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Relazione integrale di progetto presentato al concorso internazionale "Progetti per la Grande Villa Adriana

The glycoside oleandrin reduces glioma growth with direct and indirect effects on tumor cells

Oleandrin is a glycoside that inhibits the ubiquitous enzyme Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase. In addition to its known effects on cardiac muscle, recent in vitro and in vivo evidence highlighted its potential for anticancer properties. Here, we evaluated for the first time the effect of oleandrin on brain tumors. To this aim, mice were transplanted with human or murine glioma and analyzed for tumor progression upon oleandrin treatment. In both systems, oleandrin impaired glioma development, reduced tumor size, and inhibited cell proliferation. We demonstrated that oleandrin does the following: (1) enhances the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level in the brain; (2) reduces both microglia/macrophage infiltration and CD68 immunoreactivity in the tumor mass; (3) decreases astrogliosis in peritumoral area; and (4) reduces glioma cell infiltration in healthy parenchyma. In BDNF-deficient mice (bdnftm1Jae/J) and in glioma cells silenced for TrkB receptor expression, oleandrin was not effective, indicating a crucial role for BDNF in oleandrin's protective and antitumor functions. In addition, we found that oleandrin increases survival of temozolomide-treated mice. These results encourage the development of oleandrin as possible coadjuvant agent in clinical trials of glioma treatment.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In this work, we paved the road for a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of brain tumors, demonstrating the potential of using the cardioactive glycoside oleandrin as a coadjuvant drug to standard chemotherapeutics such as temozolomide. In murine models of glioma, we demonstrated that oleandrin significantly increased mouse survival and reduced tumor growth both directly on tumor cells and indirectly by promoting an antitumor brain microenvironment with a key protective role played by the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor

KCa3.1 channel inhibition sensitizes malignant gliomas to temozolomide treatment

Malignant gliomas are among the most frequent and aggressive cerebral tumors, characterized by high proliferative and invasive indexes. Standard therapy for patients, after surgery and radiotherapy, consists of temozolomide (TMZ), a methylating agent that blocks tumor cell proliferation. Currently, there are no therapies aimed at reducing tumor cell invasion. Ion channels are candidate molecular targets involved in glioma cell migration and infiltration into the brain parenchyma. In this paper we demonstrate that: i) blockade of the calcium-activated potassium channel KCa3.1 with TRAM-34 has co-adjuvant effects with TMZ, reducing GL261 glioma cell migration, invasion and colony forming activity, increasing apoptosis, and forcing cells to pass the G2/M cell cycle phase, likely through cdc2 de-phosphorylation; ii) KCa3.1 silencing potentiates the inhibitory effect of TMZ on glioma cell viability; iii) the combination of TMZ/TRAM-34 attenuates the toxic effects of glioma conditioned medium on neuronal cultures, through a microglia dependent mechanism since the effect is abolished by clodronate-induced microglia killing; iv) TMZ/TRAM-34 co-treatment increases the number of apoptotic tumor cells, and the mean survival time in a syngeneic mouse glioma model (C57BL6 mice implanted with GL261 cells); v) TMZ/TRAM-34 co-treatment reduces cell viability of GBM cells and cancer stem cells (CSC) freshly isolated from patients.Taken together, these data suggest a new therapeutic approach for malignant glioma, targeting both glioma cell proliferating and migration, and demonstrate that TMZ/TRAM-34 co-treatment affects both glioma cells and infiltrating microglia, resulting in an overall reduction of tumor cell progression

Ca2+-activated K+ channels modulate microglia affecting motor neuron survivalin hSOD1G93A mice

Recent studies described a critical role for microglia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), where these CNS-resident immune cells participate in the establishment of an inflammatory microenvironment that contributes to motor neuron degeneration. Understanding the mechanisms leading to microglia activation in ALS could help to identify specific molecular pathways which could be targeted to reduce or delay motor neuron degeneration and muscle paralysis in patients. The intermediate-conductance calcium-activated potassium channel KCa3.1 has been reported to modulate the "pro-inflammatory" phenotype of microglia in different pathological conditions. We here investigated the effects of blocking KCa3.1 activity in the hSOD1G93AALS mouse model, which recapitulates many features of the human disease. We report that treatment of hSOD1G93A mice with a selective KCa3.1 inhibitor, 1-[(2-chlorophenyl)diphenylmethyl]-1H-pyrazole (TRAM-34), attenuates the "pro-inflammatory" phenotype of microglia in the spinal cord, reduces motor neuron death, delays onset of muscle weakness, and increases survival. Specifically, inhibition of KCa3.1 channels slowed muscle denervation, decreased the expression of the fetal acetylcholine receptor γ subunit and reduced neuromuscular junction damage. Taken together, these results demonstrate a key role for KCa3.1 in driving a pro-inflammatory microglia phenotype in ALS

Microglia-derived microvesicles affect microglia phenotype in glioma

Extracellular-released vesicles (EVs), such as microvesicles (MV) and exosomes (Exo) provide a new type of inter-cellular communication, directly transferring a ready to use box of information, consisting of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. In the nervous system, EVs participate to neuron-glial cross-talk, a bidirectional communication important to preserve brain homeostasis and, when dysfunctional, involved in several CNS diseases. We investigated whether microglia-derived EVs could be used to transfer a protective phenotype to dysfunctional microglia in the context of a brain tumor. When MV, isolated from microglia stimulated with LPS/IFNg were brain injected in glioma-bearing mice, we observed a phenotype switch of tumor associated myeloid cells (TAMs) and a reduction of tumor size. Our findings indicate that the MV cargo, which contains upregulated transcripts for several inflammation-related genes, can transfer information in the brain of glioma bearing mice modifying microglial gene expression, reducing neuronal death and glioma invasion, thus promoting the recovery of brain homeostasis

