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Di Maria A, Bellomo L, Billeci F, Cardillo A, Alaimo S, Ferragina P, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. NetMe 2.0: a web-based platform for extracting and modeling knowledge from biomedical literature as a labeled graph. Bioinformatics 2024; 40:btae194. [PMID: 38597890 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Revised: 03/29/2024] [Accepted: 04/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024]
Abstract
MOTIVATION The rapid increase of bio-medical literature makes it harder and harder for scientists to keep pace with the discoveries on which they build their studies. Therefore, computational tools have become more widespread, among which network analysis plays a crucial role in several life-science contexts. Nevertheless, building correct and complete networks about some user-defined biomedical topics on top of the available literature is still challenging. RESULTS We introduce NetMe 2.0, a web-based platform that automatically extracts relevant biomedical entities and their relations from a set of input texts-i.e. in the form of full-text or abstract of PubMed Central's papers, free texts, or PDFs uploaded by users-and models them as a BioMedical Knowledge Graph (BKG). NetMe 2.0 also implements an innovative Retrieval Augmented Generation module (Graph-RAG) that works on top of the relationships modeled by the BKG and allows the distilling of well-formed sentences that explain their content. The experimental results show that NetMe 2.0 can infer comprehensive and reliable biological networks with significant Precision-Recall metrics when compared to state-of-the-art approaches. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION https://netme.click/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Di Maria
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | | | - Fabrizio Billeci
- Department of Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | - Alfio Cardillo
- Department of Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | - Paolo Ferragina
- Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, 56126 , Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
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Pontarini E, Sciacca E, Chowdhury F, Grigoriadou S, Rivellese F, Murray-Brown WJ, Lucchesi D, Fossati-Jimack L, Nerviani A, Jaworska E, Ghirardi GM, Giacomassi C, Emery P, Ng WF, Sutcliffe N, Everett C, Fernandez C, Tappuni A, Seror R, Mariette X, Porcher R, Cavallaro G, Pulvirenti A, Verstappen GM, de Wolff L, Arends S, Bootsma H, Lewis MJ, Pitzalis C, Bowman SJ, Bombardieri M. Serum and Tissue Biomarkers Associated With Composite of Relevant Endpoints for Sjögren Syndrome (CRESS) and Sjögren Tool for Assessing Response (STAR) to B Cell-Targeted Therapy in the Trial of Anti-B Cell Therapy in Patients With Primary Sjögren Syndrome (TRACTISS). Arthritis Rheumatol 2024; 76:763-776. [PMID: 38073013 DOI: 10.1002/art.42772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2023] [Revised: 10/26/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify peripheral and salivary gland (SG) biomarkers of response/resistance to B cell depletion based on the novel concise Composite of Relevant Endpoints for Sjögren Syndrome (cCRESS) and candidate Sjögren Tool for Assessing Response (STAR) composite endpoints. METHODS Longitudinal analysis of peripheral blood and SG biopsies was performed pre- and post-treatment from the Trial of Anti-B Cell Therapy in Patients With Primary Sjögren Syndrome (TRACTISS) combining flow cytometry immunophenotyping, serum cytokines, and SG bulk RNA sequencing. RESULTS Rituximab treatment prevented the worsening of SG inflammation observed in the placebo arm, by inhibiting the accumulation of class-switched memory B cells within the SG. Furthermore, rituximab significantly down-regulated genes involved in immune-cell recruitment, lymphoid organization alongside antigen presentation, and T cell co-stimulatory pathways. In the peripheral compartment, rituximab down-regulated immunoglobulins and auto-antibodies together with pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Interestingly, patients classified as responders according to STAR displayed significantly higher baseline levels of C-X-C motif chemokine ligand-13 (CXCL13), interleukin (IL)-22, IL-17A, IL-17F, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), whereas a longitudinal analysis of serum T cell-related cytokines showed a selective reduction in both STAR and cCRESS responder patients. Conversely, cCRESS response was better associated with biomarkers of SG immunopathology, with cCRESS-responders showing a significant decrease in SG B cell infiltration and reduced expression of transcriptional gene modules related to T cell costimulation, complement activation, and Fcγ-receptor engagement. Finally, cCRESS and STAR response were associated with a significant improvement in SG exocrine function linked to transcriptional evidence of SG epithelial and metabolic restoration. CONCLUSION Rituximab modulates both peripheral and SG inflammation, preventing the deterioration of exocrine function with functional and metabolic restoration of the glandular epithelium. Response assessed by newly developed cCRESS and STAR criteria was associated with differential modulation of peripheral and SG biomarkers, emerging as novel tools for patient stratification.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Felice Rivellese
- Queen Mary University of London and Bart's Health NHS Trust, London, UK
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Wan Fai Ng
- Newcastle University and NIHR Newcastle Clinical Research Facility, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | | | | | | | - Anwar Tappuni
- Queen Mary University of London and Bart's Health NHS Trust, London, UK
| | - Raphael Seror
- Université' Paris-Saclay, and AP-HP, Hôpital Bicêtre, Le Kremlin, Bicêtre, France
| | - Xavier Mariette
- Université' Paris-Saclay, and AP-HP, Hôpital Bicêtre, Le Kremlin, Bicêtre, France
| | - Raphael Porcher
- Université Paris Cité, Centre de Recherche Épidémiologie et Statistiques Paris, France
| | | | | | - Gwenny M Verstappen
- University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Liseth de Wolff
- University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Suzanne Arends
- University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Hendrika Bootsma
- University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Miles J Lewis
- Queen Mary University of London and Bart's Health NHS Trust, London, UK
| | | | - Simon J Bowman
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
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Cosentini I, Condorelli DF, Locicero G, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A, Barresi V, Alaimo S. Measuring cancer driving force of chromosomal aberrations through multi-layer Boolean implication networks. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0301591. [PMID: 38593144 PMCID: PMC11003681 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2023] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Multi-layer Complex networks are commonly used for modeling and analysing biological entities. This paper presents the advantage of using COMBO (Combining Multi Bio Omics) to suggest a new role of the chromosomal aberration as a cancer driver factor. Exploiting the heterogeneous multi-layer networks, COMBO integrates gene expression and DNA-methylation data in order to identify complex bilateral relationships between transcriptome and epigenome. We evaluated the multi-layer networks generated by COMBO on different TCGA cancer datasets (COAD, BLCA, BRCA, CESC, STAD) focusing on the effect of a specific chromosomal numerical aberration, broad gain in chromosome 20, on different cancer histotypes. In addition, the effect of chromosome 8q amplification was tested in the same TCGA cancer dataset. The results demonstrate the ability of COMBO to identify the chromosome 20 amplification cancer driver force in the different TCGA Pan Cancer project datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilaria Cosentini
- Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation (IRIB), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Palermo, Italy
| | - Daniele Filippo Condorelli
- Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Medical Biochemistry, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Giorgio Locicero
- Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation (IRIB), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Palermo, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Vincenza Barresi
- Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Medical Biochemistry, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Privitera GF, Alaimo S, Caruso A, Ferro A, Forte S, Pulvirenti A. TMBcalc: a computational pipeline for identifying pan-cancer Tumor Mutational Burden gene signatures. Front Genet 2024; 15:1285305. [PMID: 38645485 PMCID: PMC11026579 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1285305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Background In the precision medicine era, identifying predictive factors to select patients most likely to benefit from treatment with immunological agents is a crucial and open challenge in oncology. Methods This paper presents a pan-cancer analysis of Tumor Mutational Burden (TMB). We developed a novel computational pipeline, TMBcalc, to calculate the TMB. Our methodology can identify small and reliable gene signatures to estimate TMB from custom targeted-sequencing panels. For this purpose, our pipeline has been trained on top of 17 cancer types data obtained from TCGA. Results Our results show that TMB, computed through the identified signature, strongly correlates with TMB obtained from whole-exome sequencing (WES). Conclusion We have rigorously analyzed the effectiveness of our methodology on top of several independent datasets. In particular we conducted a comprehensive testing on: (i) 126 samples sourced from the TCGA database; few independent whole-exome sequencing (WES) datasets linked to colon, breast, and liver cancers, all acquired from the EGA and the ICGC Data Portal. This rigorous evaluation clearly highlights the robustness and practicality of our approach, positioning it as a promising avenue for driving substantial progress within the realm of clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grete Francesca Privitera
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Anna Caruso
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Stefano Forte
- Istituto Oncologico del Mediterraneo (IOM) Ricerca, Viagrande, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Falsaperla R, Collotta AD, Marino SD, Sortino V, Leonardi R, Privitera GF, Pulvirenti A, Suppiej A, Vecchi M, Verrotti A, Farello G, Spalice A, Elia M, Spitaleri O, Micale M, Mailo J, Ruggieri M. Drug resistant epilepsies: A multicentre case series of steroid therapy. Seizure 2024; 117:115-125. [PMID: 38394725 DOI: 10.1016/j.seizure.2024.02.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2023] [Revised: 02/12/2024] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Our study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of corticosteroids on seizure control in drug-resistant epilepsies (DREs). Our primary goal was to assess the response to steroids for various underlying etiologies, interictal electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns and electroclinical seizure descriptions. Our second goal was to compare steroid responsiveness to different treatment protocols. METHODS This is a retrospective multicentre cohort study conducted according to the STROBE guidelines (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology). The following data were collected for each patient: epilepsy etiology, interictal EEG pattern, seizure types and type of steroid treatment protocol administered. RESULTS Thirty patients with DRE were included in the study. After 6 months of therapy, 62.7 % of patients experienced reduced seizure frequency by 50 %, and 6.6 % of patients experienced complete seizure cessation. Findings associated with favourable response to steroids included structural/lesional etiology of epilepsy, immune/infectious etiology and focal interictal abnormalities on EEG. Comparing four different steroid treatment protocols, the most effective for seizure control was treatment with methylprednisolone at the dose of 30 mg/kg/day administered for 3 days, leading to greater than 50 % seizure reduction at 6 months in 85.7 % of patients. Treatment with dexamethasone 6 mg/day for 5 days decreased seizure frequency in 71.4 % of patients. Hydrocortisone 10 mg/kg administered for 3 months showed a good response to treatment in 71 %. CONCLUSIONS In our study, two-thirds of patients with DRE experienced a significant seizure reduction following treatment with steroids. We suggest considering steroids as a potential therapeutic option in children with epilepsy not responding to conventional antiseizure medicines (ASM).
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Affiliation(s)
- Raffaele Falsaperla
- Paediatric and Paediatric Emergency Department, University Hospital "Policlinico-San Marco", Catania, Italy; Unit of Intensive Care and Neonatology, University Hospital "Policlinico-San Marco", Catania, Italy.
| | - Ausilia Desiree Collotta
- Paediatric and Paediatric Emergency Department, University Hospital "Policlinico-San Marco", Catania, Italy; Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Postgraduate Training Program in Pediatrics, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
| | - Simona D Marino
- Paediatric and Paediatric Emergency Department, University Hospital "Policlinico-San Marco", Catania, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Sortino
- Paediatric and Paediatric Emergency Department, University Hospital "Policlinico-San Marco", Catania, Italy; Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Postgraduate Training Program in Pediatrics, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Roberta Leonardi
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Postgraduate Training Program in Pediatrics, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Grete Francesca Privitera
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Viale A. Doria, 6, Catania 95125, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Viale A. Doria, 6, Catania 95125, Italy
| | - Agnese Suppiej
- Medical Science Department (D.O.), Maternal and Child Department, Ferrara University Hospital, University of Ferrara, Italy
| | - Marilena Vecchi
- Paediatric Neurology and Neurophysiology Unit, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Padova University Hospital, Padova, Italy
| | - Alberto Verrotti
- Clinical Paediatric, University of Perugia, Hospital SM Della Misericordia, Perugia, Italy
| | - Giovanni Farello
- Clinical Paediatric, University of Perugia, Hospital SM Della Misericordia, Perugia, Italy
| | - Alberto Spalice
- Department of Paediatrics, Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Maurizio Elia
- Unit of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiopathology, Oasi Research Institute, IRCCS, Troina, Italy
| | - Orazio Spitaleri
- Paediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Hospital " S.Marta e S.Venera", Acireale, Italy
| | - Marco Micale
- Paediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Maternal and Child Department, Arnas Civico, Palermo, Italy
| | - Janette Mailo
- Division of Paediatric Neurology, University of Alberta, Canada
| | - Martino Ruggieri
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Unit of Clinical Pediatrics, Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Catania, Catania 95124, Italy
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La Ferlita A, Alaimo S, Nigita G, Distefano R, Beane JD, Tsichlis PN, Ferro A, Croce CM, Pulvirenti A. tRFUniverse: A comprehensive resource for the interactive analyses of tRNA-derived ncRNAs in human cancer. iScience 2024; 27:108810. [PMID: 38303722 PMCID: PMC10831894 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Revised: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
tRNA-derived ncRNAs are a heterogeneous class of non-coding RNAs recently proposed to be active regulators of gene expression and be involved in many diseases, including cancer. Consequently, several online resources on tRNA-derived ncRNAs have been released. Although interesting, such resources present only basic features and do not adequately exploit the wealth of knowledge available about tRNA-derived ncRNAs. Therefore, we introduce tRFUniverse, a novel online resource for the analysis of tRNA-derived ncRNAs in human cancer. tRFUniverse presents an extensive collection of classes of tRNA-derived ncRNAs analyzed across all the TCGA and TARGET tumor cohorts, NCI-60 cell lines, and biological fluids. Moreover, public AGO CLASH/CLIP-Seq data were analyzed to identify the molecular interactions between tRNA-derived ncRNAs and other transcripts. Importantly, tRFUniverse combines in a single resource a comprehensive set of features that we believe may be helpful to investigate the involvement of tRNA-derived ncRNAs in cancer biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro La Ferlita
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Knowmics Lab, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Giovanni Nigita
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Rosario Distefano
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Joal D. Beane
- Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Philip N. Tsichlis
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Knowmics Lab, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Carlo M. Croce
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Knowmics Lab, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Vinciguerra F, Di Stefano C, Baratta R, Pulvirenti A, Mastrandrea G, Piazza L, Guccione F, Navarra G, Frittitta L. Efficacy of High-dose Liraglutide 3.0 mg in Patients with Poor Response to Bariatric Surgery: Real-world Experience and Updated Meta-analysis. Obes Surg 2024; 34:303-309. [PMID: 38183597 PMCID: PMC10811090 DOI: 10.1007/s11695-023-07053-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Revised: 12/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/30/2023] [Indexed: 01/08/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE Poor response to bariatric surgery, characterized by insufficient weight loss (IWL) or weight regain (WR), poses a significant challenge in obesity treatment. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of liraglutide in addressing this issue. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective, multicenter cohort study investigated the impact of liraglutide 3 mg on weight loss in adults with suboptimal responses or weight regain after bariatric surgery (BS). Additionally, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted for a comprehensive evaluation. RESULTS A total of 119 patients (mean age 41.03 ± 11.2 years, 71.4% female) who experienced IWL or WR after BS received pharmacologic therapy with liraglutide 3 mg. Mean percent weight loss in the entire cohort was 5.6 ± 2.6% at 12 weeks and 9.3 ± 3.6% at 24 weeks with a significant reduction in waist circumference (p < 0.0001). No serious side effects were reported. A meta-analysis, utilizing the fixed effect model with the metafor package in R, included 6 and 5 papers for the change in body weight and BMI after liraglutide treatment, respectively. The analysis demonstrated a considerable reduction in body weight (7.9; CI - 10.4; - 5.4, p < 0.0001) and BMI (3.09; CI 3.89; - 2.28, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION Liraglutide 3 mg emerges as a viable option for significant weight loss in patients experiencing IWL or WR after BS. Its inclusion in a multimodal, sequential obesity treatment approach proves promising.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Vinciguerra
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia, 89, 95123, Catania, Italy.
| | - Carla Di Stefano
- General and Emergency Surgery Department, Garibaldi Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - Roberto Baratta
- Endocrinology Unit, Garibaldi Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95131, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Luigi Piazza
- General and Emergency Surgery Department, Garibaldi Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - Fabio Guccione
- Department of Human Pathology, University of Messina, 98122, Messina, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Navarra
- Department of Human Pathology, University of Messina, 98122, Messina, Italy
| | - Lucia Frittitta
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia, 89, 95123, Catania, Italy
- Diabetes and Obesity Center, Garibaldi Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
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Ferlita AL, Nigita G, Tsyba L, Palamarchuk A, Alaimo S, Pulvirenti A, Balatti V, Rassenti L, Tsichlis PN, Kipps T, Pekarsky Y, Croce CM. Expression signature of human endogenous retroviruses in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2307593120. [PMID: 37871223 PMCID: PMC10622969 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307593120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is one of the most diagnosed forms of leukemia worldwide and it is usually classified into two forms: indolent and aggressive. These two forms are characterized by distinct molecular features that drive different responses to treatment and clinical outcomes. In this context, a better understanding of the molecular landscape of the CLL forms may potentially lead to the development of new drugs or the identification of novel biomarkers. Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are a class of transposable elements that have been associated with the development of different human cancers, including different forms of leukemias. However, no studies about HERVs in CLL have ever been reported so far. Here, we present the first locus-specific profiling of HERV expression in both the aggressive and indolent forms of CLL. Our analyses revealed several dysregulations in HERV expression occurring in CLL and some of them were specific for either the aggressive or indolent form of CLL. Such results were also validated by analyzing an external cohort of CLL patients and by RT-qPCR. Moreover, in silico analyses have shown relevant signaling pathways associated with them suggesting a potential involvement of the dysregulated HERVs in these pathways and consequently in CLL development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro La Ferlita
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Giovanni Nigita
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Liudmyla Tsyba
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Alexey Palamarchuk
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania95123, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania95123, Italy
| | - Veronica Balatti
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Laura Rassenti
- Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La JollaCA92093
| | - Philip N. Tsichlis
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Thomas Kipps
- Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La JollaCA92093
| | - Yuri Pekarsky
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Carlo M. Croce
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
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Vinciguerra F, Piazza L, Di Stefano C, Degano C, Pulvirenti A, Baratta R, Frittitta L. High-dose liraglutide improves metabolic syndrome in poor responders to bariatric surgery. Front Nutr 2023; 10:1183899. [PMID: 37771756 PMCID: PMC10524598 DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1183899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Bariatric surgery (BS) represents the most effective therapy for obesity class III, or class II with at least one weight-related comorbidity. However, some patients have insufficient weight loss or clinically relevant weight regain after a successful primary procedure. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of liraglutide treatment on weight loss, body composition and improvement of metabolic syndrome (MS) in patients defined as poor responders after BS. Methods The study involved 59 non-diabetic adults with obesity (M/F: 17/42, age: 38.6 ± 11.8 years, BMI 38.3 ± 5.5 kg/m2) who had been treated with BS and experienced a poor response, categorized as either IWL (insufficient weight loss) or WR (weight regain). All patients were prescribed pharmacological therapy with liraglutide and attended nutritional counseling. Anthropometric and clinical measurements, body composition and the presence of MS defined according to the ATP-III classification were evaluated before starting liraglutide and after 24 weeks of treatment. Results After 24 weeks of treatment with liraglutide, the mean weight loss was 8.4% ± 3.6% with no difference between gender, bariatric procedure, or type of poor response (IWL or WR). A significant decrease in fat mass, free-fat mass and total body water was documented. After 24 weeks, patients presented significantly lowered fasting glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, AST and ALT. The prevalence of MS was reduced from 35% at baseline to 1.6% after 24 weeks. No patients discontinued the treatment during the study. Conclusion In patients who experience poor response after BS, liraglutide is well tolerated and promotes significant weight loss, ameliorates cardiometabolic comorbidities, and reduces the prevalence of MS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Vinciguerra
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Luigi Piazza
- General and Emergency Surgery Department, Garibaldi Hospital, Catania, Italy
| | - Carla Di Stefano
- General and Emergency Surgery Department, Garibaldi Hospital, Catania, Italy
| | - Claudia Degano
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Lucia Frittitta
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- Diabetes and Obesity Center, Garibaldi Hospital, Catania, Italy
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10
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Panebianco S, Pellegriti MG, Finocchiaro C, Musumarra A, Barone G, Caggiani MC, Cirvilleri G, Lanzafame G, Pulvirenti A, Scordino A, Mazzoleni P. XRF analysis searching for fingerprint elemental profile in south-eastern Sicily tomatoes. Sci Rep 2023; 13:13739. [PMID: 37612357 PMCID: PMC10447457 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40124-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/25/2023] Open
Abstract
The implementation of analytical techniques able to certify food quality and origin in a fast and non-destructive way is becoming a widespread need in the agri-food sector. Among the physical non-destructive techniques, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry is often used to analyze the elemental composition of biological samples. In this study, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) elemental profiles were measured on tomato samples belonging to different geographical areas in Sicily (Italy). The purpose of this investigation was aiming to establish a protocol for in-situ measurement and analysis able to provide quality assessment and traceability of PGI agri-food products, specifically sustaining health safety and self qualifying bio-chemical signature. In detail, sampling was performed in one of the most tomato productive area of south-eastern Sicily (Pachino district), characterised by a relative higher amount of Organic Carbon and Cation Exchange Capacity, and compared with samples from other growing areas of Sicily, falling in Ragusa province and Mt. Etna region. Experimental data were analyzed in the framework of multivariate analysis by using principal component analysis and further validated by discriminant analysis. The results show the presence of specific elemental signatures associated to several characterizing elements. This methodology establishes the possibility to disentangle a clear fingerprint pattern associated to the geographical origin of an agri-food product.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvina Panebianco
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
- Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Claudio Finocchiaro
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Agatino Musumarra
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy.
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Catania, Italy.
| | - Germana Barone
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Maria Cristina Caggiani
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Gabriella Cirvilleri
- Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Gabriele Lanzafame
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Unità Bioinformatica, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Agata Scordino
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
| | - Paolo Mazzoleni
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
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11
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Muoio MG, Pellegrino M, Rapicavoli V, Talia M, Scavo G, Sergi V, Vella V, Pettinato S, Galasso MG, Lappano R, Scordamaglia D, Cirillo F, Pulvirenti A, Rigiracciolo DC, Maggiolini M, Belfiore A, De Francesco EM. Publisher Correction: RAGE inhibition blunts insulin-induced oncogenic signals in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res 2023; 25:94. [PMID: 37563657 PMCID: PMC10413515 DOI: 10.1186/s13058-023-01689-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/12/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- M G Muoio
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - M Pellegrino
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - V Rapicavoli
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - M Talia
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - G Scavo
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - V Sergi
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - V Vella
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - S Pettinato
- Breast Unit Breast Surgery, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - M G Galasso
- Pathological Anatomy Unit, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - R Lappano
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - D Scordamaglia
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - F Cirillo
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - A Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95131, Catania, Italy
| | - D C Rigiracciolo
- Department of Experimental Oncology, IEO, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Via Adamello 16, 20139, Milan, Italy
| | - M Maggiolini
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy.
| | - A Belfiore
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - E M De Francesco
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy.
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12
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Muoio MG, Pellegrino M, Rapicavoli V, Talia M, Scavo G, Sergi V, Vella V, Pettinato S, Galasso MG, Lappano R, Scordamaglia D, Cirillo F, Pulvirenti A, Rigiracciolo DC, Maggiolini M, Belfiore A, De Francesco EM. RAGE inhibition blunts insulin-induced oncogenic signals in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res 2023; 25:84. [PMID: 37461077 PMCID: PMC10351154 DOI: 10.1186/s13058-023-01686-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is implicated in diabetes and obesity complications, as well as in breast cancer (BC). Herein, we evaluated whether RAGE contributes to the oncogenic actions of Insulin, which plays a key role in BC progression particularly in obese and diabetic patients. Analysis of the publicly available METABRIC study, which collects gene expression and clinical data from a large cohort (n = 1904) of BC patients, revealed that RAGE and the Insulin Receptor (IR) are co-expressed and associated with negative prognostic parameters. In MCF-7, ZR75 and 4T1 BC cells, as well as in patient-derived Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts, the pharmacological inhibition of RAGE as well as its genetic depletion interfered with Insulin-induced activation of the oncogenic pathway IR/IRS1/AKT/CD1. Mechanistically, IR and RAGE directly interacted upon Insulin stimulation, as shown by in situ proximity ligation assays and coimmunoprecipitation studies. Of note, RAGE inhibition halted the activation of both IR and insulin like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R), as demonstrated in MCF-7 cells KO for the IR and the IGF-1R gene via CRISPR-cas9 technology. An unbiased label-free proteomic analysis uncovered proteins and predicted pathways affected by RAGE inhibition in Insulin-stimulated BC cells. Biologically, RAGE inhibition reduced cell proliferation, migration, and patient-derived mammosphere formation triggered by Insulin. In vivo, the pharmacological inhibition of RAGE halted Insulin-induced tumor growth, without affecting blood glucose homeostasis. Together, our findings suggest that targeting RAGE may represent an appealing opportunity to blunt Insulin-induced oncogenic signaling in BC.
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Affiliation(s)
- M G Muoio
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - M Pellegrino
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - V Rapicavoli
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - M Talia
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - G Scavo
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - V Sergi
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - V Vella
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - S Pettinato
- Breast Unit Breast Surgery, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - M G Galasso
- Pathological Anatomy Unit, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - R Lappano
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - D Scordamaglia
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - F Cirillo
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy
| | - A Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95131, Catania, Italy
| | - D C Rigiracciolo
- Department of Experimental Oncology, IEO, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Via Adamello 16, 20139, Milan, Italy
| | - M Maggiolini
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036, Rende, Italy.
| | - A Belfiore
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy
| | - E M De Francesco
- Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, 95122, Catania, Italy.
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13
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Gallo L, Latora V, Pulvirenti A. MultiplexSAGE: A Multiplex Embedding Algorithm for Inter-Layer Link Prediction. IEEE Trans Neural Netw Learn Syst 2023; PP:1-10. [PMID: 37224354 DOI: 10.1109/tnnls.2023.3274565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Research on graph representation learning has received great attention in recent years. However, most of the studies so far have focused on the embedding of single-layer graphs. The few studies dealing with the problem of representation learning of multilayer structures rely on the strong hypothesis that the inter-layer links are known, and this limits the range of possible applications. Here we propose MultiplexSAGE, a generalization of the GraphSAGE algorithm that allows embedding multiplex networks. We show that MultiplexSAGE is capable to reconstruct both the intra-layer and the inter-layer connectivity, outperforming competing methods. Next, through a comprehensive experimental analysis, we shed light also on the performance of the embedding, both in simple and multiplex networks, showing that both the density of the graph and the randomness of the links strongly influences the quality of the embedding.
