Antonietta Picascia

Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli

Current management of patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo‐HSCT) lacks immunosuppressant drugs able to block the host immune response towards the graft antigens. Novel treatments may include epigenetic compounds (epidrugs) some of which have been yet approved by the Food and Drugs Administration for the treat...

Heart transplantation is still the only possible life-saving treatment for end-stage heart failure, the critical epilogue of several cardiac diseases. Epigenetic mechanisms are being intensively investigated because they could contribute to establishing innovative diagnostic and predictive biomarkers, as well as ground-breaking therapies both for h...

The complex polymorphism of the HLA genes and the need of a proper identification of anti-HLA antibodies have led to continuously develop novel practical and feasible technologies in the field of organ and tissue transplantation. Technologies to identify HLA molecules have evolved from the serological to the molecular methods and a true innovation...

Background: Circulating endothelial progenitors cells (EPCs) play a critical role in neovascularization and endothelial repair. There is a growing evidence that hyperglycemia related to Diabetes Mellitus (DM) decreases EPC number and function so promoting vascular complications. Aim of the study: This study investigated whether an intensive glyc...

Background: Alloimmunization remains a critical factor which affects the success of kidney transplantation. Patients awaiting solid organ transplantation may develop anti-HLA antibodies after pregnancies, transfusions and previous events of transplantations. Aim: We evaluated the effects of different sensitizing events on the anti-HLA antibody p...

Cardiovascular disease is still the major cause of death worldwide despite the remarkable progress in its prevention and treatment. Endothelial progenitor cells have recently emerged as key players of vascular repair and regenerative medicine applied to cardiovascular disease. A large amount of effort has been put into discovering the factors that...

Bartonella henselae is the etiologic agent of cat-scratch disease. B. henselae infections are responsible for a widening spectrum of human diseases, although often symptomless, ranging from self-limited to life-threatening and show different courses and organ involvement due to the balance between host and pathogen. The role of the host immune resp...

Progress in human genetic and genomic research has led to the identification of genetic variants associated with specific cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), but the pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear. Recent studies have analyzed the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation and histone modifications in the development and progres...

Recent data support the involvement of epigenetic alterations in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The most widely investigated epigenetic mechanism is DNA methylation although also histone code changes occur during the diverse steps of atherosclerosis, such as endothelial cell proliferation, vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) differentiation, an...

Genome-wide association studies have revealed several genes predisposing to autoimmunity, however, concordance rates in monozygotic twins are significantly below 50% for several autoimmune diseases. The limited presence of a strong genetic association only in some patients supports that others non-genetic mechanisms are active in these pathologies....

Considerable advances in heart transplantation outcome have been achieved through the improvement of donor-recipient selection, better organ preservation, lower rates of perioperative mortality and the use of innovative immunosup-pressive protocols. Nevertheless, long-term survival is still influenced by late complications. We support the introduct...

Aim Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is the standard therapy for the treatment of malignant blood diseases or immune system disorders. HLA compatibility influences the transplant outcome and minimizes the risks of rejection or severe graft-versus-host disease. The identification of a compatible unrelated donor depends...

Considerable advances in heart transplantation outcome have been achieved through the improvement of donor-recipient selection, better organ preservation, lower rates of perioperative mortality and the use of innovative immunosuppressive protocols. Nevertheless, long-term survival is still influenced by late complications. We support the introducti...

Recently, management of patients awaiting solid organ transplantation has taken advantages after the development of more sensitive and accurate solid phase assays which have supported the historic complement dependent cytotoxicity. This approach has allowed the detection of antibodies in patients previously considered negative. The use of the singl...

Several donor and recipient factors are known to be associated with graft loss in a kidney transplant. In this retrospective single-center study, we analyzed the effect of clinical and immunologic factors on kidney transplant outcomes in our region in Italy. The study included 245 transplanted recipients from deceased donors at Federico II Universi...

Objective: Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) products are known to have beneficial immunomodulatory effects on several inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. These effects could be attributed to a different inhibitory action on complement factors, but other mechanisms could be implicated, e.g., immunocomplexes development and/or anti-idiotypic ant...

Aim Recent evidences have shown that several host genetic factors influence susceptibility or protection to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. There are controversial data regarding the associations of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) and clearance or progression of HCV. The aim of this study was to investigate whether particular HLA molecules were a...

Aim Mediator (MED) complex functions as a pivotal adaptor between transcription factors bounded at gene regulatory elements, RNA polymerase II and general transcription factors. Different ancestral humanMED complexes including at least 30 distinct MED subunits (MEDs) have been isolated. Because of the importance of ancestral MED role in the transcr...

Recent evidences have shown that several host genetic factors influence susceptibility or protection to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. There are controversial data regarding the associations of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) and the clearance or progression of HCV. The aim of this study was to investigate whether particular HLA molecules were a...

Different desensitization strategies are available for treating patients with preformed human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies. A highly presensitized heart recipient received immunoadsorption and rituximab therapy. The patient, with end-stage heart failure, was positive only for antibodies of HLA class I (anti-A2, A10, B17), and Luminex platform...

Objectives: Although previous studies have investigated the effect of human leukocyte antigen matching on long-term outcomes after heart transplants, its role in the prognosis after a heart transplant remains unclear, particularly with respect to short-term survival. Materials and methods: We evaluated the human leukocyte antigen mismatch on in-...

