Design and synthesis of phosphonoacetic acid (PPA) ester and amide bioisosters of ribofuranosylnucleoside diphosphates as potential ribonucleotide reductase inhibitors and evaluation of their enzyme inhibitory, cytostatic and antiviral activity.

Continuing our investigations on inhibitors of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), the crucial enzyme that catalyses the reduction of ribonu-cleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, we have now prepared and evaluated 5′-phosphonoacetic acid, amide and ester analogues of adenosine, uridine and cytidine with the aim to verify both substrate specificity and contribution to biological activity of diphosphate mimic moieties. A molecular modelling study has been conducted on the RNR R1 subunit, in order to verify the possible interaction of the proposed bioisosteric moieties. The study compounds were finally tested on the recombinant murine RNR showing a degree of inhibition that ranged from 350 μM for the UDP analogue 5′-deoxy-5′- N-(phosphon-acetyl)uridine sodium salt (amide) to 600 μM for the CDP analogue 5′- O-[(diethyl-phosphon)acetyl]cytidine (ester). None of the tested compounds displayed noteworthy cytostatic activity at 100–500 μM concentrations, whereas ADP analogue 5′- N-[(diethyl-phosphon) acetyl]adenosine (amide) and 5′-deoxy-5′- N-(phos-phon-acetyl)adenosine sodium salt (amide) showed a moderate inhibitory activity (EC50: 48 μM) against HSV-2 and a modest inhibitory activity (EC50: 110 μM) against HIV-1, respectively

Hindered nucleoside analogs as antiflaviviridae agents

Abstract Flaviviridae are an important family of viruses, responsible for widely spread diseases such as dengue and West Nile fever and hepatitis C. Despite the severity of the related diseases, no effective antiviral treatments for infection are available. Following our discovery of adenosine-hindered analogs as potent antiflaviviridae agents, we have continued our investigation on guanosine and inosine derivatives, which were evaluated for activity against BVDV, YFV, DENV, and WNV viruses in cell-based assays. The present study allowed us to identify some newer features that led to improve the antiviral potency (down to the µM range) and to selectively inhibit BVDV and YFV viruses. The molecular modeling results were consistent with the hypothesis that test analogs act as RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) inhibitors by interacting with a surface allosteric binding pocket

Cornici di tortura Lo scandalo di Abu Ghraib come rituale mediatizzato tra fotogiornalismo e arte contemporanea

This paper deals with the scandal of Abu Ghraib. The diffusion of the torture photographs is analyzed as a peculiar form of mediatized ritual, which has cristallized them in the public memory and performatively activated a number of practices of creative re-contextualization and symbolic re-articulation. In particular, the paper problematizes a wide range of forms of artistic representations of the torture photographs, according to three main analytical dimensions: inter-iconic translation, authorial intentions, degree of institutionalization

Fotografia documentaria, corpi politici e maschere sociali

Il paper analizza e contestualizza il progetto editoriale del libro prevalentemente fotografico "Il Corpo del Capitano", evidenziandone contenuti e valenza estetica, politica e culturale, anche in relazione a più ampie dinamiche interne al campo giornalistico, fotografico e artistico. Il paper ne interpreta il processo di produzione e le scelte stilistiche e comunicative come esempio evidente di mutamenti di linguaggio e posizionamento in atto nel campo professionale della fotografia giornalisticodocumentaria e dell’informazione visiva nell’era digitale, ricostruendone le istanze di costruzione di uno statuto autoriale potenzialmente soggetto a consacrazione artistica, e soffermandosi al contempo sul ruolo simbolico e metaforico della «maschera» fotografica di Salvini realizzata come evocativa copertina del volume, a partire dalla copertina del settimanale «Time» con la stessa immagine, pubblicata a introduzione di un editoriale critico nei confronti del crescente potere salviniano ma ripreso e decontestualizzato dalla macchina comunicativa del leader a fini propagandistici e celebrativi

VITE MOBILI

In un passato ancora prossimo l’identità personale veniva costruita sulle radici, sull’appartenenza a un luogo e sui legami con esso. Oggi tutto questo è ormai sostituito dalla capacità di servirsi, approfittare e anche godere di una mobilità, fisica e virtuale, praticamente illimitata: dal pendolarismo tra mutevoli sedi di vita e di lavoro, al flusso ininterrotto di informazioni globali in rete; dal turismo al consumo crescente di merci de-localizzate; dalla possibilità di comunicare con chiunque praticamente da ogni luogo allo sviluppo di relazioni intime a distanza. Esperienze inedite, che portano con sé benefici straordinari ma anche costi non sempre immediatamente visibili

The rules of a middle-brow art: Digital production and cultural consecration in the global field of professional photojournalism

Drawing on Bourdieu\u2019s work on photography, field-theory, and recent research on global journalism and digital photography, this paper advances the framework of the \u201cglobal photojournalistic field\u201d, and empirically focuses on the consecration of a transnational elite of professional photojournalists over the last two decades. It investigates such a process as a prism through which to understand major changes that have been investing the field of professional photojournalism and the wider field of photography since the early 2000s, e.g. the increasingly blurring boundaries between professional and citizen photojournalism, and between news photography and fine-art photography. The paper draws on archive analysis of major international newsmagazines and qualitative interviews with internationally renowned photojournalists, photo-editors, and directors of global news photo agencies. It examines specific news photographs by tracing their aesthetic shapes back to field-dynamics, thus unveiling the \u201crules of the field\u201d that govern the practices of production and the symbolic struggles for distinction, authorship, boundary-making, and power within global photojournalism. Finally, it advances the thesis of an externally favoured process of reciprocal influence between the consecration of a group of professional photojournalists in the global field and the increasing position of news photography in the hierarchy of cultural legitimacies of late-modern society