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14
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Sciacca E, Alaimo S, Silluzio G, Ferro A, Latora V, Pitzalis C, Pulvirenti A, Lewis MJ. DEGGs: an R package with shiny app for the identification of Differentially Expressed Gene-Gene interactions in high-throughput sequencing data. Bioinformatics 2023; 39:7135827. [PMID: 37084249 PMCID: PMC10133399 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 03/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Abstract
SUMMARY The discovery of differential gene-gene correlations across phenotypical groups can help identify the activation/deactivation of critical biological processes underlying specific conditions. The presented R package, provided with a count and design matrix, extract networks of group-specific interactions that can be interactively explored through a shiny user-friendly interface. For each gene-gene link, differential statistical significance is provided through robust linear regression with an interaction term. AVAILABILITY DEGGs is implemented in R and available on GitHub at https://github.com/elisabettasciacca/DEGGs. The package is also under submission on Bioconductor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabetta Sciacca
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
- Centre for Translational Bioinformatics, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- University of Catania, Dept. of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania Italy
| | - Gianmarco Silluzio
- Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, University of Catania, Catania Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- University of Catania, Dept. of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania Italy
| | - Vito Latora
- School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University, London, United Kingdom
- Dipartimento di Fisica ed Astronomia, Università di Catania and INFN, Catania, I-95123, Italy
| | - Costantino Pitzalis
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- University of Catania, Dept. of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania Italy
| | - Myles J Lewis
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
- Centre for Translational Bioinformatics, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
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15
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Maria NI, Rapicavoli RV, Alaimo S, Bischof E, Stasuzzo A, Broek JA, Pulvirenti A, Mishra B, Duits AJ, Ferro A. Application of the PHENotype SIMulator for rapid identification of potential candidates in effective COVID-19 drug repurposing. Heliyon 2023; 9:e14115. [PMID: 36911878 PMCID: PMC9986505 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 02/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The current, rapidly diversifying pandemic has accelerated the need for efficient and effective identification of potential drug candidates for COVID-19. Knowledge on host-immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, however, remains limited with few drugs approved to date. Viable strategies and tools are rapidly arising to address this, especially with repurposing of existing drugs offering significant promise. Here we introduce a systems biology tool, the PHENotype SIMulator, which -by leveraging available transcriptomic and proteomic databases-allows modeling of SARS-CoV-2 infection in host cells in silico to i) determine with high sensitivity and specificity (both>96%) the viral effects on cellular host-immune response, resulting in specific cellular SARS-CoV-2 signatures and ii) utilize these cell-specific signatures to identify promising repurposable therapeutics. Powered by this tool, coupled with domain expertise, we identify several potential COVID-19 drugs including methylprednisolone and metformin, and further discern key cellular SARS-CoV-2-affected pathways as potential druggable targets in COVID-19 pathogenesis.
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Key Words
- 2DG, 2-Deoxy-Glucose
- ACE2, Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2
- COVID-19
- COVID-19, Coronavirus disease 2019
- Caco-2, Human colon epithelial carcinoma cell line
- Calu-3, Epithelial cell line
- Cellular SARS-CoV-2 signatures
- Cellular host-immune response
- Cellular simulation models
- DEGs, Differentially Expressed Genes
- DEPs, Differentially expressed proteins
- Drug repurposing
- HCQ-CQ, (Hydroxy)chloroquine
- IFN, Interferon
- ISGs, IFN-stimulated genes
- MITHrIL, Mirna enrIched paTHway Impact anaLysis
- MOI, Multiplicity of infection
- MP, Methylprednisolone
- NHBE, Normal human bronchial epithelial cells
- PHENSIM, PHENotype SIMulator
- SARS-CoV-2, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
- Systems biology
- TLR, Toll-like Receptor
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Affiliation(s)
- Naomi I. Maria
- Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA
- Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
- Department of Medicine, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
- Red Cross Blood Bank Foundation Curaçao, Willemstad, Curaçao
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, St. Antonius Ziekenhuis, Niewegein, the Netherlands
- Corresponding author. Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA.
| | - Rosaria Valentina Rapicavoli
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Italy
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
| | - Evelyne Bischof
- Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Pansini, Naples, Italy
- School of Clinical Medicine, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Pudong, Shanghai, China
- Insilico Medicine, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
| | | | - Jantine A.C. Broek
- Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
| | - Bud Mishra
- Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA
- Simon Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, Long Island, USA
- Corresponding author. Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Room 405, 251 Mercer Street, NY, USA.
| | - Ashley J. Duits
- Red Cross Blood Bank Foundation Curaçao, Willemstad, Curaçao
- Curaçao Biomedical Health Research Institute, Willemstad, Curaçao
- Institute for Medical Education, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
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16
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Panebianco S, Mazzoleni P, Barone G, Musumarra A, Pellegriti MG, Pulvirenti A, Scordino A, Cirvilleri G. Feasibility study of tomato fruit characterization by fast XRF analysis for quality assessment and food traceability. Food Chem 2022; 383:132364. [PMID: 35193091 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132364] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Revised: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Food product nutritional and sensory characteristics are often deeply linked to its territory of origin; therefore, its authentication by means of elemental composition becomes crucial for traceability and fighting food fraud. This study aims to establish a fast and reproducible procedure for origin and quality assessment of Sicilian tomato fruits, including PGI "Pomodoro di Pachino", by using the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique. Measurements were performed on different parts of PGI Pachino tomatoes belonging to the same production lot. Principal Component and Cluster Analyses show that the samples cluster accordingly with the production lot, disentangling the different parts of the fruit. This procedure, which uses XRF yield elemental pattern and statistical analysis, establishes a solid basis for characterizing elemental profiles by a fast XRF in-situ campaign, supporting the traceability system. The reliability of XRF results was confirmed by comparing elemental concentrations with ICP-MS measurements, performed for comparison, and tomato literature values.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Panebianco
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - P Mazzoleni
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Italy.
| | - G Barone
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Italy
| | - A Musumarra
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - M G Pellegriti
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - A Pulvirenti
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Unità Bioinformatica, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - A Scordino
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
| | - G Cirvilleri
- Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università di Catania, Italy
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17
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Sciacca E, Surace AEA, Alaimo S, Pulvirenti A, Rivellese F, Goldmann K, Ferro A, Latora V, Pitzalis C, Lewis MJ. Network analysis of synovial RNA sequencing identifies gene-gene interactions predictive of response in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Res Ther 2022; 24:166. [PMID: 35820911 PMCID: PMC9275048 DOI: 10.1186/s13075-022-02803-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND To determine whether gene-gene interaction network analysis of RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) of synovial biopsies in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can inform our understanding of RA pathogenesis and yield improved treatment response prediction models. METHODS We utilized four well curated pathway repositories obtaining 10,537 experimentally evaluated gene-gene interactions. We extracted specific gene-gene interaction networks in synovial RNA-Seq to characterize histologically defined pathotypes in early RA and leverage these synovial specific gene-gene networks to predict response to methotrexate-based disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy in the Pathobiology of Early Arthritis Cohort (PEAC). Differential interactions identified within each network were statistically evaluated through robust linear regression models. Ability to predict response to DMARD treatment was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. RESULTS Analysis comparing different histological pathotypes showed a coherent molecular signature matching the histological changes and highlighting novel pathotype-specific gene interactions and mechanisms. Analysis of responders vs non-responders revealed higher expression of apoptosis regulating gene-gene interactions in patients with good response to conventional synthetic DMARD. Detailed analysis of interactions between pairs of network-linked genes identified the SOCS2/STAT2 ratio as predictive of treatment success, improving ROC area under curve (AUC) from 0.62 to 0.78. We identified a key role for angiogenesis, observing significant statistical interactions between NOS3 (eNOS) and both CAMK1 and eNOS activator AKT3 when comparing responders and non-responders. The ratio of CAMKD2/NOS3 enhanced a prediction model of response improving ROC AUC from 0.63 to 0.73. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrate a novel, powerful method which harnesses gene interaction networks for leveraging biologically relevant gene-gene interactions leading to improved models for predicting treatment response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabetta Sciacca
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.,Centre for Translational Bioinformatics, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Anna E A Surace
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.,Centre for Translational Bioinformatics, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Felice Rivellese
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Katriona Goldmann
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.,Centre for Translational Bioinformatics, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Vito Latora
- School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.,Dipartimento di Fisica ed Astronomia, Università di Catania and INFN, I-95123, Catania, Italy
| | - Costantino Pitzalis
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
| | - Myles J Lewis
- Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK. .,Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
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18
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Fusar-Poli L, Surace T, Meo V, Patania F, Avanzato C, Pulvirenti A, Aguglia E, Signorelli MS. Psychological well-being and family distress of Italian caregivers during the COVID-19 outbreak. J Community Psychol 2022; 50:2243-2259. [PMID: 34897728 DOI: 10.1002/jcop.22772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2021] [Revised: 10/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the personal well-being and family distress of Italian caregivers during the lockdown. Five hundred sixty-five family caregivers and 638 age- and sex-matched noncaregivers completed a web-based survey. The following scales were administered to all participants: General Health Questionnaire-12 items (GHQ-12), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), and Family Distress Index (FDI). Caregivers were also asked to provide information about their family members with disabilities. Individual and family distress, as well as insomnia, were significantly higher in caregivers than controls. Contrariwise, caregivers reported lower resilience levels. Multiple linear regression showed that distress was higher in caregivers living in Central and Southern Italy. Individual well-being was negatively predicted by low independence measured by the activities of daily living (ADL). Family distress was higher in households of psychiatric patients. Finally, low resilience levels appeared as the strongest predictors of both individual and family distress. The lockdown caused severe distress among caregivers and families of people with disabilities. Support networks for people with disabilities and their families are fundamental to prevent severe consequences from a psychological, social, and economical point of view.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Fusar-Poli
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Teresa Surace
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Valeria Meo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Federica Patania
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Chiara Avanzato
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Unit of Bioinformatics and Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Eugenio Aguglia
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Maria Salvina Signorelli
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Privitera GF, Alaimo S, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. Virus finding tools: current solutions and limitations. Brief Bioinform 2022; 23:6618234. [PMID: 35753694 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2022] [Revised: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION The study of the Human Virome remains challenging nowadays. Viral metagenomics, through high-throughput sequencing data, is the best choice for virus discovery. The metagenomics approach is culture-independent and sequence-independent, helping search for either known or novel viruses. Though it is estimated that more than 40% of the viruses found in metagenomics analysis are not recognizable, we decided to analyze several tools to identify and discover viruses in RNA-seq samples. RESULTS We have analyzed eight Virus Tools for the identification of viruses in RNA-seq data. These tools were compared using a synthetic dataset of 30 viruses and a real one. Our analysis shows that no tool succeeds in recognizing all the viruses in the datasets. So we can conclude that each of these tools has pros and cons, and their choice depends on the application domain. AVAILABILITY Synthetic data used through the review and raw results of their analysis can be found at https://zenodo.org/record/6426147. FASTQ files of real data can be found in GEO (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gds) or ENA (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/home). Raw results of their analysis can be downloaded from https://zenodo.org/record/6425917.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grete Francesca Privitera
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria, 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dept. of Math. and Comp. Science Viale A. Doria, 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dept. of Math. and Comp. Science Viale A. Doria, 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dept. of Math. and Comp. Science Viale A. Doria, 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
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20
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Maria NI, Rapicavoli RV, Alaimo S, Bischof E, Pulvirenti A, Mishra B, Duits AJ, Ferro A. Potential Clinical Applicability of The PHENotype SIMulator for In Silico Viral Co-Infection Studies in COVID-19. The Journal of Immunology 2022. [DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.208.supp.172.19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Abstract
The PHENotype SIMulator, is a systems biology tool, which leverages available transcriptomic and proteomic databases to model of SARS-CoV-2 host-infection in silico. PHENSIM can determine the viral effects on cellular host-immune responses, which we recently applied to in silico drug repurposing for COVID-19. There is a clear importance of previously imprinted viral infections on the host-immune response against SARS-CoV2. In this study we explore the potential clinical applicability of PHENSIM in addressing co-infection of SARS-CoV2 (SCoV2) and human rhinovirus (HRV), or SCoV2 and Influenza A Virus (IAV).
We leveraged PHENSIM to simulate HRV-infection of A549 lung alveolar cells at 24hours in silico, yielding comparable cellular transcriptomic signatures as previously published for in vitro HRV-infection, including antiviral and inflammatory gene transcriptomics. Next, we simulated viral co-infection of HRV/SCoV2 or IAV/SCoV2 using PHENSIM, and assessed co-infection effects in silico.
Similar to recent in vitro studies, our in silico results indicated HRV-infection prior to SCoV2 exposure induced ISG responses and downregulated SCoV2 transcriptomic activity. Further analysis revealed several key SCoV2 affected pathways, including IFN Type-I & -III and MHC-II pathways, to be negatively affected by HRV-infection. In contrast, co-infection with IAV and SCoV2 resulted in overall increased SCoV2 transcriptomic activity.
Our PHENSIM results confirm HRV-imprinted downmodulation of SARS-CoV2 activity and the importance of timely IFN pathway activation for effective immune response and viral clearance. Identified anti-correlating pathways are of interest for therapeutic targeting and effective drug development.
N.I.M. was funded in part by a fellowship award from the Netherlands-Caribbean Foundation for Clinical Higher Education (NASKHO). S.A., A.F. and A.P. have been partially supported by the MIUR PON research project BILIGeCT “Liquid Biopsies for Cancer Clinical Management”. National Cancer Institute Physical Sciences-Oncology Center Grant U54 CA193313-01 (to B.M.), and US Army grant W911NF1810427 (to B.M.)
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Affiliation(s)
- Naomi I. Maria
- 1The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health
- 2Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA
- 3Department of Medical Immunology, Red Cross Blood Bank Foundation, Netherlands Antilles
| | - Rosaria Valentina Rapicavoli
- 4Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy, Italy
- 5Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- 4Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy, Italy
| | - Evelyne Bischof
- 6School of Clinical Medicine, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Pudong, Shanghai, China
- 7Insilico Medicine, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- 4Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy, Italy
| | - Bud Mishra
- 2Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA
- 8Simon Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, Long Island
| | - Ashley John Duits
- 3Department of Medical Immunology, Red Cross Blood Bank Foundation, Netherlands Antilles
- 9Curaçao Biomedical Health Research Institute, Willemstad, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles
- 10Institute for Medical Education, University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- 4Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy, Italy
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21
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Falsaperla R, Scalia B, Giaccone F, Suppiej A, Pulvirenti A, Mailo J, Ruggieri M. aEEG vs cEEG's sensivity for seizure detection in the setting of neonatal intensive care units: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Acta Paediatr 2022; 111:916-926. [PMID: 35006632 DOI: 10.1111/apa.16251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Revised: 12/14/2021] [Accepted: 01/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
AIM Amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG)'s accuracy compared to conventional electroencephalography (cEEG) has not been fully established. The aim of our study was to conduct a systematic review on the sensitivity of the aEEG for neonatal seizure detection. METHODS Studies from PubMed and Google Scholar databases comparing recordings of cEEG and aEEG in newborns were included according to the PRISMA method. A quality assessment using the QUADAS-2 tool was provided. A random-effect model was used to account for different sources of variations among studies. Publication biases were represented by a funnel plot, and funnel plot symmetry was assessed. RESULTS Fourteen studies were reported; sensitivity of each diagnostic tool used (single-channel aEEG, two-channel aEEG, two-channel aEEG plus raw trace EEG) was compared to that of the gold-standard cEEG and to those of the other methods used. Overall sensitivity of the aEEG ranged from 31.25% to 90%. CONCLUSION Our study provides evidence that sensitivity of aEEG varies significantly and that seizure detection rate is lower than that of cEEG. The two-channel aEEG with raw trace EEG shows a high sensitivity and might represent a valid alternative to the cEEG in the setting of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
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Affiliation(s)
- Raffaele Falsaperla
- Unit of Neonatology University Hospital "Policlinico – San Marco" Catania Italy
| | - Bruna Scalia
- Unit of Neonatology University Hospital "Policlinico – San Marco" Catania Italy
| | - Fabiola Giaccone
- Pediatrics Postgraduate Program Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Agnese Suppiej
- Department of Medical Sciences Pediatric Section University of Ferrara Ferrara Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Janette Mailo
- Division of Pediatric Neurology University of Alberta Edmonton Canada
| | - Martino Ruggieri
- Unit of Rare Diseases of the Nervous System Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry A.U.O. Policlinico‐Vittorio Emanuele Catania Catania Italy
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22
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Di Maria A, Alaimo S, Bellomo L, Billeci F, Ferragina P, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. BioTAGME: A Comprehensive Platform for Biological Knowledge Network Analysis. Front Genet 2022; 13:855739. [PMID: 35571058 PMCID: PMC9096447 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.855739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The inference of novel knowledge and new hypotheses from the current literature analysis is crucial in making new scientific discoveries. In bio-medicine, given the enormous amount of literature and knowledge bases available, the automatic gain of knowledge concerning relationships among biological elements, in the form of semantically related terms (or entities), is rising novel research challenges and corresponding applications. In this regard, we propose BioTAGME, a system that combines an entity-annotation framework based on Wikipedia corpus (i.e., TAGME tool) with a network-based inference methodology (i.e., DT-Hybrid). This integration aims to create an extensive Knowledge Graph modeling relations among biological terms and phrases extracted from titles and abstracts of papers available in PubMed. The framework consists of a back-end and a front-end. The back-end is entirely implemented in Scala and runs on top of a Spark cluster that distributes the computing effort among several machines. The front-end is released through the Laravel framework, connected with the Neo4j graph database to store the knowledge graph.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Di Maria
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Fabrizio Billeci
- Department of Maths and Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Paolo Ferragina
- Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- *Correspondence: Alfredo Pulvirenti,
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23
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Cosentino F, Moscatt V, Marino A, Pampaloni A, Scuderi D, Ceccarelli M, Benanti F, Gussio M, Larocca L, Boscia V, Vinci G, Zagami A, Onorante A, Lupo G, Torrisi S, Grasso S, Bruno R, Iacobello C, Bonfante S, Guarneri L, Cascio A, Franco A, Del Vecchio R, Di Rosolini M, Pulvirenti A, Larnè D, Nunnari G, Celesia B, Cacopardo B. Clinical characteristics and predictors of death among hospitalized patients infected with SARS‑CoV‑2 in Sicily, Italy: A retrospective observational study. Biomed Rep 2022; 16:34. [PMID: 35386106 PMCID: PMC8972844 DOI: 10.3892/br.2022.1517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Federica Cosentino
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Vittoria Moscatt
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Andrea Marino
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Alessio Pampaloni
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Daniele Scuderi
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Manuela Ceccarelli
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Francesco Benanti
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Maria Gussio
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Licia Larocca
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Boscia
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Giovanni Vinci
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Aldo Zagami
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Anna Onorante
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Gaetano Lupo
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Torrisi
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Silvana Grasso
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Roberto Bruno
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Carmelo Iacobello
- Infectious Disease Unit, Cannizzaro Hospital, I-95126 Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Bonfante
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Gravina Hospital, I-95041 Caltagirone, Catania, Italy
| | - Luigi Guarneri
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Enna Hospital, I-94100 Enna, Italy
| | - Antonio Cascio
- Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit, Department of Health Promotion Sciences Maternal and Infantile Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties (PROMISE), University of Palermo, I-90127 Palermo, Italy
| | - Antonella Franco
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Siracusa Hospital, I-96100 Siracusa, Italy
| | | | - Maria Di Rosolini
- Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit, Modica Hospital, I-97015 Ragusa, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Section, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, I-95125 Catania, Italy
| | - Damiano Larnè
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, I-98124 Messina, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Nunnari
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, I-98124 Messina, Italy
| | - Benedetto Celesia
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
| | - Bruno Cacopardo
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, I-95122 Catania, Italy
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Grasso R, Micale G, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. MODIT: MOtif DIscovery in Temporal Networks. Front Big Data 2022; 4:806014. [PMID: 35281988 PMCID: PMC8905430 DOI: 10.3389/fdata.2021.806014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2021] [Accepted: 12/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Temporal networks are graphs where each edge is linked with a timestamp, denoting when an interaction between two nodes happens. According to the most recently proposed definitions of the problem, motif search in temporal networks consists in finding and counting all connected temporal graphs Q (called motifs) occurring in a larger temporal network T, such that matched target edges follow the same chronological order imposed by edges in Q. In the last few years, several algorithms have been proposed to solve motif search, but most of them are limited to very small or specific motifs due to the computational complexity of the problem. In this paper, we present MODIT (MOtif DIscovery in Temporal Networks), an algorithm for counting motifs of any size in temporal networks, inspired by a very recent algorithm for subgraph isomorphism in temporal networks, called TemporalRI. Experiments show that for big motifs (more than 3 nodes and 3 edges) MODIT can efficiently retrieve them in reasonable time (up to few hours) in many networks of medium and large size and outperforms state-of-the art algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Grasso
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Giovanni Micale
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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25
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Muscolino A, Di Maria A, Rapicavoli RV, Alaimo S, Bellomo L, Billeci F, Borzì S, Ferragina P, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. NETME: on-the-fly knowledge network construction from biomedical literature. Appl Netw Sci 2022; 7:1. [PMID: 35013714 PMCID: PMC8733431 DOI: 10.1007/s41109-021-00435-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2021] [Accepted: 09/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The rapidly increasing biological literature is a key resource to automatically extract and gain knowledge concerning biological elements and their relations. Knowledge Networks are helpful tools in the context of biological knowledge discovery and modeling. RESULTS We introduce a novel system called NETME, which, starting from a set of full-texts obtained from PubMed, through an easy-to-use web interface, interactively extracts biological elements from ontological databases and then synthesizes a network inferring relations among such elements. The results clearly show that our tool is capable of inferring comprehensive and reliable biological networks. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41109-021-00435-x.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Antonio Di Maria
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Bellomo
- Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Fabrizio Billeci
- Department of Maths and Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Stefano Borzì
- Department of Maths and Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Paolo Ferragina
- Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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La Ferlita A, Alaimo S, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. Pathway Analysis for Cancer Research and Precision Oncology Applications. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 2022; 1361:143-161. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-91836-1_8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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27
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Puglisi F, Soma R, Podda M, Vetrella S, Rabusin M, Tropia S, Meli M, Russo G, Sorrentino S, Erminio G, Pulvirenti A, Ruggieri M, Di Cataldo A. Neuroblastic tumors and neurofibromatosis type 1: A retrospective multicenter study in Italy and systematic review of the literature. Front Pediatr 2022; 10:950911. [PMID: 36405824 PMCID: PMC9673013 DOI: 10.3389/fped.2022.950911] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Neuroblastic tumors (NBTs) are the most common extra-cranial solid tumors of childhood. Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is the most common neurocutaneous disorder with a predisposition to tumors. The co-occurrence of NBTs in the setting of NF1 has been occasionally reported, suggesting a non-casual association and likely configuring a spectrum of neural crest-derived disorders. AIM OF THE STUDY To explore the occurrence of NBTs within NF1 and to report on its natural history, therapeutic strategies, and outcomes in an Italian cohort of children with NF1 and in the literature. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Study (a): a retrospective analysis of questionnaire-based data [years 1979-2017] derived from the databases of the Italian Registry for Neuroblastoma (RINB) of the Italian Society of Pediatric Onco-Haematology (AIEOP); and Study (b): a systematic review search on NF1/NB co-occurrence. RESULTS Study (a) identified eight children with NBTs, 0.2% of patients registered in the RINB, fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for NF1. The primary site of NBTs was abdominal in six patients. The NBTs were neuroblastoma (NB) in five patients, ganglioneuroblastoma (GNB) in one, patient, and ganglioneuroma (GN) in two. Metastatic diffusion occurred in three out of eight children. MYCN gene testing, performed in the tumors of five patients, resulted not-amplified. The major features of NF1 included the following: NF1 family history in four patients, café-au-lait spots in all, freckling in six, Lisch nodules in three, and neurofibromas in three. With regard to the outcome, four children survived three of these for the progression of NB and one for a second tumor. Study (b) identified 12 patients with NF1/NB from the years 1966-2017, and the median age at diagnosis was 27 months (range = 0-168 months). The primary site of NB was thoracic. The prevalent histotype was NB in nine patients, GNB in two, and GN in one. Eight/nine NBs were metastatic. The MYCN gene was amplified in the only studied case. The NF1 features included NF1 family history in seven patients; the major NF1 features were café-au-lait spots in nine patients, freckling in one, Lisch nodules in none, and neurofibromas in six. The outcome was good for only two children, while eight children died of neuroblastoma, at a median age of 49.5 months (range = 2.4-174 months), with a median survival time of 21.75 months after diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS To our knowledge, this represents the first systematic study on the occurrence of NBTs in NF1. This confirms that NBs are rare per se in the setting of NF1 (0.2% of all NBs) and even if compared to the overall frequency of malignancies in NF1 (i.e., 14.7%). The male:female ratio in study (a) (0.6) was different from what was recorded in study (b) (1.5) and in line with the overall increased frequency of malignancies in females with NF1. The median ages at diagnosis of NB in either study (a) or (b) were concordant with what occurred in the NB population. In study (a) versus study (b), the frequency of metastatic diffusion was lower, likely indicating less awareness on work-ups for malignancies in old NF1 series in the literature. The outcome was much better in study (a) than in study (b), indicating that multidisciplinary treatment for NB is highly recommended.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Puglisi
- Unit of Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, AOU "Policlinico", PO "San Marco", University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Rachele Soma
- Unit of Pediatric Onco-Haematology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Marta Podda
- Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Simona Vetrella
- Pediatric Oncology Unit, Santobono-Pausilipon Hospitals, Naples, Italy
| | - Marco Rabusin
- Institute for Maternal & Child Health (I.R.C.C.S) Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy
| | - Serena Tropia
- Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Unit, ARNAS "Civico, Di Cristina and Benfratelli" Hospitals, Palermo, Italy
| | - Mariaclaudia Meli
- Unit of Pediatric Onco-Haematology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Giovanna Russo
- Unit of Pediatric Onco-Haematology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Giovanni Erminio
- Epidemiology Scientific Directorate, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Martino Ruggieri
- Unit of Rare Diseases of the Nervous System in Childhood, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Andrea Di Cataldo
- Unit of Pediatric Onco-Haematology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Vella V, Giuliano M, La Ferlita A, Pellegrino M, Gaudenzi G, Alaimo S, Massimino M, Pulvirenti A, Dicitore A, Vigneri P, Vitale G, Malaguarnera R, Morrione A, Sims AH, Ferro A, Maggiolini M, Lappano R, De Francesco EM, Belfiore A. Novel Mechanisms of Tumor Promotion by the Insulin Receptor Isoform A in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells. Cells 2021; 10:3145. [PMID: 34831367 PMCID: PMC8621444 DOI: 10.3390/cells10113145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 10/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The insulin receptor isoform A (IR-A) plays an increasingly recognized role in fetal growth and tumor biology in response to circulating insulin and/or locally produced IGF2. This role seems not to be shared by the IR isoform B (IR-B). We aimed to dissect the specific impact of IR isoforms in modulating insulin signaling in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. We generated murine 4T1 TNBC cells deleted from the endogenous insulin receptor (INSR) gene and expressing comparable levels of either human IR-A or IR-B. We then measured IR isoform-specific in vitro and in vivo biological effects and transcriptome in response to insulin. Overall, the IR-A was more potent than the IR-B in mediating cell migration, invasion, and in vivo tumor growth. Transcriptome analysis showed that approximately 89% of insulin-stimulated transcripts depended solely on the expression of the specific isoform. Notably, in cells overexpressing IR-A, insulin strongly induced genes involved in tumor progression and immune evasion including chemokines and genes related to innate immunity. Conversely, in IR-B overexpressing cells, insulin predominantly induced the expression of genes primarily involved in the regulation of metabolic pathways and, to a lesser extent, tumor growth and angiogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Vella
- Endocrinology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122 Catania, Italy; (V.V.); (M.G.); (E.M.D.F.)
| | - Marika Giuliano
- Endocrinology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122 Catania, Italy; (V.V.); (M.G.); (E.M.D.F.)
| | - Alessandro La Ferlita
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95131 Catania, Italy; (A.L.F.); (S.A.); (A.P.); (A.F.)
