Multiple changes induced by fibroblasts on breast cancer cells.

It is now widely recognised that the cross-talk between cancer and stromal cells may play a crucial role in cancer progression. However little is known about the complex underlying molecular mechanisms that occur within the tumor microenvironment. Fibroblasts are the major stromal cells with multiple roles, especially towards both the extracellular matrix and the neighbouring cell population, including neoplastic cells. Consequently, proteomic analyses would provide a wider resource for a better understanding of the potential modulating effects exerted by fibroblasts on cancer cells. In this report we describe the effects of fibroblast stimulation on the breast cancer cell line (8701-BC) proteomics, using a trans-well co-culture system. Our results clearly indicate that fibroblasts induce considerable proteomic modulations on 8701-BC, mainly in the cytoskeleton proteins and glycolytic enzymes. Additionally, fibroblast-conditioned medium increased neoplastic cell proliferation and invasion with a concurrent up-regulation of the c-myc oncogene. Collectively these results suggest that fibroblast stimulation may enhance the malignant potential of breast cancer cells in vitro

Peroxisomes:New insights into protein sorting, dynamics, quality control, signalling and roles in health and disease

The 6th Open European peroxisome meeting (OEPM) was held on the 26th and 27th of October (2018) in Groningen, the Netherlands. OEPM is a biannual meeting organized by a European peroxisome research group. Previous meetings were held in Leuven, BE (2006), Lunteren, NL (2010), Dijon, FR (2012), Neuss, GER (2014) and Vienna, AU (2016). Over 120 participants were registered from 14 European countries, as well as Israel, Canada, the USA and South Korea. A large number of European research groups participated, including established and younger groups, showing that peroxisome research is blooming in Europe. This will further expand with the EU Marie Curie Innovative training network PERICO (PERoxisome Interactions and COmmunication; http://www.itn-PERICO.eu; coordinated by Ida van der Klei), which recently started and aims to train the next generation of peroxisome researchers

A note on comonotonicity and positivity of the control components of decoupled quadratic FBSDE

In this small note we are concerned with the solution of Forward-Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (FBSDE) with drivers that grow quadratically in the control component (quadratic growth FBSDE or qgFBSDE). The main theorem is a comparison result that allows comparing componentwise the signs of the control processes of two different qgFBSDE. As a byproduct one obtains conditions that allow establishing the positivity of the control process.Comment: accepted for publicatio

Site Amplifications in the epicentral area of the 2016, M 6, Amatrice earthquake (Italy)

The first mainshock (Mw 6.0) of the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence, severely struck the Amatrice village and the surrounding localities. After a few days, some Italian Institutions, coordinated by the “Center for Seismic Microzonation and its applications”, carried out several preparatory activities for seismic microzonation of the area. A temporary seismic network was installed that monitored about 50 sites in epicentral area. The network produced a huge amount of records in a wide range of magnitude up to Mw 6.5. For about half of the recording stations, detailed site characterization was undertaken, encompassing single station noise measurements and S-wave velocity profiles. The geological and geophysical data together with the collected dataset of seismic signals were exploited to investigate the site response of selected stations. Significant amplifications are found in the correspondence of several sites that experienced a high level of damage (Imcs >IX), mainly at short and intermediate periodsPublishedRoma5T. Sismologia, geofisica e geologia per l'ingegneria sismic

Structure−Activity Relationships of New 1‐Aryl‐1H‐Indole Derivatives as SARS‐CoV‐2 Nsp13 Inhibitors

It has been more than four years since the first report of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the scientific community is focused on vaccine development in an exceptionally rapid time frame, as well as the evaluation of a wide range of potential treatments in clinical trials, a few of which have also reached the market. However, these drugs are characterized by several limits (including low response to treatment in some patients, low effectiveness against the new variants, severe side effects, etc.), thus underscoring the need to speed up the research. Among potential antiviral targets, the SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural protein 13 (nsp13) is highly promising thanks to its pivotal role in viral replication. Pursuing the studies on the development of nsp13 inhibitors, herein, the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of new SARS-CoV-2 nsp13 inhibitors are reported. In general, the newly designed dikehexenoic derivatives are proven active against both the enzymatic activities showing measurable IC50 under 30 μM concentration, while the diketobutanoic series shows less promising results. Moreover, the tested compounds are capable of blocking viral replication without exerting cytotoxicity. Docking studies predict their binding into an allosteric pocket within the RecA2 domain

Site effect studies following the 2016 Mw 6.0 Amatrice Earthquake (Italy): the Emersito Task Force activities

On August 24, 2016, at 01:36 UTC a MW 6.0 earthquake struck an extensive area of the Central Apennines (Italy) be-tween the towns of Norcia and Amatrice. Due to the mainshock magnitude and the widespread damaging level of build-ings in the epicentral area, the Emersito task force has been mobilized by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). The aim of Emersito is to carry out and coordinate the monitoring of local site effects, caused by geological and geomorphological settings. During the first days of the seismic emergency, Emersito installed a tempo-rary seismic network for site effect studies at 4 municipalities close to the epicentral area (Amandola, Civitella del Tronto, Montereale and Capitignano), using 22 stations equipped with both velocimetric and accelerometric sensors. The selection of the sites where stations have been installed was mainly driven by the proximity to the epicentral area (without interfere with the rescue operations) and by peculiar geologic and geomorphologic settings (topographic irregu-larities, fault zones, alluvial plains). Preliminary analyses performed on ambient noise and aftershocks signals show that directional amplification effects may have occurred at stations installed on the top of topographic irregularities. We also observed the lengthening and amplification of the seismograms and a variability of the peaked frequency across the sedi-mentary basin between Montereale and Capitignano, probably related to a different thickness of the deposits. Further analyses are necessary to assess the correlation with surface geology.Published4T. Sismologia, geofisica e geologia per l'ingegneria sismica1SR. TERREMOTI - Servizi e ricerca per la Società1IT. Reti di monitoraggioJCR Journa