Publications by authors named "Sabrina D'Agosto"

Article Synopsis
  • Fibroblast heterogeneity significantly impacts cancer progression, making it crucial to understand different fibroblast types for developing effective cancer treatments.
  • In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the predominant cell type, and the study identifies how the MAPK signaling pathway influences their differentiation into specific phenotypes.
  • The study introduces a novel "mapCAF" phenotype associated with certain tumor cells and immune response characteristics, suggesting that targeting these specific CAFs could improve treatment strategies for various cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the role of SEMA3A, an axon guidance cue, in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) progression, highlighting its expression in different PDAC cell types and its impact on cellular behaviors.
  • Researchers combined transcriptomic data and experimental approaches to demonstrate that SEMA3A contributes to aggressive cancer traits, including enhanced cell migration and resistance to cell death.
  • Findings suggest that SEMA3A promotes a tumor-favorable environment by attracting macrophages and skewing them towards a pro-tumor, M2-like state, while potentially inhibiting effective immune responses from T cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The dense tumor stroma of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and its secreted immune active molecules provide a barrier for chemotherapy treatment as well as for immune cell infiltration to the tumor core, providing a challenge for immunotherapeutic strategies. Consequently, the investigation of processes underlying the interaction between the tumor stroma, particularly activated pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs), and immune cells may offer new therapeutic approaches for PDAC treatment. In this study, we established a 3D PDAC model cultured under flow, consisting of an endothelial tube, PSCs and PDAC organoids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) are rare and highly heterogeneous neoplasms whose incidence has markedly increased over the last decades. A grading system based on the tumor cells' proliferation index predicts high-risk for G3 NETs. However, low-to-intermediate grade (G1/G2) NETs have an unpredictable clinical course that varies from indolent to highly malignant.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Transcriptomic analyses have identified two main types of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), each with different biology and clinical outcomes, emphasizing the need to understand the roles of FGFR1 and FGFR4 in aggressive PDAC forms.
  • FGFR4 expression is high in the classical PDAC subtype, correlating with better patient outcomes, while its downregulation in aggressive basal-like/squamous PDAC is linked to gene hypermethylation and decreased transcription marks.
  • In contrast, FGFR1 is widely expressed in various pancreatic tissues and associated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) but not with the aggressive subtype, suggesting that FGFR4 can be a key marker for classifying PD
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is highly refractory to systemic treatment, including radiotherapy (RT) either as alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Magnetic resonance (MR)-guided RT is a novel treatment technique which conjugates the high MR imaging contrast resolution to the possibility of re-adapting treatment plan to daily anatomical variations. Magnetic field (MF) might exert a biological effect that could be exploited to enhance radiation effect.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This protocol is a procedure for generating orthotopic isografts using mouse pancreatic cancer organoids. These isografts can be used to track the evolution of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) from a preinvasive lesion to a metastatic disease and therefore represent a suitable model for identification of determinants of PDA progression. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Boj et al.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) has a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment, which is contributed by the complex interaction between cancer cells and a heterogeneous population of stromal cells. Therefore, facile and trackable models are needed for integrative and dynamic interrogation of cancer-stroma interaction. Here, we tracked the immunoevolution of PDA in a genetically-defined transplantable model of mouse pancreatic tumour organoids that recapitulates the progression of the disease from early preinvasive lesions to metastatic carcinomas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a malignancy of the exocrine pancreas with the worst prognosis among all solid tumours, and soon to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. A more comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying this disease is crucial to the development of diagnostic tools as well as to the identification of more effective therapies. High-frequency mutations in PDA occur in "undruggable" genes, and molecular subtyping based on bulk transcriptome analysis does not yet nominate valid therapeutic intervention strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Mounting evidence suggests that RAF-mediated MEK activation plays a crucial role in paradox MAPK (re)activation, leading to resistance and therapeutic failure with agents hitting a single step along the MAPK cascade.

Methods: We examined the molecular and functional effects of single and combined BRAF (dabrafenib), pan-RAF (RAF265), MEK (trametinib) and EGFR/HER2 (lapatinib) inhibition, using Western Blot and conservative isobologram analysis to assess functional synergism, and explored genetic determinants of synergistic interactions. Immunoprecipitation based assays were used to detect the interaction between BRAF and CRAF.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF