Publications by authors named "Roberto Licchetta"

Background: Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome results from the reciprocal translocation t(9;22)(q34.1;q11.2) and is diagnostic for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

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Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a stem cell disease sustained by a rare population of quiescent cells which are to some extent resistant to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). BCR-ABL oncogene activates multiple cross-talking signal transduction pathways (STP), such as RAS/MEK/ERK, PI3K/Akt, Wnt and STAT5, contributing to abnormal proliferation of clonal cells. From this perspective, the aim of this study was to analyze the expression and activation profile of STP involved in the mechanisms of cell proliferation/quiescence and survival of the progenitor CD34+ cells from chronic phase (CP) CML.

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Mushrooms represent a formidable source of bioactive compounds. Some of these may be considered as biological response modifiers; these include compounds with a specific biological function: antibiotics (e.g.

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Over the last few decades, there has been significant progress in the understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms of the Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). However, despite important advances in elucidating molecular mechanisms, the treatment of AML has not improved significantly, remaining anchored at the standard chemotherapy regimen "3 + 7", with the prognosis of patients remaining severe, especially for the elderly and for those not eligible for transplant procedures. The biological and clinical heterogeneity of AML represents the major obstacle that hinders the improvement of prognosis and the identification of new effective therapeutic approaches.

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Aberrant activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway is a common feature of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients contributing to chemoresistance, disease progression and unfavourable outcome. Therefore, inhibition of this pathway may represent a potential therapeutic approach in AML. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pre-clinical activity of NVP-BKM120 (BKM120), a selective pan-class I PI3K inhibitor, on AML cell lines and primary samples.

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Several chemo-resistance mechanisms including the Bcl-2 protein family overexpression and constitutive activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling have been documented in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), encouraging targeted approaches to circumvent this clinical problem. Here we analyzed the activity of the BH3 mimetic ABT-737 in ALL, exploring the synergistic effects with the mTOR inhibitor CCI-779 on ABT-737 resistant cells. We showed that a low Mcl-1/Bcl-2 plus Bcl-xL protein ratio determined ABT-737 responsiveness.

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Cancer cells are characterized by perturbations of their metabolic processes. Recent observations demonstrated that the fatty acid oxidation (FAO) pathway may represent an alternative carbon source for anabolic processes in different tumors, therefore appearing particularly promising for therapeutic purposes. Because the carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1a (CPT1a) is a protein that catalyzes the rate-limiting step of FAO, here we investigated the in vitro antileukemic activity of the novel CPT1a inhibitor ST1326 on leukemia cell lines and primary cells obtained from patients with hematologic malignancies.

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Initially described as an endogenous inhibitor of proteases, the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP-1) also displays cytokine-like functions. TIMP-1 is a soluble protein whose levels are increased under inflammatory conditions. We recently found that TIMP-1(-/-) mice have decreased bone marrow (BM) cellularity and that the engraftment capability of TIMP-1(-/-) hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is impaired, owing to proliferation defects.

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