Publications by authors named "Giada Licata"

Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are linked to the onset and progression of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), thus representing potential disease biomarkers. In this study, we employed a multiplatform sequencing approach to analyze circulating miRNAs in an extended cohort of prospectively evaluated recent-onset T1DM individuals from the INNODIA consortium. Our findings reveal that a set of miRNAs located within T1DM susceptibility chromosomal locus 14q32 distinguishes two subgroups of individuals.

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Unlabelled: Immunomodulation combined with antigen therapy holds great promise to arrest autoimmune type 1 diabetes, but clinical translation is hampered by a lack of prognostic biomarkers. Low-dose anti-CD3 plus Lactococcus lactis bacteria secreting proinsulin and IL-10 reversed new-onset disease in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice, yet some mice were resistant to the therapy. Using miRNA profiling, six miRNAs (i.

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Aims: Angiotensin I-converting enzyme type 2 (ACE2), a pivotal SARS-CoV-2 receptor, has been shown to be expressed in multiple cells, including human pancreatic beta-cells. A putative bidirectional relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and diabetes has been suggested, confirming the hypothesis that viral infection in beta-cells may lead to new-onset diabetes or worse glycometabolic control in diabetic patients. However, whether ACE2 expression levels are altered in beta-cells of diabetic patients has not yet been investigated.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the relationship between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and beta cell dedifferentiation, both of which contribute to impaired insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes.
  • Researchers analyzed pancreas biopsies from living donors to track changes in insulin synthesis and markers of ER stress and beta cell function.
  • Findings indicate that increased beta cell demands lead to heightened ER stress, resulting in faulty insulin processing and a decline in beta cell identity over the progression of diabetes.
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The loss of functional β-cell mass in type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with molecular events that include β-cell apoptosis, dysfunction and/or dedifferentiation. MicroRNA miR-184-3p has been shown to be involved in several β-cell functions, including insulin secretion, proliferation and survival. However, the downstream targets and upstream regulators of miR-184-3p have not been fully elucidated.

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A growing body of evidence supports the notion that the gut microbiome plays an important role in cancer immunity. However, the underpinning mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. One attractive hypothesis envisages that among the T cells elicited by the plethora of microbiome proteins a few exist that incidentally recognize neo-epitopes arising from cancer mutations ("molecular mimicry (MM)" hypothesis).

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The transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) has a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications. Although activation of the canonical NF-κB pathway in β-cells is generally deleterious, little is known about the role of the non-canonical NF-κB signalling and its main regulator, the NF-κB-inducing kinase (NIK), on pancreatic β-cell survival and function. Previous studies based on models of NIK overexpression in pancreatic islet cells showed that NIK induced either spontaneous β-cell death due to islet inflammation or glucose intolerance during diet-induced obesity (DIO) in mice.

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The interaction between genetic and environmental factors determines the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Some viruses are capable of infecting and damaging pancreatic β-cells, whose antiviral response could be modulated by specific viral RNA receptors and sensors such as melanoma differentiation associated gene 5 (MDA5), encoded by the IFIH1 gene. MDA5 has been shown to be involved in pro-inflammatory and immunoregulatory outcomes, thus determining the response of pancreatic islets to viral infections.

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Type 2 diabetes (T2D), a chronic metabolic disease, has attained the status of a global epidemic with steadily increasing incidence worldwide. Improved diagnosis, stratification and prognosis of T2D patients and the development of more effective treatments are needed. In this era of personalized medicine, the discovery and evaluation of innovative circulating biomarkers can be an effective tool for better stratification, prognosis and therapeutic selection/management of T2D patients.

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Type 2 diabetes (T2D) represents one of the major health issues of this century. Despite the availability of an increasing number of anti-hyperglycemic drugs, a significant proportion of patients are inadequately controlled, thus highlighting the need for novel biomarkers to guide treatment selection. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs, proposed as useful diagnostic/prognostic markers.

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The rising prevalence of metabolic diseases related to insulin resistance (IR) have stressed the urgent need of accurate and applicable tools for early diagnosis and treatment. In the last decade, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have gained growing interest because of their potential role in IR modulation. NcRNAs are variable-length transcripts which are not translated into proteins but are involved in gene expression regulation.

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The identification and validation of circulating small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) as biomarkers for disease diagnosis, staging, and response to novel therapies is still a compelling challenge. Pre-analytical variables, such as storage temperature or blood hemolysis, and different analytical approaches affect sncRNA stability, detection, and expression, resulting in discrepancies among studies. Here, we report a systematic standardized protocol to reproducibly analyze circulating sncRNAs, employing high-throughput sncRNA sequencing and qRT-PCR validation, from 200 μL of human plasma samples.

