Publications by authors named "Francesca Giannelli"
Objectives: Preoperative chemoradiation is currently the standard of care in locally advanced rectal carcinoma, even though a subset of rectal tumors does not achieve major clinically meaningful responses upon neoadjuvant chemoradiation. At present, no molecular biomarkers are available to predict response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation and select resistant tumors willing more intense therapeutic strategies. Thus, BRAF mutational status was investigated for its role in favoring resistance to radiation in colorectal carcinoma cell lines and cyclin-dependent kinase 1 as a target to improve radiosensitivity in BRAF V600E colorectal tumor cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Platelet-activating factor (PAF), a powerful phospholipid mediator of inflammation, is degraded by plasma PAF-acetyl-hydxolase (pPAF-AH), an enzyme which circulates in serum mainly in a complex with lipoproteins that confer its biological activity. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is linked to lipoproteins in serum too. Reduced pPAF-AH activity was observed in several diseases, including systemic vasculitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis C virus (HCV) may be associated with the mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome and other B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs). The t(14;18) translocation may play a pathogenetic role. Limited data are available regarding the effects of antiviral therapy on rearranged B-cell clones.
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- Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is linked to mixed cryoglobulinemia, which can potentially develop into lymphoma; an increased occurrence of bcl-2 rearrangement (t(14;18) translocation) is noted among these patients.
- A study involving 37 patients with HCV-related mixed cryoglobulinemia and 101 patients with chronic HCV found that 75.7% of mixed cryoglobulinemia patients had bcl-2 rearrangement compared to 37.6% in those without, indicating a significant difference.
- The research suggests that bcl-2 rearrangement is more frequent in patients with mixed cryoglobulinemia, particularly type II, and that antiviral treatment may help
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) chronic infection has been associated with many lymphoproliferative disorders. Several studies performed on hepatoma and fibroblast cell lines suggest a role of the HCV core protein in activation of cellular transduction pathways that lead to cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis. However, no data are available concerning the effects of HCV core expression on B-lymphocyte proliferation and apoptosis.
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