Publications by authors named "Palazzo J"

Peroxynitrite (ONOO) is a highly reactive nitrogen species that can cause significant damage to proteins, lipids, and DNA. Various enzymes, including metalloenzymes, play crucial roles in reducing ONOO concentrations to protect cellular components. While the interaction of ONOO with heme proteins is well known, the reduction by Cu-containing proteins is less studied.

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Iron protoporphyrin IX (heme) is a redox-active cofactor that is bound in mammalian cells by GAPDH and allocated by a process influenced by physiologic levels of NO. This impacts the activity of many heme proteins including indoleamine dioxygenase-1 (IDO1), a redox enzyme involved in immune response and tumor growth. To gain further understanding we created a tetra-Cys human GAPDH reporter construct (TC-hGAPDH) which after labeling could indicate its heme binding by fluorescence quenching.

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Iron protoporphyrin IX (heme) is an essential cofactor that is chaperoned in mammalian cells by GAPDH in a process regulated by NO. To gain further understanding we generated a tetra-Cys human GAPDH reporter construct (TC-hGAPDH) which after being expressed and labeled with fluorescent FlAsH reagent could indicate heme binding by fluorescence quenching. When purified or expressed in HEK293T mammalian cells, FlAsH-labeled TC-hGAPDH displayed physical, catalytic, and heme binding properties like native GAPDH and its heme binding (2 mol per tetramer) quenched its fluorescence by 45-65%.

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Purpose: To improve on current standards for breast cancer prognosis and prediction of chemotherapy benefit by developing a risk model that incorporates the gene expression-based "intrinsic" subtypes luminal A, luminal B, HER2-enriched, and basal-like.

Methods: A 50-gene subtype predictor was developed using microarray and quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction data from 189 prototype samples. Test sets from 761 patients (no systemic therapy) were evaluated for prognosis, and 133 patients were evaluated for prediction of pathologic complete response (pCR) to a taxane and anthracycline regimen.

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Unlabelled: Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) frequently inactivate p53, increasing their aggressiveness and therapy resistance. We identified an unexpected protein vulnerability in p53-inactivated TNBC and designed a new PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera (PROTAC) to target it. Our PROTAC selectively targets MDM2 for proteasome-mediated degradation with high-affinity binding and VHL recruitment.

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Article Synopsis
  • T-cell activity is suppressed in ER+ breast cancer when PD-1 binds PD-L1 or PD-L2, raising the need for better ways to predict who will respond to treatments like PD-1 inhibitors.
  • This study focused on measuring PD-L2 protein levels in patients with therapy-naive ER+ breast cancer and correlated these levels with progression-free survival (PFS) across two cohorts.
  • Results showed that high PD-L2 expression in cancer cells was linked to shorter PFS, suggesting that high PD-L2 levels can be an important marker to identify patients at greater risk of early recurrence.
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Context.—: Mucinous lesions of the breast encompass many entities ranging from benign to malignant and nonneoplastic to neoplastic. Lesions discussed under this category are mucocele-like lesion, mucinous carcinoma, mucinous micropapillary carcinoma, solid papillary carcinoma, mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, mucoepidermoid carcinoma, invasive lobular carcinoma with extracellular mucin, mucinous ductal carcinoma in situ, and metastasis.

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Background: Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is an acquired form of cardiomyopathy. National Brazilian data on this condition are scarce. The Takotsubo Multicenter Registry (REMUTA) is the first to include multicenter data on this condition in Brazil.

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Purpose: Discordance between HER2 expression in tumor tissue (tHER2) and HER2 status on circulating tumor cells (cHER2) has been reported. It remains largely underexplored whether patients with tHER2/cHER2 can benefit from anti-HER2 targeted therapies.

Methods: cHER2 status was determined in 105 advanced-stage patients with tHER2 breast tumors.

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We profiled nine pure clear cell carcinomas of the breast using massively parallel DNA and RNA sequencing (NGS), in situ hybridization (ISH), and immunohistochemistry (IHC). All cases were primary mammary clear cell carcinomas that were diagnosed in female patients (mean age: 53.4 years; range: 31-69 years).

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Introduction: Spindle cell carcinoma is a rare subtype of metaplastic breast cancer, with triple-negative (TNBC: estrogen receptor-negative/progesterone receptor-negative/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative) phenotype. It is associated with a marked resistance to conventional chemotherapy and has an overall poor outcome.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-three pure spindle cell carcinomas of the breast (18 primary and 5 recurrent/metastatic) were comprehensively explored for biomarkers of immuno-oncology and targeted therapies using immunohistochemistry and DNA/RNA sequencing.

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Tall cell carcinoma with reverse polarity is a rare subtype of breast carcinoma with solid and papillary growth and nuclear features reminiscent of those of the tall cell variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. These tumors harbor recurrent IDH2 R172 hotspot mutations or TET2 mutations, co-occurring with mutations in PI3K pathway genes. Diagnosis of tall cell carcinomas with reverse polarity is challenging in view of their rarity and the range of differential diagnosis.

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Breast cancer was traditionally not considered a particularly immunogenic tumor. However, recent developments have shown that some aggressive triple-negative breast cancers are immunogenic, exhibit a resistance to chemotherapy and have a poor prognosis. These cancers have been shown to express molecules identified as targets for immunotherapy.

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Background And Aims: The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) patients remains unclear, emphasizing the need for improved prognostic biomarkers to identify patients at risk of metastatic recurrence. To address this unmet clinical need, we examined the expression and phosphorylation status of the vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) in CRC tumor progression. VASP, a processive actin polymerase, promotes the formation of invasive membrane structures leading to extracellular matrix remodeling and tumor invasion.

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Colorectal cancers (CRCs) initiate through distinct mutations, including in APC pathway components leading to tubular adenomas (TAs); in BRAF, with epigenetic silencing of CDX2, leading to serrated adenomas (SAs); and in the DNA mismatch repair machinery driving microsatellite instability (MSI). Transformation through the APC pathway involves loss of the hormone GUCA2A that silences the tumor-suppressing receptor GUCY2C. Indeed, oral hormone replacement is an emerging strategy to reactivate GUCY2C and prevent CRC initiation and progression.

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Breast adenomyoepitheliomas (AMEs) are rare epithelial-myoepithelial neoplasms that may occasionally produce myxochondroid matrix, akin to pleomorphic adenomas (PAs). Regardless of their anatomic location, PAs often harbor rearrangements involving or . We have recently shown that the repertoire of somatic genetic alterations of AMEs varies according to their estrogen receptor (ER) status; whilst the majority of ER-positive AMEs display mutually exclusive or hotspot mutations, up to 60% of ER-negative AMEs harbor concurrent Q61 hotspot mutations and mutations affecting either or .

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Global population growth and changing diets increase the importance, and challenges, of reducing the environmental impacts of food production. Farmed seafood is a relatively efficient way to produce protein and has already overtaken wild fisheries. The use of protein-rich food crops, such as soy, instead of fishmeal in aquaculture feed diverts these important protein sources away from direct human consumption and creates new environmental challenges.

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Background: Both circulating tumour cell (CTC) and total circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) predict cancer patient prognosis. However, no study has explored the prognostic value of the combined use of CTC and ccfDNA. We aimed to investigate individual and joint effects of CTC and ccfDNA on clinical outcomes of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients.

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Purpose: A recent comparison of the prognostic accuracy of Breast Cancer Index (BCI) and the Recurrence Score (RS) showed that BCI was more precise than RS. BCI identified a subset of RS low and intermediate risk patients with clinically relevant elevated rates of distant recurrences (DR). The current study analyzed the correlation of BCI and RS risk classification to clinical and pathological parameters and further examined the re-categorization between the two risk group indices in a multi-institutional cohort of hormone receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer patients.

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Use of chemotherapy in stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) is controversial because it improves survival only in some patients. We aimed to develop a statistical model using routine and readily available blood tests to predict the prognosis of patients with stage II CRC and to identify which patients are likely to benefit from chemotherapy. We divided 422 patients with stage II CRC into a training and a testing set.

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Article Synopsis
  • Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of the breast is a rare form of breast cancer, accounting for 2% to 5% of cases, and lacks specific targeted therapy, though new treatments for similar cancers are being explored.
  • A study profiled 20 breast NEC cases for various therapeutic biomarkers, revealing potential targets like TROP-2, FOLR1, and H3K36Me3, while the majority of other markers showed no evidence of expression or efficacy.
  • The findings suggest avenues for innovative treatments using agents targeting identified biomarkers and indicate that certain gene amplifications could help guide therapy decisions in select patients with breast NEC.
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Granular cell tumors (GCTs) are rare tumors that can arise in multiple anatomical locations, and are characterized by abundant intracytoplasmic granules. The genetic drivers of GCTs are currently unknown. Here, we apply whole-exome sequencing and targeted sequencing analysis to reveal mutually exclusive, clonal, inactivating somatic mutations in the endosomal pH regulators ATP6AP1 or ATP6AP2 in 72% of GCTs.

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