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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are generated by cells of origin through complex molecular mechanisms and released into extracellular environment. Hence, the presence of EVs has been described in multiple biological fluids and in most cases their molecular cargo, which includes non-coding RNAs (ncRNA), messenger RNAs (mRNA), and proteins, has been reported to modulate distinct biological processes. EVs release and their molecular cargo have been demonstrated to be altered in multiple diseases, including autoimmune diseases.

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Diabetes mellitus is a group of heterogeneous metabolic disorders characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia mainly due to pancreatic β cell death and/or dysfunction, caused by several types of stress such as glucotoxicity, lipotoxicity and inflammation. Different patho-physiological mechanisms driving β cell response to these stresses are tightly regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of negative regulators of gene expression, involved in pathogenic mechanisms occurring in diabetes and in its complications. In this review, we aim to shed light on the most important miRNAs regulating the maintenance and the robustness of β cell identity, as well as on those miRNAs involved in the pathogenesis of the two main forms of diabetes mellitus, i.

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Increasing evidence demonstrated that the expression of Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme type 2 (ACE2) is a necessary step for SARS-CoV-2 infection permissiveness. In light of the recent data highlighting an association between COVID-19 and diabetes, a detailed analysis aimed at evaluating ACE2 expression pattern distribution in human pancreas is still lacking. Here, we took advantage of INNODIA network EUnPOD biobank collection to thoroughly analyze ACE2, both at mRNA and protein level, in multiple human pancreatic tissues and using several methodologies.

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C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 10 (CXCL10) is a pro-inflammatory chemokine specifically recognized by the ligand receptor CXCR3 which is mostly expressed in T-lymphocytes. Although CXCL10 expression and secretion have been widely associated to pancreatic islets both in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice and in human type 1 diabetic (T1D) donors, the specific expression pattern among pancreatic endocrine cell subtypes has not been clarified yet. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to shed light on the pancreatic islet expression of CXCL10 in NOD, in C57Bl/6J and in NOD-SCID mice as well as in human T1D pancreata from new-onset T1D patients (DiViD study) compared to non-diabetic multiorgan donors from the INNODIA European Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (EUnPOD).

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Diabetes mellitus is a group of heterogeneous metabolic disorders characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia as a consequence of pancreatic β cell loss and/or dysfunction, also caused by oxidative stress. The molecular mechanisms involved inβ cell dysfunction and in response to oxidative stress are also regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs are a class of negative gene regulators, which modulate pathologic mechanisms occurring in diabetes and its complications.

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Lymphoma is the most common malignancy arising in the ocular adnexa, which includes conjunctiva, lachrymal gland, lachrymal sac, eyelids, orbit soft tissue, and extraocular muscles. Ocular adnexal lymphoma (OAL) accounts for 1%-2% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 5%-15% of extranodal lymphoma. Histology, stage, and primary localizations are the most important variables influencing the natural history and therapeutic outcome of these malignancies.

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Despite a high proportion of patients with primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL) experiences failure after/during first-line treatment, a few studies focused on salvage therapy are available, often with disappointing results. Herein, we report feasibility and activity of a combination of rituximab, ifosfamide and etoposide (R-IE regimen) in a multicentre series of patients with PCNSL relapsed or refractory to high-dose methotrexate-based chemotherapy. We considered consecutive HIV-negative patients ≤75 years old with failed PCNSL treated with R-IE regimen (rituximab 375 mg/m(2) , day 0; ifosfamide 2 g/m(2) /day, days1-3; etoposide 250 mg/m(2) , day 1; four courses).

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Background: The combination of high doses of methotrexate (MTX) and cytarabine (araC) is the standard chemotherapy for patients with primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL). The addition of an alkylating agent could improve MTX-araC efficacy because it is active against quiescent G0 cells and increases antimetabolites cytotoxicity. A pilot experience with high doses of MTX, araC, and thiotepa (MAT regimen) was performed to investigate feasibility and efficacy of adding an alkylating agent.

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Objective: Aims of this study were 1) to assess sexual function and endocrine profile among fertile type 1 diabetic women during the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle, 2) to compare these results with those obtained among healthy fertile women who served as control subjects, and 3) to explore the correlations between sexual function and endocrine milieu among patients and control subjects during the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle.

Research Design And Methods: Fifty fertile women with type 1 diabetes and 47 healthy control subjects completed a semistructured medical interview and filled in self-administered validated instruments to evaluate sexual function, depression, and sexual distress. Venous blood samples were drawn to measure glycated hemoglobin and an endocrine profile during either the follicular or the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle.

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