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Michele Pellegrino
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy; (M.P.); (M.M.); (R.L.)
| | - Germano Gaudenzi
- Laboratory of Geriatric and Oncologic Neuroendocrinology Research, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, 20095 Cusano Milanino, Italy; (G.G.); (A.D.); (G.V.)
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95131 Catania, Italy; (A.L.F.); (S.A.); (A.P.); (A.F.)
| | - Michele Massimino
- Oncology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy; (M.M.); (P.V.)
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95131 Catania, Italy; (A.L.F.); (S.A.); (A.P.); (A.F.)
| | - Alessandra Dicitore
- Laboratory of Geriatric and Oncologic Neuroendocrinology Research, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, 20095 Cusano Milanino, Italy; (G.G.); (A.D.); (G.V.)
| | - Paolo Vigneri
- Oncology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy; (M.M.); (P.V.)
| | - Giovanni Vitale
- Laboratory of Geriatric and Oncologic Neuroendocrinology Research, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, 20095 Cusano Milanino, Italy; (G.G.); (A.D.); (G.V.)
- Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy
| | | | - Andrea Morrione
- Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine and Center for Biotechnology, Department of Biology, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA;
| | - Andrew H. Sims
- MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Scotland EH4 2XR, UK;
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95131 Catania, Italy; (A.L.F.); (S.A.); (A.P.); (A.F.)
| | - Marcello Maggiolini
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy; (M.P.); (M.M.); (R.L.)
| | - Rosamaria Lappano
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy; (M.P.); (M.M.); (R.L.)
| | - Ernestina Marianna De Francesco
- Endocrinology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122 Catania, Italy; (V.V.); (M.G.); (E.M.D.F.)
| | - Antonino Belfiore
- Endocrinology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Garibaldi-Nesima Hospital, 95122 Catania, Italy; (V.V.); (M.G.); (E.M.D.F.)
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Fallico M, Maugeri A, Lotery A, Longo A, Bonfiglio V, Russo A, Avitabile T, Pulvirenti A, Furino C, Cennamo G, Barchitta M, Agodi A, Reibaldi M. Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factors, panretinal photocoagulation and combined treatment for proliferative diabetic retinopathy: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Acta Ophthalmol 2021; 99:e795-e805. [PMID: 33326183 DOI: 10.1111/aos.14681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2020] [Revised: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE To conduct a systematic review with network meta-analysis (NMA) of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) comparing panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) versus anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment alone or in combination with PRP, for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). METHODS PubMed, Medline and Embase databases were searched for RCTs comparing PRP versus intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy and/or combined PRP and intravitreal anti-VEGF for PDR. The primary outcome measures were the mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) change and the regression of neovascularization. Mean change of central macular thickness (CMT), the subgroup analyses of patients without diabetic macular oedema (DME) and the rate of vitreous haemorrhage and vitrectomy were secondary outcomes. Frequentist NMAs were performed. RESULTS Twelve RCTs were included. For the 12-month mean BCVA change, NMA showed a better visual outcome in both the anti-VEGF group and combined group compared to PRP [anti-VEGF vs PRP, mean difference (MD) = 3.42; standard error (SE) = 1.5; combined vs PRP, MD = 3.92; SE = 1.65], with no difference between combined group and anti-VEGF (MD = -0.50; SE = 1.87). No difference in neovascularization regression was found between PRP and anti-VEGF alone or in combination with PRP, but there was significant inconsistency (p = 0.016). Subgroup analyses in patients without DME yielded no difference for the 12-month visual outcome between the three interventions, but with significant inconsistency (p = 0.005). CONCLUSION This NMA showed limited evidence of comparable efficacy in terms of neovascularization regression between PRP and anti-VEGF therapy alone or in combination with PRP, but better visual outcomes were associated with anti-VEGF use. Intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy could be a valid therapeutic option in association with PRP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Fallico
- Department of Ophthalmology University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Andrea Maugeri
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies “GF Ingrassia” University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Andrew Lotery
- Faculty of Medicine University of Southampton Southampton UK
| | - Antonio Longo
- Department of Ophthalmology University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Vincenza Bonfiglio
- Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience, Ophthalmology Section University of Palermo Palermo Italy
| | - Andrea Russo
- Department of Ophthalmology University of Catania Catania Italy
| | | | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Claudio Furino
- Department of Ophthalmology University of Bari Bari Italy
| | - Gilda Cennamo
- Department of Public Health University of Naples Federico II Naples Italy
| | - Martina Barchitta
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies “GF Ingrassia” University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Antonella Agodi
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies “GF Ingrassia” University of Catania Catania Italy
| | - Michele Reibaldi
- Department of Surgical Sciences Eye Clinic Section University of Turin Turin Italy
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Nappo G, Galvanin J, Gentile D, Capretti G, Pulvirenti A, Bozzarelli S, Rimassa L, Spaggiari P, Carrara S, Petitti T, Gavazzi F, Zerbi A. Long-term outcomes after pancreatoduodenectomy for ampullary cancer: The influence of the histological subtypes and comparison with the other periampullary neoplasms. Pancreatology 2021; 21:950-956. [PMID: 33795194 DOI: 10.1016/j.pan.2021.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2020] [Revised: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Ampullary carcinoma (AC) is histologically classified as intestinal (In-AC), pancreaticobiliary (Pb-AC) or mixed-AC. The prognostic role of AC subtypes has been debated and remains unclear. The aims of this study were to evaluate outcomes after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) for each subtype of AC and to compare these with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [PDAC] and distal cholangiocarcinoma [DCC]. METHODS PDs performed for AC between 2010 and 2018 were retrospectively evaluated. Histological subtype was obtained for all patients. One-year, 3-year and 5-year disease-free-survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were calculated. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to compare Pb-AC, In-AC and mixed-AC. Comparison with PDs performed for PDAC and DCC during the same period was also performed. RESULTS A total of 97 patients undergoing PD for AC were evaluated: 34 (35.1%) In-AC, 54 (55.7%) Pb-AC and 9 mixed-AC (9.3%). DFS and OS rates for Pb-AC were significantly lower compared to In-AC (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01), but similar to mixed-AC (p = 0.3 and p = 0.4). Adjuvant therapy was not associated with increased survival, regardless of the histological subtype (p > 0.05). During the same period, 337 and 53 PDs for PDAC and DCC, respectively, were performed. In-AC was associated with significantly better outcomes compared to PDAC and DCC (p < 0.001); DFS and OS rates for Pb-AC and mixed AC were significantly higher compared to PDAC (p < 0.001), but similar to DCC (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Pb-AC has significantly worse survival compared to In-AC. Moreover, mixed-AC should be considered as Pb-AC. Pb-AC and mixed-AC seem to have better prognosis compared to PDAC, but similar to DCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- G Nappo
- Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy.
| | - J Galvanin
- Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
| | - D Gentile
- Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
| | - G Capretti
- Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
| | - A Pulvirenti
- Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - S Bozzarelli
- Medical Oncology and Hematology Unit, Humanitas Cancer Center, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - L Rimassa
- Medical Oncology and Hematology Unit, Humanitas Cancer Center, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
| | - P Spaggiari
- Pathology Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - S Carrara
- Endoscopic Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - T Petitti
- Public Health and Statistics, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Italy
| | - F Gavazzi
- Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - A Zerbi
- Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center - IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
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Petralia A, Bisso E, Concas I, Maglitto A, Bucolo N, Alaimo S, Di Cataldo A, Signorelli MS, Pulvirenti A, Aguglia E. Psychopathological outcomes and defence mechanisms in clinically healed adults with a paediatric cancer history: an exploratory study. Gen Psychiatr 2021; 34:e100307. [PMID: 34308150 PMCID: PMC8256730 DOI: 10.1136/gpsych-2020-100307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The incidence of paediatric cancers has increased in recent years; however, with advances in the treatment of paediatric cancer, almost 80% of children and adolescents who receive a diagnosis of cancer become long-term survivors. Given the high stress levels associated with cancer, it becomes important to ascertain the risk and likelihood of psychiatric disorders in adult paediatric cancer survivors. Aims This study aims to investigate the relationship between defence styles and predisposition to psychiatric diseases in adults with a history of paediatric cancer. Methods We performed an explorative study on a sample of 66 clinically healed adults with a history of paediatric cancer (survivors) during follow-up visits at the University Hospital ‘Policlinico G Rodolico’ of Catania (Italy) and 98 healthy controls among medicine students. We administered the Defence Mechanism Inventory (DMI) to assess defence styles. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) and the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) were administered to assess psychopathological indices. We conducted comprehensive statistical analysis based on correlation analysis and mediation analysis to investigate the relationship between defence styles and psychopathological outcomes in survivors compared with controls. Results The survivors obtained statistically significant lower values in TAO, PRO and TAS defence styles and a higher value in REV. Both groups showed non-pathlogical mean scores in DTS and SCL-90-R (with an exception of the obsessive-compulsive subscale), with lower mean values among survivors. The results of mediation analysis showed that TAS had mediation effects on interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, PSDI, GSI and avoidance, while TAO had mediation effects on DTS total score and intrusivity. Thus, for these psychopathological indices, the effect of the oncological pathology was indirect and mediated by TAO or TAS. Our analysis exlcluded mediation effects between the remaining variables and defence styles. Conclusion Integrating data from mediation and correlation analysis, we found how the decreasing of TAS utilization in survivors as the consequence of cancer history, has decreased interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety and GSI score in these subjects compared with controls. Similary, the decrease of TAO utilization played a role in lower values of DTS total score and intrusivity subscale. Unexpectedly, our analysis excluded relationships between cancer history, other defence styles and psycopathological scores as we initially assumed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonino Petralia
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
| | - Emanuele Bisso
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
| | - Ilaria Concas
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
| | - Antonino Maglitto
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
| | - Nunzio Bucolo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Andrea Di Cataldo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
| | - Maria Salvina Signorelli
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy.,Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Eugenio Aguglia
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatry Unit, University of Catania, School of Medicine, Catania, Italy
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Barbagallo C, Di Maria A, Alecci A, Barbagallo D, Alaimo S, Colarossi L, Ferro A, Di Pietro C, Purrello M, Pulvirenti A, Ragusa M. VECTOR: An Integrated Correlation Network Database for the Identification of CeRNA Axes in Uveal Melanoma. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:genes12071004. [PMID: 34210067 PMCID: PMC8305227 DOI: 10.3390/genes12071004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Revised: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular malignant tumor in adults and, although its genetic background has been extensively studied, little is known about the contribution of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) to its pathogenesis. Indeed, its competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network comprising microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and mRNAs has been insufficiently explored. Thanks to UM findings from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), it is now possible to statistically elaborate these data to identify the expression relationships among RNAs and correlative interaction data. In the present work, we propose the VECTOR (uVeal mElanoma Correlation NeTwORk) database, an interactive tool that identifies and visualizes the relationships among RNA molecules, based on the ceRNA model. The VECTOR database contains: (i) the TCGA-derived expression correlation values of miRNA-mRNA, miRNA-lncRNA and lncRNA-mRNA pairs combined with predicted or validated RNA-RNA interactions; (ii) data of sense-antisense sequence overlapping; (iii) correlation values of Transcription Factor (TF)-miRNA, TF-lncRNA, and TF-mRNA pairs associated with ChiPseq data; (iv) expression data of miRNAs, lncRNAs and mRNAs both in UM and physiological tissues. The VECTOR web interface can be queried, by inputting the gene name, to retrieve all the information about RNA signaling and visualize this as a graph. Finally, VECTOR provides a very detailed picture of ceRNA networks in UM and could be a very useful tool for researchers studying RNA signaling in UM. The web version of Vector is freely available at the URL reported at the end of the Introduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Barbagallo
- Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences—Section of Biology and Genetics, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy; (C.B.); (A.A.); (D.B.); (C.D.P.); (M.P.)
| | - Antonio Di Maria
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy; (A.D.M.); (S.A.); (A.F.); (M.R.)
| | - Adriana Alecci
- Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences—Section of Biology and Genetics, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy; (C.B.); (A.A.); (D.B.); (C.D.P.); (M.P.)
| | - Davide Barbagallo
- Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences—Section of Biology and Genetics, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy; (C.B.); (A.A.); (D.B.); (C.D.P.); (M.P.)
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy; (A.D.M.); (S.A.); (A.F.); (M.R.)
| | - Lorenzo Colarossi
- Department of Experimental Oncology, Mediterranean Institute of Oncology (IOM), 95029 Catania, Italy;
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy; (A.D.M.); (S.A.); (A.F.); (M.R.)
| | - Cinzia Di Pietro
- Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences—Section of Biology and Genetics, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy; (C.B.); (A.A.); (D.B.); (C.D.P.); (M.P.)
| | - Michele Purrello
- Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences—Section of Biology and Genetics, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy; (C.B.); (A.A.); (D.B.); (C.D.P.); (M.P.)
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy; (A.D.M.); (S.A.); (A.F.); (M.R.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Marco Ragusa
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy; (A.D.M.); (S.A.); (A.F.); (M.R.)
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Reibaldi M, Fallico M, Avitabile T, Bonfiglio V, Russo A, Castellino N, Parisi G, Longo A, Pulvirenti A, Boscia F, Virgili G. Risk of Death Associated With Intravitreal Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Ophthalmol 2021; 138:50-57. [PMID: 31750861 DOI: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2019.4636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Importance Although intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment represents the first-line therapy for many retinal diseases, the issue of their systemic safety is debatable. Objectives To assess whether intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy might be associated with increased risk of mortality and which variables are associated with the increase. Data Sources PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase databases, the Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov were systematically searched from inception to May 6, 2019. Study Selection Randomized clinical trials comparing intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment with control groups and with follow-up of at least 6 months were selected. Data Extraction and Synthesis Data were independently collected by 2 investigators. Meta-analyses were conducted using the frequentist and Bayesian methods. For the frequentist approach, random- and fixed-effects models were used, with random-effects models considered the primary technique. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs were computed. For the bayesian approach, uninformative and informative priors were used. Odds ratios with 95% credible intervals (CrIs) were computed. Meta-regression analyses were based on random-effects models. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome measure was the all-cause death rate. Secondary outcomes included meta-regression analyses on the following variables: type of drug, number of injections, follow-up time, diagnosis, and cardiovascular risk. Results Of 2336 studies identified, 34 unique studies with 8887 unique participants were included in the present meta-analysis. For the frequentist analysis, fixed- and random-effects models yielded similar estimates (ORs, 1.34 [95% CI, 0.95-2.07; P = .09] and 1.34 [95% CI, 0.89-2.01; P = .17], respectively). For the Bayesian approach, noninformative and informative priors yielded similar results (ORs, 1.34 [95% CrI, 0.79-2.34; 0.13 probability of OR≤1.00] and 1.40 [95% CrI, 0.82-2.32; 0.11 probability of OR≤1.00], respectively). Meta-regression analyses showed the following risk for 1 injection more: frequentist OR of 1.12 (95% CI, 1.04-1.22; P = .005) and Bayesian OR of 1.06 (95% CrI, 0.98-1.15; 0.06 probability of OR≤1.00). Conclusions and Relevance In this study, no difference was found in the mortality rate between intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment and control groups. Additional data seem warranted to determine whether the mortality rate is increased in patients receiving a greater number of injections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Reibaldi
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Matteo Fallico
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.,Eye Unit, Southampton University Hospital, Southampton, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Andrea Russo
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Guglielmo Parisi
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Antonio Longo
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Francesco Boscia
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
| | - Gianni Virgili
- Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health, University of Firenze and Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Careggi, Florence, Italy
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34
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Alaimo S, Rapicavoli RV, Marceca GP, La Ferlita A, Serebrennikova OB, Tsichlis PN, Mishra B, Pulvirenti A, Ferro A. PHENSIM: Phenotype Simulator. PLoS Comput Biol 2021; 17:e1009069. [PMID: 34166365 PMCID: PMC8224893 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2020] [Accepted: 05/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the unprecedented growth in our understanding of cell biology, it still remains challenging to connect it to experimental data obtained with cells and tissues’ physiopathological status under precise circumstances. This knowledge gap often results in difficulties in designing validation experiments, which are usually labor-intensive, expensive to perform, and hard to interpret. Here we propose PHENSIM, a computational tool using a systems biology approach to simulate how cell phenotypes are affected by the activation/inhibition of one or multiple biomolecules, and it does so by exploiting signaling pathways. Our tool’s applications include predicting the outcome of drug administration, knockdown experiments, gene transduction, and exposure to exosomal cargo. Importantly, PHENSIM enables the user to make inferences on well-defined cell lines and includes pathway maps from three different model organisms. To assess our approach’s reliability, we built a benchmark from transcriptomics data gathered from NCBI GEO and performed four case studies on known biological experiments. Our results show high prediction accuracy, thus highlighting the capabilities of this methodology. PHENSIM standalone Java application is available at https://github.com/alaimos/phensim, along with all data and source codes for benchmarking. A web-based user interface is accessible at https://phensim.tech/. Despite the unprecedented growth in our understanding of cell biology, it still remains challenging to connect it to experimental data obtained with cells and tissues’ physiopathological status under precise circumstances. This knowledge gap often results in difficulties in designing validation experiments, which are usually labor-intensive, expensive to perform, and hard to interpret. In this context, ’in silico’ simulations can be extensively applied in massive scales, testing thousands of hypotheses under various conditions, which is usually experimentally infeasible. At present, many simulation models have become available. However, complex biological networks might pose challenges to their performance. We propose PHENSIM, a computational tool using a systems biology approach to simulate how cell phenotypes are affected by the activation/inhibition of one or multiple biomolecules, and it does so by exploiting signaling pathways. We implemented our tool as a freely accessible web application, hoping to allow ’in silico’ simulations to play a more central role in the modeling and understanding of biological phenomena.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Alaimo
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- * E-mail: (SA); (AF)
| | - Rosaria Valentina Rapicavoli
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Gioacchino P. Marceca
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alessandro La Ferlita
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Oksana B. Serebrennikova
- Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Philip N. Tsichlis
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics and the James Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Bud Mishra
- Department of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- * E-mail: (SA); (AF)
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La Ferlita A, Alaimo S, Di Bella S, Martorana E, Laliotis GI, Bertoni F, Cascione L, Tsichlis PN, Ferro A, Bosotti R, Pulvirenti A. RNAdetector: a free user-friendly stand-alone and cloud-based system for RNA-Seq data analysis. BMC Bioinformatics 2021; 22:298. [PMID: 34082707 PMCID: PMC8173825 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-021-04211-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2020] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background RNA-Seq is a well-established technology extensively used for transcriptome profiling, allowing the analysis of coding and non-coding RNA molecules. However, this technology produces a vast amount of data requiring sophisticated computational approaches for their analysis than other traditional technologies such as Real-Time PCR or microarrays, strongly discouraging non-expert users. For this reason, dozens of pipelines have been deployed for the analysis of RNA-Seq data. Although interesting, these present several limitations and their usage require a technical background, which may be uncommon in small research laboratories. Therefore, the application of these technologies in such contexts is still limited and causes a clear bottleneck in knowledge advancement. Results Motivated by these considerations, we have developed RNAdetector, a new free cross-platform and user-friendly RNA-Seq data analysis software that can be used locally or in cloud environments through an easy-to-use Graphical User Interface allowing the analysis of coding and non-coding RNAs from RNA-Seq datasets of any sequenced biological species. Conclusions RNAdetector is a new software that fills an essential gap between the needs of biomedical and research labs to process RNA-Seq data and their common lack of technical background in performing such analysis, which usually relies on outsourcing such steps to third party bioinformatics facilities or using expensive commercial software. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-021-04211-7.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro La Ferlita
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.,Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.,Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Emanuele Martorana
- Regional Referral Centre for Rare Lung Diseases, A. O. U. "Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele", Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Georgios I Laliotis
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | | | | | - Philip N Tsichlis
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
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Maria NI, Rapicavoli RV, Alaimo S, Bischof E, Stasuzzo A, Broek JA, Pulvirenti A, Mishra B, Duits AJ, Ferro A. Rapid Identification of Druggable Targets and the Power of the PHENotype SIMulator for Effective Drug Repurposing in COVID-19. Res Sq 2021:rs.3.rs-287183. [PMID: 33880466 PMCID: PMC8057245 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-287183/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
The current, rapidly diversifying pandemic has accelerated the need for efficient and effective identification of potential drug candidates for COVID-19. Knowledge on host-immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, however, remains limited with very few drugs approved to date. Viable strategies and tools are rapidly arising to address this, especially with repurposing of existing drugs offering significant promise. Here we introduce a systems biology tool, the PHENotype SIMulator, which - by leveraging available transcriptomic and proteomic databases - allows modeling of SARS-CoV-2 infection in host cells in silico to i) determine with high sensitivity and specificity (both > 96%) the viral effects on cellular host-immune response, resulting in a specific cellular SARS-CoV-2 signature and ii) utilize this specific signature to narrow down promising repurposable therapeutic strategies. Powered by this tool, coupled with domain expertise, we have identified several potential COVID-19 drugs including methylprednisolone and metformin, and further discern key cellular SARS-CoV-2-affected pathways as potential new druggable targets in COVID-19 pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naomi I. Maria
- Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
- Red Cross Blood Bank Foundation Curaçao, Willemstad, Curaçao
| | - Rosaria Valentina Rapicavoli
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
| | - Evelyne Bischof
- Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Pansini, Naples, Italy
- School of Clinical Medicine, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Pudong, Shanghai, China
- Insilico Medicine, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
| | | | - Jantine A.C. Broek
- Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
| | - Bud Mishra
- Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Cell Biology, Courant Institute, Tandon and School of Medicine, New York University, New York, USA
- Simon Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, Long Island, USA
| | - Ashley J. Duits
- Red Cross Blood Bank Foundation Curaçao, Willemstad, Curaçao
- Curaçao Biomedical Health Research Institute, Willemstad, Curaçao
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy
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Pampaloni A, Locatelli ME, Venanzi Rullo E, Alaimo S, Cosentino F, Marino A, Moscatt V, Scuderi D, Puglisi S, Lupo G, Celesia BM, Pintaudi S, Pulvirenti C, Ceccarelli M, Nunnari G, Pulvirenti A, Cacopardo B. "Diagnosis on the Dock" project: A proactive screening program for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis in disembarking refugees and new SEI model. Int J Infect Dis 2021; 106:98-104. [PMID: 33737130 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.03.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2021] [Revised: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE From 2011 to 2017, the total number of refugees arriving in Europe, particularly in Italy, climbed dramatically. Our aim was to diagnose pulmonary TB in migrants coming from the African coast using a clinical-based port of arrival (PoA) screening program. METHODS From 2016 to 2018, migrants coming via the Mediterranean Route were screened for body temperature and the presence of cough directly on the dock: if they were feverish with productive cough, their sputum was examined with NAAT; with a dry cough, they underwent Chest-X-ray (CXR). Those migrants with positive NAAT or CXR suggestive for TB were admitted to our ward. In addition, we plotted an SEI simulation of our project to evaluate the epidemiological impact of our screening. RESULTS Out of 33.676 disembarking migrants, 314 (0.9%) had fever and cough: 80 (25.47%) with productive cough underwent NAAT in sputum, and 16 were positive for TB; 234 (74.52%) with dry cough had a CXR examination, and 39 were suggestive of TB, later confirmed by mycobacterial culture. The SEI-new model analysis demonstrated that our screening program significantly reduced TB spreading all over the country. CONCLUSIONS For possible future high migrant flows, PoA screening for TB has to be considered feasible and effective in decreasing TB spreading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessio Pampaloni
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
| | - Maria Elena Locatelli
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Emmanuele Venanzi Rullo
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Bioinformatics Section, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Federica Cosentino
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Andrea Marino
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Vittoria Moscatt
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Daniele Scuderi
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Sara Puglisi
- Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Gaetano Lupo
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Benedetto Maurizio Celesia
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Sergio Pintaudi
- Emergency Department, ARNAS Garibaldi Hospital, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Manuela Ceccarelli
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Nunnari
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Section, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Bruno Cacopardo
- Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, ARNAS Garibaldi Nesima Hospital, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Fallico M, Lotery AJ, Longo A, Avitabile T, Bonfiglio V, Russo A, Castellino N, Parisi G, Pulvirenti A, Eandi C, Cennamo G, Furino C, Cicinelli MV, Alovisi C, Reibaldi M. Treat and extend versus fixed regimen in neovascular age related macular degeneration: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Ophthalmol 2020; 31:2496-2504. [PMID: 33118382 DOI: 10.1177/1120672120964699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE To compare efficacy of treat and extend (T&E) versus fixed regimen treatment protocols in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). METHODS Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) comparing T&E versus fixed regimen protocols for nAMD were systematically searched. Primary outcome was to compare the mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) change in T&E regimen versus fixed regimen. Secondary outcomes were change in the mean optical coherence tomography (OCT) central retinal thickness (CRT) and mean number of injections. Standardized mean difference (SMD) along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Random-effect models were used for meta-analyses. RESULTS Four RCTs were included, with a total of 649 and 621 eyes in the T&E and fixed regimen cohort at 12 months, and 267 and 249 eyes at 24 months. Pooled analysis of mean BCVA change included all four RCTs at 12 months and two RCTs at 24 months, showing no difference between the two groups (12-month: SMD = 0.08, 95% CI: -0.20 to 0.35, p = 0.55; 24-month: SMD = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.13 to 0.21, p = 0.64). Pooled analysis of OCT CRT change at 12 months included three studies, showing no difference between the two groups (SMD = 0.03, 95% CI: -0.46 to 0.51, p = 0.91). Pooled analysis of mean injection number included all four RCTs at 12 months and two RCTs at 24 months, showing significant difference between the two groups (12-month: SMD = -1.11, 95% CI: -1.67 to -0.56, p < 0.001; 24-month: SMD = -1.34, 95% CI: -1.54 to -1.15, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION A T&E regimen proved as effective as a fixed dosage regimen throughout a 24-month follow-up and with a lower number of injections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Fallico
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- Eye Unit, Southampton University Hospital, Southampton, UK
| | - Andrew J Lotery
- Eye Unit, Southampton University Hospital, Southampton, UK
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Antonio Longo
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | | | - Andrea Russo
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Guglielmo Parisi
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Sicilia, Italy
| | - Chiara Eandi
- Department of Surgical Science, Eye Clinic, University of Torino, Torino, Piemonte, Italy
| | - Gilda Cennamo
- Department of Public Health, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Campania, Italy
| | - Claudio Furino
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy
| | | | - Camilla Alovisi
- Department of Surgical Science, Eye Clinic, University of Torino, Torino, Piemonte, Italy
| | - Michele Reibaldi
- Department of Surgical Science, Eye Clinic, University of Torino, Torino, Piemonte, Italy
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Donisi G, Capretti G, Cortese N, Rigamonti A, Gavazzi F, Nappo G, Pulvirenti A, Sollai M, Spaggiari P, Zerbi A, Marchesi F. Immune infiltrating cells in duodenal cancers. J Transl Med 2020; 18:340. [PMID: 32883314 PMCID: PMC7470614 DOI: 10.1186/s12967-020-02508-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2020] [Accepted: 08/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Duodenal adenocarcinoma (DA) is a rare yet aggressive malignancy, with increasing incidence in the last decades. Its low frequency has hampered a thorough understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease and of its biology, limiting the identification of tailored therapeutic options. A large body of evidence has clearly shown the clinical relevance of immune cells in solid tumors, correlating immune features with post-surgical prognosis. The aim of this study was to analyze the immune contexture in a cohort of duodenal adenocarcinomas surgically resected at our Institution and define its correlation with clinical variables. Methods Tissue slides from paraffin-embedded tumor specimens of 15 consecutive DA and 3 adenomas that underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy in our center between 2010 to 2018 were immunohistochemically stained. The density (percentage of immune reactive area, IRA%) of immune markers CD45RO, CD8, CD20, IL-17, PD-1, CD68 was quantified by computer-assisted image analysis. Demographic, clinical, histopathological data were collected. Results In our population, median IRA % (IQR) of immune subsets was respectively CD45RO-TILs 2.19 (2.14), CD8-TIL 0.42 (0.81), CD20-TILs 0.22 (0.51), CD20-TLT 2.84 (4.64), CD68-TAM 2.19 (1.56), IL17+ cells 0.39 (0.39), PD1-TILs 0.19 (0.41). The median follow-up was 47.5 (22.4–63.3) months. At statistical analysis, the density of CD8-TILs inversely correlated with lymph node ratio (p = 0.013), number of metastatic lymph nodes (p = 0.019), and was lower in N+ adenocarcinomas compared to N0 (1.07 vs 0.29; p = 0.093), albeit not significantly. Stratifying patients for the N status, the density of CD8-TILs decreased with the increasing of the N stage (p = 0.065) and was lower in patients who experienced recurrence and died for the disease (0.276 vs 0.641; p = 0.044). Notably, also CD68-TAM distribution was different in patients who had recurrence versus patients who did not (1.028 vs 2.276; p = 0.036). Conclusions Immune cells showed variable expression in correlation with common prognostic factors, suggesting T cell infiltration may play a protective role towards lymphatic spread of disease and nodal metastatization. Furthermore, T cell density and macrophage infiltration were associated to a lower risk of recurrence and disease related death. A multicentric approach may be indicated to allow analysis of larger cohorts of patients, potentially increasing the power of our observations.
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Affiliation(s)
- G Donisi
- Section of Pancreatic Surgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milano, Italy
| | - G Capretti
- Section of Pancreatic Surgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milano, Italy. .,Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Italy.
| | - N Cortese
- Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, Pieve Emanuele, 20090, Rozzano, Milano, Italy
| | - A Rigamonti
- Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, Pieve Emanuele, 20090, Rozzano, Milano, Italy.,Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - F Gavazzi
- Section of Pancreatic Surgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milano, Italy
| | - G Nappo
- Section of Pancreatic Surgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milano, Italy
| | - A Pulvirenti
- Section of Pancreatic Surgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milano, Italy
| | - M Sollai
- Department of Pathology, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Rozzano, Italy
| | - P Spaggiari
- Department of Pathology, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Rozzano, Italy
| | - A Zerbi
- Section of Pancreatic Surgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milano, Italy.,Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Italy
| | - F Marchesi
- Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, Pieve Emanuele, 20090, Rozzano, Milano, Italy. .,Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
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Sciacca E, Alaimo S, Pulvirenti A, Latora V, Humby F, Ferro A, Lewis MJ, Pitzalis C. P22 Micro-RNA enriched pathway impact analysis applied to synovial RNA-seq in early rheumatoid arthritis identifies response prediction pathways. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2020. [DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaa111.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
We use a new pathway analysis tool MITHrIL (Mirna enriched paTHway Impact anaLysis) to analyse RNA-seq patterns in synovial biopsies from patients with rheumatoid arthritis from the Pathobiology of Early Arthritis Cohort (PEAC). MITHrIL augments pathways with missing regulatory elements, such as microRNAs, and their interactions with genes to enhance quantification of immunological pathway activation in bulk RNA-seq. MITHrIL pathways were compared with three major pathotypes (lympho-myeloid, diffuse myeloid and pauci-immune fibroid) in early treatment-naïve RA patients and responders vs non-responders to methotrexate-based DMARD regimens.
Methods
A differential gene expression analysis is performed on the PEAC observational cohort. The Log-Fold Changes retrieved from the pairwise comparisons between responders/non responders and across different pathotypes are used as input to the MITHrIL software. Using the KEGG biological pathways, MITHrIL proportionally spreads the known differential perturbation of a gene to the downstream nodes in the pathway. In so doing, a perturbation factor is assigned to each gene and, as a result, a list of differentially altered pathways is returned together with the corresponding statistical significance (p-values). Particular attention is given to immunological pathways. We show a list of differentially altered pathways for each comparison and provide specific insight to those more characterising pathways.
Results
The results show coherence with the previous findings providing greater granularity on how the gene level alterations can propagate through biological pathways. In particular, we found different gene expression levels in the pairwise comparisons across pathotypes highlighting different perturbations in the following pathways: chemokine signalling (adjusted P = 3.3E-13), Jak-STAT signalling (adjusted P = 6.5E-04), Leukocyte transendothelial migration (adjusted P = 3.7E-02), PI3K-Akt signalling (adjusted P = 4.6E-04), T cell receptor signalling (adjusted P = 3.7E-02), Antigen processing and presentation (adjusted P = 1.1E-08) and NF-kappa B signalling (adjusted P = 4.1E-02).
We also found confirmation of changes in lymphoid and myeloid subtypes over time, while fibroid RA patients present no significant alteration in their expression levels after the methotrexate-based DMARD therapy. Finally, we found different levels of activation in MAPK and AMPK signalling pathways for patients that do not respond to the DMARD therapy in contrast to those who do.
Conclusion
A novel pathway analysis approach is used to show the most differentially active biological pathways between different RA pathotypes and responder-resistant patients to methotrexate-based DMARD therapy. The results identify responder-resistant gene expression pathway patterns in early RA which may help to stratify patients to biologic therapy at an earlier stage.
Disclosures
E. Sciacca None. S. Alaimo None. A. Pulvirenti None. V. Latora None. F. Humby None. A. Ferro None. M.J. Lewis None. C. Pitzalis None.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabetta Sciacca
- Queen Mary University, Experimental Medicine & Rheumatology, London, UNITED KINGDOM
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- University of Catania, Dept. of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, ITALY
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- University of Catania, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Catania, ITALY
| | - Vito Latora
- Queen Mary University, School of Mathematical Sciences, London, UNITED KINGDOM
| | - Frances Humby
- Queen Mary University, Experimental Medicine & Rheumatology, London, UNITED KINGDOM
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- University of Catania, Dept. of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, ITALY
| | - Myles J Lewis
- Queen Mary University, Experimental Medicine & Rheumatology, London, UNITED KINGDOM
| | - Costantino Pitzalis
- Queen Mary University, Experimental Medicine & Rheumatology, London, UNITED KINGDOM
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Gangemi CMA, Alaimo S, Pulvirenti A, García-Viñuales S, Milardi D, Falanga AP, Fragalà ME, Oliviero G, Piccialli G, Borbone N, Ferro A, D'Urso A, Croce CM, Purrello R. Endogenous and artificial miRNAs explore a rich variety of conformations: a potential relationship between secondary structure and biological functionality. Sci Rep 2020; 10:453. [PMID: 31949213 PMCID: PMC6965629 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-57289-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2019] [Accepted: 12/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Mature microRNAs are short non-coding RNA sequences which upon incorporation into the RISC ribonucleoprotein complex, play a crucial role in regulation of gene expression. However, miRNAs can exist within the cell also as free molecules fulfilling their biological activity. Therefore, it is emerging that in addition to sequence even the structure adopted by mature miRNAs might play an important role to reach the target. Indeed, we analysed by several spectroscopic techniques the secondary structures of two artificial miRNAs selected by computational tool (miR-Synth) as best candidates to silence c-MET and EGFR genes and of two endogenous miRNAs (miR-15a and miR-15b) having the same seed region, but different biological activity. Our results demonstrate that both endogenous and artificial miRNAs can arrange in several 3D-structures which affect their activity and selectivity toward the targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- C M A Gangemi
- Department of Chemical Science, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
| | - S Alaimo
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy c/o Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
| | - A Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy c/o Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
| | | | - D Milardi
- Istituto di Cristallografia CNR, Via P. Gaifami 9, 95126, Catania, Italy
| | - A P Falanga
- Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Naples Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131, Napoli, Italy
| | - M E Fragalà
- Department of Chemical Science, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy
| | - G Oliviero
- Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Naples Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131, Napoli, Italy
| | - G Piccialli
- Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, D. Montesano 49, 80131, Napoli, Italy
| | - N Borbone
- Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, D. Montesano 49, 80131, Napoli, Italy
| | - A Ferro
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Italy c/o Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy.
| | - A D'Urso
- Department of Chemical Science, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy.
| | - C M Croce
- Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA
| | - R Purrello
- Department of Chemical Science, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy.
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42
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Di Bella S, La Ferlita A, Carapezza G, Alaimo S, Isacchi A, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A, Bosotti R. A benchmarking of pipelines for detecting ncRNAs from RNA-Seq data. Brief Bioinform 2019; 21:1987-1998. [PMID: 31740918 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbz110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2019] [Revised: 07/12/2019] [Accepted: 08/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is a high-throughput technology widely applied to genome sequencing and transcriptome profiling. RNA-Seq uses NGS to reveal RNA identities and quantities in a given sample. However, it produces a huge amount of raw data that need to be preprocessed with fast and effective computational methods. RNA-Seq can look at different populations of RNAs, including ncRNAs. Indeed, in the last few years, several ncRNAs pipelines have been developed for ncRNAs analysis from RNA-Seq experiments. In this paper, we analyze eight recent pipelines (iSmaRT, iSRAP, miARma-Seq, Oasis 2, SPORTS1.0, sRNAnalyzer, sRNApipe, sRNA workbench) which allows the analysis not only of single specific classes of ncRNAs but also of more than one ncRNA classes. Our systematic performance evaluation aims at guiding users to select the appropriate pipeline for processing each ncRNA class, focusing on three key points: (i) accuracy in ncRNAs identification, (ii) accuracy in read count estimation and (iii) deployment and ease of use.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alessandro La Ferlita
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.,Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Alaimo S, Di Maria A, Shasha D, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. TACITuS: transcriptomic data collector, integrator, and selector on big data platform. BMC Bioinformatics 2019; 20:366. [PMID: 31757212 PMCID: PMC6873396 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-019-2912-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2019] [Accepted: 05/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Several large public repositories of microarray datasets and RNA-seq data are available. Two prominent examples include ArrayExpress and NCBI GEO. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to import and manipulate data from such resources, because the data is stored in large files, requiring large bandwidth to download and special purpose data manipulation tools to extract subsets relevant for the specific analysis. RESULTS TACITuS is a web-based system that supports rapid query access to high-throughput microarray and NGS repositories. The system is equipped with modules capable of managing large files, storing them in a cloud environment and extracting subsets of data in an easy and efficient way. The system also supports the ability to import data into Galaxy for further analysis. CONCLUSIONS TACITuS automates most of the pre-processing needed to analyze high-throughput microarray and NGS data from large publicly-available repositories. The system implements several modules to manage large files in an easy and efficient way. Furthermore, it is capable deal with Galaxy environment allowing users to analyze data through a user-friendly interface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, Catania, 95125, Italy.
| | - Antonio Di Maria
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, Catania, 95125, Italy.,Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | - Dennis Shasha
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Science, New York University, 251 Mercer St, New York, 10012, USA
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, c/o Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Viale A. Doria 6, Catania, 95125, Italy
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44
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Fallico M, Lotery AJ, Longo A, Avitabile T, Bonfiglio V, Russo A, Murabito P, Palmucci S, Pulvirenti A, Reibaldi M. Risk of acute stroke in patients with retinal artery occlusion: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eye (Lond) 2019; 34:683-689. [PMID: 31527762 DOI: 10.1038/s41433-019-0576-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2019] [Revised: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence of acute cerebral ischaemia detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in acute central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO), branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO) and transient monocular vision loss (TMVL). METHODS Studies reporting the incidence of acute cerebral ischaemia, detected by MRI, within 7 days from diagnosis of acute CRAO, BRAO and TMVL up to January 2019 were systematically searched for on Pubmed, Medline and Cochrane Library. Meta-analysis was performed using random effects model. The primary outcome was the pooled estimate of incidence of acute cerebral ischaemia in CRAO, BRAO and TMVL cohorts including both neurologically symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, expressed as a proportion along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The pooled estimate of incidence of asymptomatic acute cerebral ischaemia represented a secondary outcome measure. RESULTS For the primary outcome, the pooled proportion of acute cerebral ischaemia was 0.30 (CI 0.24-0.36) in the CRAO cohort, and 0.25 (CI 0.16-0.37) in the BRAO cohort, without statistical heterogeneity. The rate of acute cerebral ischaemia was 11.8% in the TMVL cohort. For the secondary outcome, the pooled proportion of asymptomatic acute cerebral ischaemia was 0.22 (CI 0.16-0.28) in the CRAO cohort, 0.29 (CI 0.20-0.41) in the BRAO cohort and 0.08 (CI 0.05-0.15) in the TMVL cohort, with no statistical heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS 30% of patients with acute CRAO and 25% of patients with acute BRAO presented an acute cerebral ischaemia on MRI. Such high rates support a care pathway of prompt referral of such patients for neurological evaluation and brain imaging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Fallico
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. .,Eye Unit, Southampton University Hospital, Southampton, UK.
| | - Andrew J Lotery
- Eye Unit, Southampton University Hospital, Southampton, UK.,Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Antonio Longo
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | | | - Andrea Russo
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Paolo Murabito
- Department of Anaesthesiology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Stefano Palmucci
- Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies - Radiology I Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Michele Reibaldi
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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45
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Russo F, Di Bella S, Vannini F, Berti G, Scoyni F, Cook HV, Santos A, Nigita G, Bonnici V, Laganà A, Geraci F, Pulvirenti A, Giugno R, De Masi F, Belling K, Jensen LJ, Brunak S, Pellegrini M, Ferro A. miRandola 2017: a curated knowledge base of non-invasive biomarkers. Nucleic Acids Res 2019; 46:D354-D359. [PMID: 29036351 PMCID: PMC5753291 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2017] [Accepted: 09/13/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
miRandola (http://mirandola.iit.cnr.it/) is a database of extracellular non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that was initially published in 2012, foreseeing the relevance of ncRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers. An increasing amount of experimental evidence shows that ncRNAs are frequently dysregulated in diseases. Further, ncRNAs have been discovered in different extracellular forms, such as exosomes, which circulate in human body fluids. Thus, miRandola 2017 is an effort to update and collect the accumulating information on extracellular ncRNAs that is spread across scientific publications and different databases. Data are manually curated from 314 articles that describe miRNAs, long non-coding RNAs and circular RNAs. Fourteen organisms are now included in the database, and associations of ncRNAs with 25 drugs, 47 sample types and 197 diseases. miRandola also classifies extracellular RNAs based on their extracellular form: Argonaute2 protein, exosome, microvesicle, microparticle, membrane vesicle, high density lipoprotein and circulating. We also implemented a new web interface to improve the user experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Russo
- Disease Systems Biology, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark
| | | | - Federica Vannini
- Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, 56127, Italy
| | - Gabriele Berti
- Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, 56127, Italy
| | - Flavia Scoyni
- University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, 72010, Finland
| | - Helen V Cook
- Disease Systems Biology, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark
| | - Alberto Santos
- Disease Systems Biology, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark.,Clinical Proteomics, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark
| | - Giovanni Nigita
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, OH 43210, USA
| | - Vincenzo Bonnici
- Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, Verona, 37134, Italy
| | - Alessandro Laganà
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA
| | - Filippo Geraci
- Institute of Informatics and Telematics (IIT), National Research Council (CNR), Pisa, 56124, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
| | - Rosalba Giugno
- Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, Verona, 37134, Italy
| | - Federico De Masi
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, DTU Bioinformatics, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
| | - Kirstine Belling
- Disease Systems Biology, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark
| | - Lars J Jensen
- Disease Systems Biology, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark
| | - Søren Brunak
- Disease Systems Biology, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark
| | - Marco Pellegrini
- Institute of Informatics and Telematics (IIT), National Research Council (CNR), Pisa, 56124, Italy
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, 95125, Italy
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46
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Pulvirenti A, Pea A, Rezaee N, Gasparini C, Malleo G, Weiss MJ, Cameron JL, Wolfgang CL, He J, Salvia R. Perioperative outcomes and long-term quality of life after total pancreatectomy. Br J Surg 2019; 106:1819-1828. [PMID: 31282569 DOI: 10.1002/bjs.11185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2018] [Revised: 12/17/2018] [Accepted: 03/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Total pancreatectomy is required to treat diseases involving the entire pancreas, and is characterized by high morbidity rates and impaired long-term quality of life (QoL). To date, risk factors associated with perioperative and long-term outcomes have not been determined fully. METHODS Data from patients undergoing total pancreatectomy between 2000 and 2014 at two high-volume centres were analysed retrospectively to assess risk factors for major surgical complications. Short Form (SF) 36, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-PAN26 and Audit of Diabetes Dependent questionnaires, as well as an original survey were used to investigate factors influencing QoL. RESULTS A total of 329 consecutive patients underwent total pancreatectomy in the two centres. Overall, total pancreatectomy was associated with a morbidity rate of 59·3 per cent and a 30-day mortality rate of 2·1 per cent. Age over 65 years and long duration of surgery (more than 420 min) were independently associated with major complications (at least Clavien-Dindo grade III). QoL analysis was available for 94 patients (28·6 per cent) with a median follow-up of 63 (i.q.r. 20-109) months; the most common indication for total pancreatectomy in these patients was intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (46 per cent). Both physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) component summary scores of SF-36® were lower after total pancreatectomy compared with scores for a normative population (P = 0·020 and P < 0·001 respectively). Linear regression analysis showed that young age, abdominal pain and worse perception of body image were negatively associated with the PCS, whereas diabetes, sexual satisfaction and perception of body image affected MCS. CONCLUSION Total pancreatectomy can be performed with acceptable morbidity and mortality rates. Older patients had a higher risk of postoperative complications but reported better QoL than younger patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Pulvirenti
- Unit of General and Pancreatic Surgery, University of Verona Hospital Trust, Verona, Italy
| | - A Pea
- Unit of General and Pancreatic Surgery, University of Verona Hospital Trust, Verona, Italy
| | - N Rezaee
- Department of Surgery, Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - C Gasparini
- Unit of General and Pancreatic Surgery, University of Verona Hospital Trust, Verona, Italy
| | - G Malleo
- Unit of General and Pancreatic Surgery, University of Verona Hospital Trust, Verona, Italy
| | - M J Weiss
- Department of Surgery, Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - J L Cameron
- Department of Surgery, Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - C L Wolfgang
- Department of Surgery, Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - J He
- Department of Surgery, Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - R Salvia
- Unit of General and Pancreatic Surgery, University of Verona Hospital Trust, Verona, Italy
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Abstract
The wealth of knowledge and omic data available in drug research allowed the rising of several computational methods in drug discovery field yielding a novel and exciting application called drug repositioning. Several computational methods try to make a high-level integration of all the knowledge in order to discover unknown mechanisms. In this chapter we present an in-depth review of data resources and computational models for drug repositioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
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48
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La Ferlita A, Alaimo S, Veneziano D, Nigita G, Balatti V, Croce CM, Ferro A, Pulvirenti A. Identification of tRNA-derived ncRNAs in TCGA and NCI-60 panel cell lines and development of the public database tRFexplorer. Database (Oxford) 2019; 2019:baz115. [PMID: 31735953 PMCID: PMC6859256 DOI: 10.1093/database/baz115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Revised: 07/01/2019] [Accepted: 09/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Next-generation sequencing is increasing our understanding and knowledge of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), elucidating their roles in molecular mechanisms and processes such as cell growth and development. Within such a class, tRNA-derived ncRNAs have been recently associated with gene expression regulation in cancer progression. In this paper, we characterize, for the first time, tRNA-derived ncRNAs in NCI-60. Furthermore, we assess their expression profile in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Our comprehensive analysis allowed us to report 322 distinct tRNA-derived ncRNAs in NCI-60, categorized in tRNA-derived fragments (11 tRF-5s, 55 tRF-3s), tRNA-derived small RNAs (107 tsRNAs) and tRNA 5' leader RNAs (149 sequences identified). In TCGA, we were able to identify 232 distinct tRNA-derived ncRNAs categorized in 53 tRF-5s, 58 tRF-3s, 63 tsRNAs and 58 5' leader RNAs. This latter group represents an additional evidence of tRNA-derived ncRNAs originating from the 5' leader region of precursor tRNA. We developed a public database, tRFexplorer, which provides users with the expression profile of each tRNA-derived ncRNAs in every cell line in NCI-60 as well as for each TCGA tumor type. Moreover, the system allows us to perform differential expression analyses of such fragments in TCGA, as well as correlation analyses of tRNA-derived ncRNAs expression in TCGA and NCI-60 with gene and miRNA expression in TCGA samples, in association with all omics and compound activities data available on CellMiner. Hence, the tool provides an important opportunity to investigate their potential biological roles in absence of any direct experimental evidence. Database URL: https://trfexplorer.cloud/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro La Ferlita
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Dario Veneziano
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
| | - Giovanni Nigita
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
| | - Veronica Balatti
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
| | - Carlo M Croce
- Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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49
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Abstract
Pathway analysis is a wide class of methods allowing to determine the alteration of functional processes in complex diseases. However, biological pathways are still partial, and knowledge coming from posttranscriptional regulators has started to be considered in a systematic way only recently. Here we will give a global and updated view of the main pathway and subpathway analysis methodologies, focusing on the improvements obtained through the recent introduction of microRNAs as regulatory elements in these frameworks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Alaimo
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Giovanni Micale
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | | | - Alfredo Ferro
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
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50
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Barone R, Alaimo S, Messina M, Pulvirenti A, Bastin J, Ferro A, Frye RE, Rizzo R. A Subset of Patients With Autism Spectrum Disorders Show a Distinctive Metabolic Profile by Dried Blood Spot Analyses. Front Psychiatry 2018; 9:636. [PMID: 30581393 PMCID: PMC6292950 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2018] [Accepted: 11/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently diagnosed according to behavioral criteria. Biomarkers that identify children with ASD could lead to more accurate and early diagnosis. ASD is a complex disorder with multifactorial and heterogeneous etiology supporting recognition of biomarkers that identify patient subsets. We investigated an easily testable blood metabolic profile associated with ASD diagnosis using high throughput analyses of samples extracted from dried blood spots (DBS). A targeted panel of 45 ASD analytes including acyl-carnitines and amino acids extracted from DBS was examined in 83 children with ASD (60 males; age 6.06 ± 3.58, range: 2-10 years) and 79 matched, neurotypical (NT) control children (57 males; age 6.8 ± 4.11 years, range 2.5-11 years). Based on their chronological ages, participants were divided in two groups: younger or older than 5 years. Two-sided T-tests were used to identify significant differences in measured metabolite levels between groups. Näive Bayes algorithm trained on the identified metabolites was used to profile children with ASD vs. NT controls. Of the 45 analyzed metabolites, nine (20%) were significantly increased in ASD patients including the amino acid citrulline and acyl-carnitines C2, C4DC/C5OH, C10, C12, C14:2, C16, C16:1, C18:1 (P: < 0.001). Näive Bayes algorithm using acyl-carnitine metabolites which were identified as significantly abnormal showed the highest performances for classifying ASD in children younger than 5 years (n: 42; mean age 3.26 ± 0.89) with 72.3% sensitivity (95% CI: 71.3;73.9), 72.1% specificity (95% CI: 71.2;72.9) and a diagnostic odds ratio 11.25 (95% CI: 9.47;17.7). Re-test analyses as a measure of validity showed an accuracy of 73% in children with ASD aged ≤ 5 years. This easily testable, non-invasive profile in DBS may support recognition of metabolic ASD individuals aged ≤ 5 years and represents a potential complementary tool to improve diagnosis at earlier stages of ASD development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rita Barone
- Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- Referral Centre for Inherited Metabolic Disorders, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Salvatore Alaimo
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Marianna Messina
- Referral Centre for Inherited Metabolic Disorders, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Alfredo Pulvirenti
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Jean Bastin
- Sorbonne Paris Cité, Faculté des Sciences Fondamentales et Biomédicales, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
- INSERM, UMR-S 1124, Toxicologie, Pharmacologie et Signalisation Cellulaire, Paris, France
| | - Alfredo Ferro
- Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Richard E. Frye
- University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, United States
| | - Renata Rizzo
- Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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