Publications by authors named "Erica C Priori"

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) stands as the most prevalent and aggressive form of adult gliomas. Despite the implementation of intensive therapeutic approaches involving surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, Glioblastoma Stem Cells contribute to tumor recurrence and poor prognosis. The induction of Glioblastoma Stem Cells differentiation by manipulating the transcriptional machinery has emerged as a promising strategy for GBM treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder (ED) that has seen an increase in its incidence in the last thirty years. Compared to other psychosomatic disorders, ED can be responsible for many major medical complications, moreover, in addition to the various systemic impairments, patients with AN undergo morphological and physiological changes affecting the cerebral cortex. Through immunohistochemical studies on portions of postmortem human brain of people affected by AN and healthy individuals, and western blot studies on leucocytes of young patients and healthy controls, this study investigated the role in the afore-mentioned processes of altered redox state.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ageing is a biological phenomenon that determines the impairment of cognitive performances, in particular, affecting memory. Inflammation and cellular senescence are known to be involved in the pathogenesis of cognitive decline. The gut microbiota-brain axis could exert a critical role in influencing brain homeostasis during ageing, modulating neuroinflammation, and possibly leading to inflammaging.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Increasing reports of neurological and psychiatric outcomes due to psychostimulant synthetic cathinones (SCs) have recently raised public concern. However, the understanding of neurotoxic mechanisms is still lacking, particularly for the under-investigated αPHP, one of the major MDPV derivatives. In particular, its effects on neural stem/progenitor cell cultures (NSPCs) are still unexplored.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most malignant form of primary brain tumor. It is characterized by the presence of highly invasive cancer cells infiltrating the brain by hijacking neuronal mechanisms and interacting with non-neuronal cell types, such as astrocytes and endothelial cells. To enter the interstitial space of the brain parenchyma, GBM cells significantly shrink their volume and extend the invadopodia and lamellipodia by modulating their membrane conductance repertoire.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A growing number of studies is focusing on the pharmacology and feasibility of bioactive compounds as a novel valuable approach to target a variety of human diseases related to neurological degeneration. Among the group of the so-called medicinal mushrooms (MMs), has become one of the most promising candidates. In fact, some of the bioactive compounds extracted from .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs) are proteins activated by stress that can negatively affect neuron function and survival, particularly in the context of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  • A study on 5xFAD mice, which model human AD, revealed significant JNK activation at 3.5 months that correlated with changes in neuron structure and memory loss.
  • These results suggest that targeting JNK might be a promising strategy for developing treatments aimed at preventing synaptic impairment in the early stages of AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Brain aging is a crucial risk factor for several neurodegenerative disorders and dementia. The most affected cognitive function is memory, worsening early during aging. Inflammation and oxidative stress are known to have a role in pathogenesis of cognitive impairments, and a link exists between aging/frailty and immunosenescence/.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The human brain is the most complex organ in biology. This complexity is due to the number and the intricate connections of brain cells and has so far limited the development of in vitro models for basic and applied brain research. We decided to create a new, reliable, and cost-effective in vitro system based on the Nichoid, a 3D microscaffold microfabricated by two-photon laser polymerization technology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - JNKs, particularly JNK3, are stress-response protein kinases mainly found in the brain and other specific tissues, playing a crucial role in stress signaling and synaptic function related to neurodegeneration.
  • - The JNK3 signaling pathway involves a series of carefully regulated phosphorylation steps, with specificity ensured by scaffold proteins like JIP1 and β-arrestin2.
  • - Using techniques like super-resolution microscopy and co-immunoprecipitation, researchers demonstrated that JNK3 interacts with PSD95 and the scaffold proteins JIP1 and β-arrestin2 in neurons, suggesting these interactions could be targets to modulate synaptic events affected by stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Frailty is a geriatric syndrome associated with both locomotor and cognitive decline, typically linked to chronic systemic inflammation, i.e., .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common tumor of the central nervous system. Current therapies, often associated with severe side effects, are inefficacious to contrast the GBM relapsing forms. In trying to overcome these drawbacks, (-6-44)-acetatodiamminedichlorido(2-(2-propynyl)octanoato)platinum(IV), also called Pt(IV)Ac-POA, has been recently synthesized.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although medicinal mushroom extracts have been proposed as promising anti-cancer agents, their precise impacts on metastatic breast cancer are still to be clarified. For this purpose, the present study exploited the effect of a novel medicinal mushroom blend, namely Micotherapy U-care, in a 4T1 triple-negative mouse breast cancer model. Mice were orally administered with Micotherapy U-care consisting of a mixture of , and .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the present study, the functional role of the inwardly rectifying K channel, Kir4.1, and large-conductance Ca-activated K (BK) channel during cell migration in U251 cell line was investigated. We focused on polarised cells which are positive for the active-Cdc42 migration marker.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In vivo local antitumor activity of fibrin gels (FBGs) loaded with the poly-cyclodextrin oCD-NH/Dox, compared to free Dox, was evaluated in two mouse orthotopic neuroblastoma (NB) models, after positioning of the releasing devices in the visceral space. FBGs were prepared at the fibrinogen (FG) concentrations of 22 and 40 mg/ml clotted in the presence of 0.81 mM/mg FG Ca and 1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The extracellular matrix is essential for brain development, lamination, and synaptogenesis. In particular, the basement membrane below the pial meninx (pBM) is required for correct cortical development. The last step in the catabolism of the most abundant protein in pBM, collagen Type IV, requires prolidase, an exopeptidase cleaving the imidodipeptides containing pro or hyp at the C-terminal end.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gliomas are the most frequent primary tumours of the nervous system, characterised by high degree of malignancy, widespread invasion and high-rate proliferation. Cisplatin and analogue are currently employed in clinical trials as active chemotherapeutic agents for the systemic treatment of this type of malignancy. Despite therapy benefits, clinical use of these agents is hampered by severe side effects including neurotoxicity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Frailty is a geriatric syndrome associated with both locomotor and cognitive decline, implicated in both poor quality of life and negative health outcomes. One central question surrounding frailty is whether phenotypic frailty is associated with the cognitive impairment during aging. Using spontaneous behavioral tests and by studying the dynamic change during aging, we demonstrated that the two form of vulnerability, locomotor and recognition memory decline, develop in parallel and therefore, integration of the motoric and cognitive evaluations are imperative.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF