Publications by authors named "Federica Miressi"

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) represent a powerful tool to investigate neuropathological disorders in which the cells of interest are inaccessible, such as in the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), the most common inherited peripheral neuropathy. Developing appropriate cellular models becomes crucial in order to both study the disease's pathophysiology and test new therapeutic approaches. The generation of hiPS cellular models for disorders caused by a single nucleotide variation has been significantly improved following the development of CRISPR-based editing tools.

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Nonsense mutations are involved in multiple peripheral neuropathies. These mutations induce the presence of a premature termination codon (PTC) at the mRNA level. As a result, a dysfunctional or truncated protein is synthesized, or even absent linked to nonsense-mediated mRNA degradation (NMD) system activation.

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Mutations in the ganglioside-induced differentiation associated protein 1 () gene have been associated with demyelinating and axonal forms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, the most frequent hereditary peripheral neuropathy in humans. Previous studies reported the prevalent expression in neural tissues and cells, from animal models. Here, we described the first GDAP1 functional study on human induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)-derived motor neurons, obtained from normal subjects and from a CMT2H patient, carrying the homozygous c.

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The cornea is a multi-layered structure which allows fine refraction and provides both resistance to external insults and adequate transparency. The corneal endothelium ensures stromal hydration, failure of which, such as in Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy, after trauma or in aging, may lead to loss of corneal transparency and induce blindness. Currently, no efficient therapeutic alternatives exist except for corneal grafting.

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Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is a heterogeneous group of inherited disorders affecting the peripheral nervous system, with a prevalence of 1/2500. So far, mutations in more than 80 genes have been identified causing either demyelinating forms (CMT1) or axonal forms (CMT2). Consequentially, the genotype-phenotype correlation is not always easy to assess.

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Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) using capture or amplicons strategies allows the detection of a large number of mutations increasing the rate of positive diagnosis for the patients. However, most of the detected mutations are Single Nucleotide Variants (SNVs) or small indels. Structural Variants (SVs) are often underdiagnosed in inherited genetic diseases, probably because few user-friendly tools are available for biologists or geneticists to identify them easily.

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Modelling rare neurogenetic diseases to develop new therapeutic strategies is highly challenging. The use of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is a powerful approach to obtain specialized cells from patients. For hereditary peripheral neuropathies, such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) Type II, spinal motor neurons (MNs) are impaired but are very difficult to study.

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Molecular diagnosis is an essential step of patient care. An increasing number of Copy Number Variations (CNVs) have been identified that are involved in inherited and somatic diseases. However, there are few existing tools to identify them among amplicon sequencing data generated by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).

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Article Synopsis
  • Calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) is important not only for regulating calcium in the body but also plays a significant role in the immune system and neurological health.
  • Research indicates that low levels of calcitriol are linked to central nervous system diseases like multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's, suggesting its protective effects.
  • Calcitriol is also crucial for the development and maintenance of the peripheral nervous system, so supplementation could help prevent or manage related disorders.
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