Publications by authors named "G Pallavicini"
Article Synopsis
- Brain size and neural cell diversity depend on how multipotent neural progenitor cells (NPCs) grow and specialize, with mistakes in this process causing hereditary microcephaly (MCPH), which leads to smaller brain sizes and intellectual disabilities.
- Research identified specific genetic variants related to MCPH, but the exact role of CIT protein activity in brain development was unclear, prompting the creation of mouse models for study.
- Findings revealed that while the mouse models didn't mimic human microcephaly, they did show signs of cell damage and abnormalities; human organoids created from the models exhibited loss of structural complexity and issues with cell division, highlighting the importance of CIT functions in human brain development.
Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly (MCPH) is a constellation of disorders that share significant brain size reduction and mild to moderate intellectual disability, which may be accompanied by a large variety of more invalidating clinical signs. Extensive neural progenitor cells (NPC) proliferation and differentiation are essential to determine brain final size. Accordingly, the 30 MCPH loci mapped so far (MCPH1-MCPH30) encode for proteins involved in microtubule and spindle organization, centriole biogenesis, nuclear envelope, DNA replication and repair, underscoring that a wide variety of cellular processes is required for sustaining NPC expansion during development.
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- * Lestaurtinib, a compound that inhibits CITK effectively, was tested on various MB cell lines and showed that it disrupts cell division and growth while causing DNA damage and activating cancer-related cellular responses.
- * The treatment with Lestaurtinib not only decreased tumor size but also improved survival rates in a mouse model, indicating its potential as a viable option for MB therapy beyond its original applications.
Article Synopsis
- * Developmental differences among these OPCs impact their reactions to damage or stress as adults, particularly when exposed to DNA-damaging agents like cisplatin.
- * The study reveals that dorsal and ventral OPCs respond differently to injury due to their unique origins and varied activation of protective mechanisms, making them differently susceptible to issues arising from DNA damage.
Medulloblastoma (MB) and gliomas are the most frequent high-grade brain tumors (HGBT) in children and adulthood, respectively. The general treatment for these tumors consists in surgery, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Despite the improvement in patient survival, these therapies are only partially effective, and many patients still die.
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