Publications by authors named "Elisabetta Bassi"

Background: DNA-Damaged Binding protein 2 (DDB2) is a protein involved in the early step of Nucleotide Excision Repair. Recently, it has been reported that DDB2 is involved in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), key process in tumour invasiveness and metastasis formation. However, its role is not completely known.

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Assessment of DNA repair is an important endpoint measurement when studying the biochemical mechanisms of the DNA damage response and when investigating the efficacy of chemotherapy, which often uses DNA-damaging compounds. Numerous methods to biochemically characterize DNA repair mechanisms have been developed so far. However, such methods have some limitations, which are mainly due to the lack of chromatin organization in the DNA templates used.

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Background: The Host Cell Reactivation assay (HCR) allows studying the DNA repair capability in different types of human cells. This assay was carried out to assess the ability in removing UV-lesions from DNA, thus verifying NER efficiency. Previously we have shown that DDB2, a protein involved in the Global Genome Repair, interacts directly with PCNA and, in human cells, the loss of this interaction affects DNA repair machinery.

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In mammalian cells, Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) plays a role in removing DNA damage induced by UV radiation. In Global Genome-NER subpathway, DDB2 protein forms a complex with DDB1 (UV-DDB), recognizing photolesions. During DNA repair, DDB2 interacts directly with PCNA through a conserved region in N-terminal tail and this interaction is important for DDB2 degradation.

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Objective: Since the discovery of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in maternal plasma, diagnostic non-invasive prenatal methods have been developed or optimized for fetal sex determination and identification of genetic diseases. As far as fetal sex determination, this might be important for therapeutic intervention on sex-associated pathologies such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, hemophilia and congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based biosensors might be useful for these studies, because they allow to monitor the molecular interactions in real-time providing qualitative and quantitative information, through kinetics, affinity and concentration analyses.

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