Publications by authors named "Laura Ottini"

This study aims to evaluate the expression of salivary and plasmatic miRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs). A total of 25 patients were divided into three groups, according to their diagnosis: OSCC patients ( = 14); OPMDs patients ( = 6); and healthy controls ( = 5). At the time at diagnosis/enrolment, patients underwent salivary and plasmatic collection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Among neoplastic diseases, breast cancer (BC) is one of the most influenced by gender. Despite common misconceptions associating BC as a women-only disease, BC can also occur in men. Additionally, transgender individuals may also experience BC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the field of breast cancer care, a significant breakthrough has occurred with the recognition of HER2-low expression as a target for novel anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). This discovery is reshaping the treatment landscape, challenging previous perceptions that considered HER2-low as clinically insignificant. The ability to target HER2-low expression is expected to have substantial clinical implications, irrespective of gender, including in cases of male breast cancer (MBC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in BRCA1/2 genes are associated with breast cancer (BC) risk in both women and men. Multigene panel testing is being increasingly used for BC risk assessment, allowing the identification of PVs in genes other than BRCA1/2. While data on actionable PVs in other cancer susceptibility genes are now available in female BC, reliable data are still lacking in male BC (MBC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Biological therapies for psoriasis are effective, but many patients experience reduced effectiveness, leading to treatment switches; this study examines how genetic variations may affect drug survival for anti-TNF and ustekinumab (UTK) therapies in patients.
  • The study analyzed 379 treatment lines involving 206 patients, genotyping 29 SNPs to assess which genetic factors influence the effectiveness of these treatments using statistical methods.
  • Results indicate specific SNPs are linked to better drug survival rates for both anti-TNF and UTK, suggesting that understanding these genetic markers could aid personalized treatment approaches and improve healthcare outcomes, although more research is needed to validate these findings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Compared with breast cancer (BC) in women, BC in men is a rare disease with genetic and molecular peculiarities. Therapeutic approaches for male BC (MBC) are currently extrapolated from the clinical management of female BC, although the disease does not exactly overlap in males and females. Data on specific molecular biomarkers in MBC are lacking, cutting out male patients from more appropriate therapeutic strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the most common comorbidities that may affect psoriatic patients. Several exogenous and endogenous factors are involved in the etiology and progression of both psoriasis and CVD. A potential genetic link between the two diseases has emerged; however, some gaps remain in the understanding of the CVD prevalence in psoriatic patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has an extremely poor prognosis and represents a major public health issue, as both its incidence and mortality are expecting to increase steeply over the next years. Effective screening strategies are lacking, and most patients are diagnosed with unresectable disease precluding the only chance of cure. Therapeutic options for advanced disease are limited, and the treatment paradigm is still based on chemotherapy, with a few rare exceptions to targeted therapies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Type III interferons (IFN-III), crucial in SARS-CoV-2 infection, show varied responses among individuals, highlighting the need to understand their link to COVID-19 symptom severity.
  • A study analyzed the SNP rs11322783 genotype in 128 COVID-19 patients vs. 14,152 healthy controls, revealing no significant differences in genotype distribution but identified lower white blood cell and neutrophil counts in those with the ΔG/ΔG genotype.
  • The research concludes that while the SNP distribution is similar in COVID-19 patients and healthy individuals, the ΔG/ΔG genotype suggests an association with reduced immune cell populations; further studies are needed to confirm these results and explore the SNP's role in
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To provide precise age-specific risk estimates of cancers other than female breast and ovarian cancers associated with pathogenic variants (PVs) in and for effective cancer risk management.

Methods: We used data from 3,184 and 2,157 families in the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of to estimate age-specific relative (RR) and absolute risks for 22 first primary cancer types adjusting for family ascertainment.

Results: PVs were associated with risks of male breast (RR = 4.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Fuegians, ancient inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, are an exemplary case of a cold-adapted population, since they were capable of living in extreme climatic conditions without any adequate clothing. However, the mechanisms of their extraordinary resistance to cold remain enigmatic. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a crucial role in this kind of adaptation, besides having a protective role on the detrimental effect of low temperatures on bone structure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare and understudied disease compared with female BC. About 15% of MBCs are associated with germline mutation in BC susceptibility genes, mainly and . Hereditary MBCs are likely to represent a subgroup of tumors with a peculiar phenotype.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Several biomarkers of healthy aging have been proposed in recent years, including the epigenetic clocks, based on DNA methylation (DNAm) measures, which are getting increasingly accurate in predicting the individual biological age. The recently developed "next-generation clock" DNAmGrimAge outperforms "first-generation clocks" in predicting longevity and the onset of many age-related pathological conditions and diseases. Additionally, the total number of stochastic epigenetic mutations (SEMs), also known as the epigenetic mutation load (EML), has been proposed as a complementary DNAm-based biomarker of healthy aging.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Recent population-based female breast cancer and prostate cancer polygenic risk scores (PRS) have been developed. We assessed the associations of these PRS with breast and prostate cancer risks for male BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathogenic variant carriers.

Methods: 483 BRCA1 and 1318 BRCA2 European ancestry male carriers were available from the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Mammographic breast density (MBD) is a marker of increased breast cancer (BC) risk, yet much remains to be clarified about the underlying mechanisms. We investigated whether DNA methylation patterns differ between high- vs. low-MBD women who developed BC during an 8.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cancer (BC) risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers varies by genetic and familial factors. About 50 common variants have been shown to modify BC risk for mutation carriers. All but three, were identified in general population studies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There are increasing data about the role of the gut microbiome in various autoimmune diseases, including psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory and immune-mediated disease. Current treatment strategies in psoriasis include immunomodulating biologic agents. A variable response to this type of therapy has been reported in psoriatic patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is frequently overexpressed in a wide variety of cancers. Indeed, its inactivation reduces tumor growth in preclinical animal models. However, extensive characterization failed to clarify function in cancer cells, although confirming its importance in carcinogenesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: BRCA1/2 VUSs represent an important clinical issue in risk assessment for the breast/ovarian cancer families (HBOC) families. Among them, some occurring within the intron-exon boundary may lead to aberrant splicing process by altering or creating de novo splicing regulatory elements or unmasking cryptic splice site. Defining the impact of these potential splice variants at functional level is important to establish their pathogenic role.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Paradoxical psoriasis (PP) may occur during treatment with anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) drugs in various chronic immune-mediated diseases, mainly inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and psoriasis. In this study, clinical and genetic characteristics of PP arising in IBD and psoriatic patients were investigated to identify disease-specific markers of the paradoxical effect. A total of 161 IBD and psoriatic patients treated with anti-TNF-α drugs were included in the study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The etiology of male breast cancer (MBC) is poorly understood. In particular, the extent to which the genetic basis of MBC differs from female breast cancer (FBC) is unknown. A previous genome-wide association study of MBC identified 2 predisposition loci for the disease, both of which were also associated with risk of FBC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: The limited data on cancer phenotypes in men with germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathogenic variants (PVs) have hampered the development of evidence-based recommendations for early cancer detection and risk reduction in this population.

Objective: To compare the cancer spectrum and frequencies between male BRCA1 and BRCA2 PV carriers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Retrospective cohort study of 6902 men, including 3651 BRCA1 and 3251 BRCA2 PV carriers, older than 18 years recruited from cancer genetics clinics from 1966 to 2017 by 53 study groups in 33 countries worldwide collaborating through the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To evaluate the epidemiology of male breast cancer (MBC) in Italy and to describe incidence and survival data in relation to age, morphology, year of incidence, geographic area, and possible association with other cancers compared with female BC.

Methods: Cases were extracted from 40 Italian Cancer Registries. Standardized incidence rates (SIR), age-specific rates, and 5-year survival were calculated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF