Alessandra Ferramosca

Università del Salento | Unisalento · Department of Experimental Medicine (DiMeS)

Wearable technology has advanced significantly, offering real-time monitoring of athletes' physiological parameters and optimizing training and recovery strategies. Recent developments focus on biosensor devices capable of monitoring biochemical parameters in addition to physiological ones. These devices employ noninvasive methods such as sweat ana...

Background: Oxidative stress, associated with diseases and aging, underscores the therapeutic potential of natural antioxidants. Flavonoids, known for scavenging free radicals and modulating cell signaling, offer significant health benefits and contribute to longevity. To explore their in vivo effects, we investigated the antioxidant activity of qu...

The volatilome profile of some biofluids (blood, urine, and human semen) identified by Solid-Phase Microextraction–Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (SPME-GC/MS) and col- lected from young men living in two high-pollution areas in Italy, i.e., Land of Fires and Valley of Sacco River, have been coupled to sperm parameters obtained by spermiogram...

The mitochondrial inner membrane contains some hydrophobic proteins that mediate the exchange of metabolites between the mitochondrial matrix and the cytosol. Ctp1 and Yhm2 are two carrier proteins in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae responsible for the transport of citrate, a tricarboxylate involved in several metabolic pathways. Since these pr...

Differently from higher eukaryotic cells, in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae there are two mitochondrial carrier proteins involved in the transport of citrate: Ctp1 and Yhm2. Very little is known about the physiological role of these proteins. Wild-type and mutant yeast strains deleted in CTP1 and YHM2 were grown in media supplemented with a fer...

Phytoestrogens, such as isoflavones, are bioactive compounds found in plants with defense and protection functions. In the human body, they simulate the behavior of the hormone estradiol and can modulate the function of the male hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. This study aims to describe the effects of genistein on sperm quality of Wistar rats...

The mitochondrial citrate carrier (CIC) is a member of the mitochondrial carrier family and is responsible for the transit of tricarboxylates and dicarboxylates across the inner membrane. By modulating the flux of these molecules, it represents the molecular link between catabolic and anabolic reactions that take place in distinct cellular sub-comp...

The cytochrome bc1 complex is an essential component of the mitochondrial respiratory chain of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is composed of ten protein subunits, three of them playing an important role in electron transfer and proton pumping across the inner mitochondrial membrane. Cytochrome b, the central component of this respiratory co...

The citrate carrier (CIC) is an integral protein of the inner mitochondrial membrane which catalyzes the efflux of mitochon-drial citrate (or other tricarboxylates) in exchange with a cytosolic anion represented by a tricarboxylate or a dicarboxylate or phosphoenolpyruvate. In this way, the CIC provides the cytosol with citrate which is involved in...

Mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, inflammation and glucose dysmetabolism are pathological signs of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Dietary aluminum (Al) overload is often used to induce AD in rodents and trigger the onset of oxidative-stress hallmarks resembling those of the human disease. The Nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2)...

Diet might affect male reproductive potential, but the biochemical mechanisms involved in the modulation of sperm quality remain poorly understood. While a Western diet is considered a risk factor for male infertility, the Mediterranean diet seems to protect against male infertility; moreover, the role of a vegetarian habitus in the preservation of...

Mitochondria are double membrane-bound organelles which are essential for the viability of eukaryotic cells, because they play a crucial role in bioenergetics, metabolism and signaling [...]

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most widely used model organisms for investigating various aspects of basic cellular functions that are conserved in human cells. This organism, as well as human cells, can modulate its metabolism in response to specific growth conditions, different environmental changes, and nutrient depletion. This...

Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) analysis is usually applied in pollution assessment by checking for toxic or harmful volatile compounds volatiles in air, water and soil samples. In this study, exogenous VOCs and their derivatives, metabolized by cells, were valued into specific body fluids. In particular, the VOC profiles of blood, urine and human...

Nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor2 (Nrf2) is a redox-sensitive transcription factor. Its activation by low dietary intake of ligands leads to antioxidant effects (eustress), while pro-oxidant effects (oxidative distress) may be associated with high doses. NADPH oxidases (NOXs) and the mitochondrial electron transport chain are the main sour...

Plant bioactives, such as polyphenols, can differentially affect (positively or negatively) sperm quality, depending on their concentration. These molecules have been proposed as natural scavengers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for male infertility treatment. However, few data are available about their effects on the molecular mechanisms related...

Background In man two mitochondrial aspartate/glutamate carrier (AGC) isoforms, known as aralar and citrin, are required to accomplish several metabolic pathways. In order to fill the existing gap of knowledge in Drosophila melanogaster, we have studied aralar1 gene, orthologue of human AGC-encoding genes in this organism. Methods The blastp algor...

Several studies demonstrated that some types of physical exercise might affect male reproductive potential, even though the potential mechanisms involved in the modulation of sperm quality remains poorly understood. Therefore, we propose a new role for gamete mitochondria as a key hub that coordinate molecular events related to the effects induced...

The widespread cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) led to a widespread use of selective herbicides to which GMOs are resistant, thus increasing the concern about human exposure to them. Glyphosate (GLY) and glufosinate ammonium (GA), the active principles of the main formulations, have been investigated for their effects on human h...

Mitochondrial carriers are a family of structurally related proteins responsible for the exchange of metabolites, cofactors and nucleotides between the cytoplasm and mitochondrial matrix. The in silico analysis of the Drosophila melanogaster genome has highlighted the presence of 48 genes encoding putative mitochondrial carriers, but only 20 have b...

The two-phase technology for olive oil extraction generates large amounts of patè olive cake (POC), a by-product that is rich in bioactive health-promoting compounds. Here, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to maximize supercritical-CO2 oil extraction from POC, while minimizing operative temperature, pressure and time. Under the optimal p...

Mitochondria play an important role in a number of fundamental cellular processes, including energy production, biosynthetic pathways and cellular oxidoreductive homeostasis (redox status), and their dysfunction can lead to numerous pathophysiological consequences. As the biochemical mechanisms orchestrating mitochondrial metabolism and redox homeo...

Numerous nutritional approaches aimed at reducing body weight have been developed as a strategy to reduce obesity. Most of these interventions rely on reducing caloric intake or limiting calories access to a few hours per day. In this work, we analyzed the effects of the extended (24 hours/day) or restricted (1 hour/day) access to a cafeteria‐style...

Male infertility often involves idiopathic or unknown causes, leading to an increasing demand for assisted reproduction technologies (ART). Conventional sperm sorting techniques rely on centrifugation steps that are known to cause oxidative stress and consequently damage cells. Alternative novel techniques have been introduced but offer disadvantag...

Air pollution is involved in many pathologies. The pollutants act through several mechanisms that can affect numerous physiological functions, including reproduction. In this work we used a double approach to analyse the Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) component in 4 different biosamples (whole blood, urine, human semen and hairs) of young men (abo...

Conventional sperm selection techniques used in ARTs rely on centrifugation steps. To date, the different studies reported on the effects of centrifugation on stallion sperm motility provided contrasting results and do not include effects on mitochondrial functionality and different oxidative parameters. The effects of different centrifugation prot...

Context Perfluoroalkyl-substances (PFAS) are chemical additives considered harmful for humans. We recently showed that accumulation of perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) in human semen of exposed subjects was associated with altered motility parameters of sperm cells, suggesting direct toxicity. Objectives To determine whether direct exposure of human...

Premessa: Incrementi della troponina (cTn) si manifestano in varie situazioni cliniche cardiologiche ed extra-cardiologiche, tra cui l'insufficienza renale. Lo studio ha come obiettivo la determinazione della troponina I ad alta sensibilità (hs-cTnI) in soggetti emodializzati, al fine di individuarne il valore basale, eventuali fattori predittivi d...

Scope: Polyphenols exhibit their antioxidant activity downstream the activation of the Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 pathway (Nrf2), but the connection between lipid metabolism and Nrf2 pathway is still unknown. Flavonoids-rich concentrated extract from Prunus mahaleb (mahaleb concentrated fruit extract; mcfe) may act on oxido-reduct...

Sperm motility is the most important parameter involved in the fertilization process and it is strictly required for the reproductive success. Although sperm movements are essential for the physiologic fertilization process, the data, deriving from studies focused on the research of altered cell pathways involved in asthenozoospermia, offer only li...

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a key feature of cancer and is frequently associated with increased aggressiveness and metastatic potential. Recent evidence has brought to light a metabolic rewiring that takes place during the epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that drives the invasive capability of malignant tumors, and highlights...

The world is impacting with a drastic demographic change that is reflected in a progressive ageing population. If on the one side increasing health care for older people is important, stimulating the level of birth becomes decisive. The principal goal of this work is to set up of new method for early diagnosis of male infertility based on analysis...

Infertility is one of principal health and social problems of this century. Male factors are involved in half of the cases and often the alteration concerns sperm motility. Seminogram is the gold standard technique for semen analysis, but it presents several limits. For this reason, we propose a new method for discriminat- ing asthenozoospermic sam...

It is estimated that about the 12% of world’s couples are infertile, and half of these infertility cases are due to male factors. The main conditions that can affect male fertility are asthenozoospermia and oligozoospermia. For the first time, we analysed semen headspace in order to characterize the pattern of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in h...

Mimivirus (Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, APMV) was the first giant DNA virus identified in an amoeba species. Its genome contains at least 979 genes. One of these, L276, encodes a nucleotide translocator with similarities to mitochondrial metabolite carriers, provisionally named viral mitochondrial carrier 1 (VMC1). In this study we investigate...

Obesity in men of reproductive age is increasing worldwide, impacting negatively on reproductive potential, sperm function and assisted reproduction outcomes. Changes in modern eating behaviors are needed to invert the negative correlation between lifestyle and sperm quality. It is known from the literature that fatty acids are able to modulate li...

Sperm cells progressive motility is the most important parameter involved in the fertilization process. Sperm middle piece contains mitochondria, which play a critical role in energy production and whose proper operation ensures the reproductive success. Notably, sperm progressive motility is strictly related to mitochondrial membrane potential (MM...

Sperm cells progressive motility is one of the most important parameters involved in the fertilization process and it is strictly related to mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and mitochondrial functionality. The combination of laser scanning confocal (LSC) microscopy and functional fluorescent staining of mitochondrial membrane allowed us to a...

Mitochondria of spermatozoa significantly differ, structurally and functionally, from the corresponding orga- nelles of somatic cells. Nevertheless, sperm mitochondria, as well as the somatic ones, are the location of the ox- idative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) process, which is necessary for the production of metabolic energy in the form of adenosine...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common clinicopathological condition, encompassing a range of conditions caused by lipid deposition within liver cells. To date, no approved drugs are available for the treatment of NAFLD, despite the fact that it represents a serious and growing clinical problem in the Western world. Identification of...

Recently, obesity has been linked to male infertility. In animal models the administration of a high-fat diet caused a reduction in sperm quality, by impairing gamete energy metabolism. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible effect of dietary fatty acids supplementation in the modulation of sperm energy metabolism and, in turn, in the...

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Glatiramer acetate (GA; Copaxone) is a random copolymer of glutamic acid, lysine, alanine, and tyrosine used for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Its mechanism of action has not been already fully elucidated, but it seems that GA has an immune-modulatory effect and neuro-protective properties. Lymphocyte mitochondrial dysfunc...

Recent evidences have linked abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia to male infertility. Since a defective energy metabolism may play an important role in the impairment of sperm quality, the aim of this study is to investigate the sperm energetic metabolism in rats fed with a high-fat diet, an animal model associated with metaboli...

The red pigment caulerpin, a secondary metabolite from the marine invasive green algae Caulerpa cylindracea can be accumulated and transferred along the trophic chain, with detrimental consequences on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Despite increasing research efforts to understand how caulerpin modifies fish physiology, little is known on...

Oxygen consumption rate (OCR) is a significant parameter helpful to determine in vitro respiratory efficiency of living cells. Oxygen is an excellent oxidant and its electrocatalytic reduction on a noble metal allows accurately detecting it. By means of microfabrication technologies, handy, low-cost, and disposable chip can be attained, minimizing...

In recent years, several studies focused their attention on the role of dietary fats in the pathogenesis of hepatic steatosis. It has been demonstrated that a high-fat diet is able to induce hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. On the other hand krill oil, a novel dietary supplement of n-3 PUFAs, has the a...

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. There are four clinical forms of MS, the most common of which is characterized by a relapsing remitting course (RRMS). The aetiology of MS is unknown, but many studies suggested that genetic, environmental and infectious agents may cont...

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the mature cytochrome bc1 complex exists as an obligate homo-dimer in which each monomer consists of ten distinct protein subunits inserted into or bound to the inner mitochondrial membrane. Among them, the Rieske iron–sulfur protein (Rip1), besides its catalytic role in electron transfer, may be implicated in the bc1 co...

Hepatic fatty acid synthesis is influenced by several nutritional and hormonal factors. In this study, we have investigated the effects of distinct experimental diets enriched in carbohydrate or in fat on hepatic lipogenesis. Male Wistar rats were divided into four groups and fed distinct experimental diets enriched in carbohydrates (70 % w/w) or i...

