strong and effective antigen-specific humoral immune response in mice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A capsular polysaccharide (MenA CPS) consists of (1 → 6)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-α-D-mannopyranosyl phosphate repeating units, O-acetylated at position C3 or C4. Glycomimetics appear attractive to overcome the CPS intrinsic lability in physiological media, due to cleavage of the phosphodiester bridge, and to develop a stable vaccine with longer shelf life in liquid formulation. Here, we generate a series of non-acetylated carbaMenA oligomers which are proven more stable than the CPS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In Arabidopsis, stamen elongation, which ensures male fertility, is controlled by the auxin response factor ARF8, which regulates the expression of the auxin repressor IAA19. Here, we uncover a role for light in controlling stamen elongation. By an extensive genetic and molecular analysis we show that the repressor of light signaling COP1, through its targets HY5 and HYH, controls stamen elongation, and that HY5 - oppositely to ARF8 - directly represses the expression of IAA19 in stamens.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immune checkpoint protein that may be a useful prognostic biomarker in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the relationship between PD-L1 expression and survival in NPC.

Methods: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from inception to present.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The DOF (DNA binding with one finger) family of plant-specific transcription factors (TF) was first identified in maize in 1995. Since then, DOF proteins have been shown to be present in the whole plant kingdom, including the unicellular alga . The DOF TF family is characterised by a highly conserved DNA binding domain (DOF domain), consisting of a CXC-X-CXC motif, which is able to form a zinc finger structure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fusiform aneurysms remain challenging entities to treat, as maintenance of flow and prevention of branch occlusion are concerns. Use of endovascular stents may risk nearby branch occlusion. We present a 31-yr-old male with a prior subarachnoid hemorrhage from a left middle cerebral artery (MCA) M1 aneurysm.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCC) can occur in either tonsillar related areas (TRA) or nontonsillar areas (nTRA). The prognostic differences between these sites are unclear. This study investigated this question using the National Cancer Database (NCDB), controlling for other confounders including human papillomavirus (HPV) status.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Chronic cluster headache is the most disabling form of cluster headache. The mainstay of treatment is attack prevention, but the available management options have little efficacy and are associated with substantial side-effects. In this study, we aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of sphenopalatine ganglion stimulation for treatment of chronic cluster headache.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is an epigenetic transcriptional repression system, whose catalytic subunit (ENHANCER OF ZESTE HOMOLOG 2, EZH2 in animals) is responsible for trimethylating histone H3 at lysine 27 (H3K27me3). In mammals, gain-of-function mutations as well as overexpression of EZH2 have been associated with several tumors, therefore making this subunit a suitable target for the development of selective inhibitors. Indeed, highly specific small-molecule inhibitors of EZH2 have been reported.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the prognostic utility of the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in head and neck cancer. Medline (via PubMed), EMBASE, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched from their inception to May 2017 for relevant literature. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to generate the pooled hazard ratios (HR) for overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF