Publications by authors named "Monica De Luise"

Background: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) pathogenic variants have been reported in several solid tumors including ovarian cancer (OC), the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, and raised interest as they potentially induce mitochondrial dysfunction and rewiring of cellular metabolism. Despite advances in recent years, functional characterization of mtDNA variants in cancer and their possible modulation of drug response remain largely uncharted.

Methods: Here, we characterized mtDNA variants in OC patient derived xenografts (PDX) and investigated their impact on cancer cells at multiple levels.

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Background: Birt-Hogg-Dubé (BHD) syndrome is a rare genetic syndrome caused by pathogenic or likely pathogenic germline variants in the gene. Patients with BHD syndrome have an increased risk of fibrofolliculomas, pulmonary cysts, pneumothorax and renal cell carcinoma. There is debate regarding whether colonic polyps should be added to the criteria.

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Inhibition of respiratory complex I (CI) is becoming a promising anti-cancer strategy, encouraging the design and the use of inhibitors, whose mechanism of action, efficacy and specificity remain elusive. As CI is a central player of cellular bioenergetics, a finely tuned dosing of targeting drugs is required to avoid side effects. We compared the specificity and mode of action of CI inhibitors metformin, BAY 87-2243 and EVP 4593 using cancer cell models devoid of CI.

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Anticancer strategies aimed at inhibiting Complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain are increasingly being attempted in solid tumors, as functional oxidative phosphorylation is vital for cancer cells. Using ovarian cancer as a model, we show that a compensatory response to an energy crisis induced by Complex I genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition is an increase in the mitochondrial biogenesis master regulator PGC1α, a pleiotropic coactivator of transcription regulating diverse biological processes within the cell. We associate this compensatory response to the increase in PGC1α target gene expression, setting the basis for the comprehension of the molecular pathways triggered by Complex I inhibition that may need attention as drawbacks before these approaches are implemented in ovarian cancer care.

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While somatic disruptive mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations that severely affect the respiratory chain are counter-selected in most human neoplasms, they are the genetic hallmark of indolent oncocytomas, where they appear to contribute to reduce tumorigenic potential. A correlation between mtDNA mutation type and load, and the clinical outcome of a tumor, corroborated by functional studies, is currently lacking. Recurrent familial oncocytomas are extremely rare entities, and they offer the chance to investigate the determinants of oncocytic transformation and the role of both germline and somatic mtDNA mutations in cancer.

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Article Synopsis
  • Papillary thyroid carcinoma tall cell variant (PTC-TCV) is a more aggressive form of thyroid cancer that has similarities with another type called oncocytic tumors.
  • Researchers studied 17 PTC-TCV samples and compared them to 16 regular PTC cases, checking for changes in their mitochondria, DNA mutations, and protein levels.
  • The study found that PTC-TCV had many mitochondrial DNA mutations and changes in proteins related to energy production, showing a stronger link to oncocytic tumors than regular papillary thyroid cancer.
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Metabolic reprogramming is a well-known hallmark of cancer, whereby the development of drugs that target cancer cell metabolism is gaining momentum. However, when establishing preclinical studies and clinical trials, it is often neglected that a tumor mass is a complex system in which cancer cells coexist and interact with several types of microenvironment populations, including endothelial cells, fibroblasts and immune cells. We are just starting to understand how such populations are affected by the metabolic changes occurring in a transformed cell and little is known about the impact of metabolism-targeting drugs on the non-malignant tumor components.

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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and tobacco smoking is a recognized major risk factor for lung tumor development. We analyzed the effect of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) on human lung adenocarcinoma metabolic reprogramming, an emergent hallmark of carcinogenesis. A series of and bioenergetic, proteomic, metabolomic, and tumor biology studies were performed to analyze changes in lung cancer cell metabolism and the consequences for hallmarks of cancer, including tumor growth, cancer cell invasion, and redox signaling.

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Article Synopsis
  • Mitochondria are crucial for regulating energy production and cell survival, playing a significant role in both normal and cancerous cell processes.
  • Cancer cells can adapt their metabolism when faced with stress, allowing them to survive even when mitochondrial functions are impaired.
  • Understanding how cancer cells with defective mitochondria bypass normal growth controls could lead to innovative treatments targeting these metabolic adaptations in cancer therapy.
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Complex I (CI) is the largest enzyme of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and its defects are the main cause of mitochondrial disease. To understand the mechanisms regulating the extremely intricate biogenesis of this fundamental bioenergetic machine, we analyze the structural and functional consequences of the ablation of NDUFS3, a non-catalytic core subunit. We show that, in diverse mammalian cell types, a small amount of functional CI can still be detected in the complete absence of NDUFS3.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to discover how ultrarare gene variants related to mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) contribute to sporadic focal epilepsies (FE) using genetic data from 121 Italian FE cases and 512 controls.
  • - Researchers identified a greater prevalence of eight significant ultrarare variants in the FE patients compared to the controls, indicating a genetic link to mTOR pathway genes.
  • - The findings suggest that ultrarare variants in genes associated with the mTOR complexes could play a role in sporadic FE, highlighting the potential for personalized treatment approaches based on genetic causes.
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Converting carcinomas in benign oncocytomas has been suggested as a potential anti-cancer strategy. One of the oncocytoma hallmarks is the lack of respiratory complex I (CI). Here we use genetic ablation of this enzyme to induce indolence in two cancer types, and show this is reversed by allowing the stabilization of Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α).

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The Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome has been rarely associated with renal oncocytomas, and tumors usually show HIF1 chronic stabilization. By contrast, oncocytomas mainly associated with respiratory chain (RC) defects due to severe mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are incapable of stabilizing HIF1, since oxygen consumption by the RC is dramatically diminished and prolylhydroxylase activity is increased by -ketoglutarate accumulation following Krebs cycle slowdown. Here, we investigate the cooccurrence of a pseudohypoxic condition with oncocytic transformation in a case of VHL-associated renal oncocytoma.

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Deregulated metabolism is a well-established hallmark of cancer. At the hub of various metabolic pathways deeply integrated within mitochondrial functions, the α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex represents a major modulator of electron transport chain activity and tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) flux, and is a pivotal enzyme in the metabolic reprogramming following a cancer cell's change in bioenergetic requirements. By contributing to the control of α-ketoglutarate levels, dynamics, and oxidation state, the α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase is also essential in modulating the epigenetic landscape of cancer cells.

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Oncocytic tumors are a peculiar subset of human neoplasms in which mitochondria have been proven to have a prominent role. A number of paradoxes render these clinical entities interesting from the translational research point of view. Most oncocytic tumors are generally metabolically constrained due to the impaired respiratory capacity and lack of the ability to respond to hypoxia, yet they maintain features that allow them to strive and persist in an indolent form.

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In the last 10 years, studies of energetic metabolism in different tumors clearly indicate that the definition of Warburg effect, i.e. the glycolytic shift cells undergo upon transformation, ought to be revisited considering the metabolic plasticity of cancer cells.

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