TITOLO: Caulerpa racemosa and Diplodus sargus: a model for an integrated study of invasive pest metabolites impact on Mediterranean coastal marine systems Digitare una X nelle caselle di interesse: X COMUNICAZIONE r Tema 1: Potenzialità del plancton nell'economia del mare X Tema 2: Specie aliene: casi di studio r Tema 3: Livelli di diversità del...

Citrate carrier (CIC) is an integral protein of the inner mitochondrial membrane that has a fundamental role in hepatic intermediary metabolism. Its primary function is to catalyze the transport of citrate from mitochondria, where this molecule is formed, to cytosol, where this molecule is used for fatty acid (FA) and cholesterol synthesis. Therefo...

Citrate carrier (CIC) is an integral protein of the inner mitochondrial membrane that has a fundamental role in hepatic intermediary metabolism. Its primary function is to catalyze the transport of citrate from mitochondria, where this molecule is formed, to cytosol, where this molecule is used for fatty acid (FA) and cholesterol synthesis. Therefo...

After ejaculation, the mammalian male gamete must undergo the capacitation process, which is a prerequisite for egg fertilization. The bioenergetics of sperm capacitation is poorly understood despite its fundamental role in sustaining the biochemical and molecular events occurring during gamete activation. Glycolysis and mitochondrial oxidative pho...

Biological invasions are deemed as one of the most severe threats to biodiversity and can result in huge economic impacts on natural resources. Many studies have assessed structural changes caused by the introduction of nonindigenous species, but urgent questions remain to be answered about the complex indirect effects of invasive pests on marine b...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) describes a range of conditions caused by fat deposition within liver cells. Liver fat content reflects the equilibrium between several metabolic pathways involved in triglyceride synthesis and disposal, such as lipolysis in adipose tissue and de novo lipogenesis, triglyceride esterification, fatty acid oxi...

54) Oxygraph chamber and insertable micro-culture device and uses thereof (57) The present invention refers to a micro culture device (5) to be inserted in a chamber (4) of an oxygraph (7). The micro culture device is divided into an upper microchamber (2) and a lower microchamber (3) by a semi-permeable nanoporous membrane (1), suitable for acting...

Mitochondrial metabolite carriers are hydrophobic proteins which catalyze the flux of several charged or hydrophilic substrates across the inner membrane of mitochondria. These proteins, like most mitochondrial proteins, are nuclear encoded and after their synthesis in the cytosol are transported into the inner mitochondrial membrane. Most metaboli...

In this study the authors evaluated the prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) and the incidence in determining the occurrence thereof, given by the following risk factors: age, family history for Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Body Mass Index (BMI), smoking, diet, macrosomia in previous pregnancies and physical activity. To this end, they inve...

Krill oil (KO) is a dietary source of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, mainly represented by eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid bound to phospholipids. The supplementation of a high-fat diet with 2.5% KO efficiently prevented triglyceride and cholesterol accumulation in liver of treated rats. This effect was accompanied by a parallel re...

Mitochondria of spermatozoa are different from the corresponding organelles of somatic cells, in both their morphology and biochemistry. The biochemical differences are essentially related to the existence of specific enzyme isoforms, which are characterized by peculiar kinetic and regulatory properties. As mitochondrial energy metabolism is a key...

The role of mitochondria in sperm motility was the subject of several investigations. However, different views on this topic emerged among scientists. In particular, very little is known on the mechanisms of energy production occurring during human sperm capacitation and related processes. In this study, we have investigated the mitochondrial respi...

The mitochondrial tricarboxylate carrier supplies cytosol with the carbon units necessary for hepatic lipogenesis. The activities of cytosolic acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthetase are therefore strictly connected to the function of mitochondrial tricarboxylate carrier. Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are potent modulators of...

Metabolite carrier proteins of the mitochondrial inner membrane share homology in their transmembrane domains, which also carries their targeting information. In addition, some carriers have cleavable presequences which are not essential for targeting, but have some other function before import. The cytosolic chaperones Hsc70 (heat-shock cognate 70...

Pinus koraiensis seed oil (pine nut oil), containing pinolenic acid, has been proposed as a benefi cial fat by virtue of its effects on some lipid variables. In this study the effects of a pine nut oil-supplemented diet in mice, in comparison to control animals fed with a maize oil enriched diet, were investigated. Pine nut oil caused a signifi can...

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) strongly prevents fat accumulation in adipose tissue of mice, even if hepatic fat deposition and insulin resistance are concomitantly observed. This study investigated the possibility of maintaining the antiadiposity properties of CLA while preventing adverse effects such as liver steatosis and hyperinsulinemia. To th...