Water-Mediated Nanostructures for Enhanced MRI: Impact of Water Dynamics on Relaxometric Properties of Gd-DTPA

Recently, rational design of a new class of contrast agents (CAs), based on biopolymers (hydrogels), have received considerable attention in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) diagnostic field. Several strategies have been adopted to improve relaxivity without chemical modification of the commercial CAs, however, understanding the MRI enhancement mechanism remains a challenge. Methods: A multidisciplinary approach is used to highlight the basic principles ruling biopolymer-CA interactions in the perspective of their influence on the relaxometric properties of the CA. Changes in polymer conformation and thermodynamic interactions of CAs and polymers in aqueous solutions are detected by isothermal titration calorimetric (ITC) measurements and later, these interactions are investigated at the molecular level using NMR to better understand the involved phenomena. Water molecular dynamics of these systems is also studied using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). To observe relaxometric properties variations, we have monitored the MRI enhancement of the examined structures over all the experiments. The study of polymer-CA solutions reveals that thermodynamic interactions between biopolymers and CAs could be used to improve MRI Gd-based CA efficiency. High-Pressure Homogenization is used to obtain nanoparticles. Results: The effect of the hydration of the hydrogel structure on the relaxometric properties, called Hydrodenticity and its application to the nanomedicine field, is exploited. The explanation of this concept takes place through several key aspects underlying biopolymer-CA's interactions mediated by the water. In addition, Hydrodenticity is applied to develop Gadolinium-based polymer nanovectors with size around 200 nm with improved MRI relaxation time (10-times). Conclusions: The experimental results indicate that the entrapment of metal chelates in hydrogel nanostructures offers a versatile platform for developing different high performing CAs for disease diagnosis

Zinc(II) tetraphenylporphyrin on Au(111) investigated by scanning tunnelling microscopy and photoemission spectroscopy measurements

Porphyrins are a versatile class of molecules, which have attracted attention over the years due to their electronic, optical and biological properties. Self-assembled monolayers of porphyrins were widely studied on metal surfaces in order to understand the supramolecular organization of these molecules, which is a crucial step towards the development of devices starting from thebottom-upapproach. This perspective could lead to tailor the interfacial properties of the surface, depending on the specific interaction between the molecular assembly and the metal surface. In this study, we revisit the investigation of the assembly of zinc-tetraphenylporphyrins on Au(111) in order to explore the adsorption of the molecular network on the noble metal substrate. The combined analysis of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging and core levels photoemission spectroscopy measurements support a peculiar arrangement of the ZnTPP molecular network, with Zn atoms occupying the bridge sites of the Au surface atoms. Furthermore, we prove that, at few-layers coverage, the interaction between the deposited layers allows a relevant molecular mobility of the adlayer, as observed by STM and supported by core levels photoemission analysis

Rapamycin promotes differentiation increasing βIII-tubulin, NeuN, and NeuroD while suppressing nestin expression in glioblastoma cells

Glioblastoma cells feature mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) up-regulation which relates to a variety of effects such as: lower survival, higher infiltration, high stemness and radio- and chemo-resistance. Recently, it was demonstrated that mTOR may produce a gene shift leading to altered protein expression. Therefore, in the present study we administered different doses of the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin to explore whether the transcription of specific genes are modified. By using a variety of methods we demonstrate that rapamycin stimulates gene transcription related to neuronal differentiation while inhibiting stemness related genes such as nestin. In these experimental conditions, cell phenotype shifts towards a pyramidal neuron-like shape owing long branches. Rapamycin suppressed cell migration when exposed to fetal bovine serum (FBS) while increasing the cell adhesion protein phospho-FAK (pFAK). The present study improves our awareness of basic mechanisms which relate mTOR activity to the biology of glioblastoma cells. These findings apply to a variety of effects which can be induced by mTOR regulation in the brain. In fact, the ability to promote neuronal differentiation might be viewed as a novel therapeutic pathway to approach neuronal regeneration

Gail Model Risk Factors: Impact of Adding an Extended Family History for Breast Cancer

An approach commonly used in estimating breast cancer risk is the Gail model. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and impact of adding extended family history as a new breast cancer risk factor into the Gail model. The data of the present study include cases with breast cancer and hospitalized controls recruited in the National Cancer Institute of Naples (southern Italy) between 1997 and 2000. We compared the first-degree relative (FDR) risk factor (standard Gail model) with the second-degree relative (SDR) information; and the FDR risk factor (standard Gail model) with the combination of FDR and SDR. We computed the c-statistic by comparing the risks found in our population to those in Gail-US population. The concordance for the model with FDR was 0.55 (95% CI 0.53-0.58), the model with SDR shows a modest but significant discriminatory accuracy (0.56, 95% CI 0.53-0.59), and the combination of FDR+SDR gave the concordance statistic of 0.57 (95% CI 0.54-0.60), indicating a good comparison between the two models. The results of our study show that extended family history information could be useful to improve the discriminatory power of the Gail model risk factors