Sequence uniqueness and sequence variability as modulating factors of human anti-HCV humoral immune response.

We recently compared the HCV polyprotein to the human proteome in order to test whether amino acid sequences unique to the virus could represent immunodominant epitopic determinants of the human humoral immune response against HCV. We identified a relatively limited number of HCV fragments with no/low similarity to the human host that represented exclusive HCV motifs. In this study, the peptides corresponding to low/zero similarity sequences were synthesized and assayed with HCV-infected sera.

Gene therapy in cancer: the missing point.

Over the last century cancer research has produced data leading to a composite picture where gene mutations and epigenetic phenomena strictly relate and overlap. This complexity has repercussions on the anti-cancer therapeutical strategies. The therapeutic pathway paved by the kochian one-cause/one disease principle fails in front of a multigenic multiphenomena disease like cancer.

Cancer prevention and therapy: strategies and problems.

During the next years, molecular diagnostic science and the pharmaceutical industry will face increasing demand for personalized medicine. Therapeutic treatments should be tailored to the needs of individual patient. Patients will inquire for information about potential tumor detection at an early stage when disease can be more likely to be arrested or cured with specific regimens of drug therapy.

Cell death: apoptosis versus necrosis (review).

Cell death and the subsequent post-mortem changes, called necrosis, are integral parts of normal development and maturation cycle. Despite the importance of this process, the mechanisms underlying cell death are still poorly understood. In the recent literature, cell death is said to occur by two alternative, opposite modes: apoptosis, a programmed, managed form of cell death, and necrosis, an unordered and accidental form of cellular dying.