In recent years the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has increased its potential, also thanks to mass spectrometry (MS) proteomics. Modern MS proteomics tools permit analyzing a variety of biological samples, ranging form single cells to tissues and body fluids, like plasma and urine. This approach enhances the search for informative bioma...

Sensitized candidates for heart transplant usually end up on a long waiting list and have an increased risk of rejection, graft loss, and incidence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the negative effect of preformed and posttransplant antibodies on graft survival. Thus, in sensitized patients, the c...

Preformed anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies have a negative effect on kidney transplantation outcome with an increased rejection rate and reduction in survival. Posttransplantation production of donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies is indicative of an active immune response and risk of transplantation rejection. For many years the primary...

The relevance of anti-HLA antibodies in patients awaiting kidney transplants is well recognized. During the past 40 years, kidney transplant candidates have been tested for these antibodies, and the choice of the detection assay has become essential. Recently, the pioneer method, the complement-dependent cytotoxicity, has been integrated but has no...

The clinical transplantation outcome is related to both effects of immunological and non immunological factors degenerating into hyperacute, acute and chronic rejection. Modern immunosuppressive treatments have resolved most events linked to acute rejection while long-term survival still remains the major problem after heart transplantation. The go...

Activating germ-line point mutations in the RET receptor are responsible for multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2-associated medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), whereas somatic RET rearrangements are prevalent in papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs). Some rare kindreds, carrying point mutations in RET, are affected by both cancer types, suggesting tha...

We examined the role of G-protein coupled receptor kinase-2 (GRK2) in the homologous desensitization of mGlu4 metabotropic glutamate receptors transiently expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells. Receptor activation with the agonist l-2-amino-4-phosphonobutanoate (l-AP4) stimulated at least two distinct signaling pathways: inhibition of...

G-protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRK) contain a regulator of G-protein signaling (RGS)-like domain located at the N terminus (GRK-Nter) of their sequence. This domain is present in all the GRK subtypes, but the RGS-like domain of GRK2 was documented to be functionally active, as it is able to interact selectively with Galphaq (both in vitro and...

TSH activates its specific receptor in thyroid cells and induces cAMP, a robust stimulator of thyroid cell proliferation. Conversely, cAMP is a potent inhibitor of growth in mouse fibroblasts. To dissect the signals mediating cAMP-dependent growth, we have expressed in mouse fibroblasts the human thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) or a constitutively acti...

Cellular inclusions containing ubiquitin and alpha-synuclein were observed in PC12 cells treated with metamphetamine (MA). To study the possible involvement of beta-arrestin in inclusion formation, we treated PC12 cells with MA for different times and analyzed the ubiquitin proteosome pathway (UPP). We found that beta-arrestin is ubiquitinated in t...

The metabotropic glutamate 1 (mGlu(1)) receptor in cerebellar Purkinje cells plays a key role in motor learning and motor coordination. Here we show that the G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRK) 2 and 4, which are expressed in these cells, regulate the mGlu(1) receptor by at least in part different mechanisms. Using kinase-dead mutants in HEK29...

Activation regulates the responsiveness of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) on T cells, and modifications in the activity of GPCRs characterize lymphocytes from some immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Some lines of evidence suggest that such an effect is connected with the altered expression of some G...

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a naturally occurring phospholipid that activates a variety of biological activities including cell proliferation. Three mammalian LPA receptor (LPAr) subtypes have been identified by molecular cloning, named lp(A1), lp(A2) and lp(A3), that are coupled to heterotrimeric G-proteins for signal transduction. The LPAr are...

Proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) expression in prostate epithelium inversely correlated with degree of malignancy of prostate cancers, thus the role of Pyk2 in the regulation of prostate cells proliferation and differentiation was investigate in PC3 cells. Pyk2 can be activated by canonic stimuli such as tumor necrosis factoralpha and lysophos...

Proline-rich kinase 2 (Pyk2), also known as CAKbeta (cell adhesion kinase beta), is a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase that is structurally related to focal adhesion kinase. Pyk2 is expressed in different cell types including brain cells, fibroblasts, platelets, and other hemopoietic cells. Pyk2 is rapidly tyrosine phosphorylated in response to diverse...

The aim of this study was to investigate: (i) whether a persistent increase of cAMP interferes with the proliferation of transformed thyroid cells, and (ii) whether the degree of malignancy is correlated with the sensitivity to a transient and/or sustained increase in intracellular cAMP levels. To address these questions we used thyroid cell lines...

Proto-oncogenes play an important role in the regulation of cellular growth and differentiation. C-Jun activity has been studied in the testis of a non mammalian vertebrate, the lizard Podarcis s. sicula, during two different periods: winter stasis and the breeding season. C-Jun protein was localized by immunocytochemistry in the cytoplasm of the s...

TSH-independent mutant clones (M cells) derived from FRTL5 cells, proliferate vigorously in the absence of TSH. The growth of M cells is stimulated by IGF-I in a dose-dependent fashion, but it is not influenced by TSH. Sm1.2, an antibody against IGF-I cross-reacting with IGF-II, significantly decreases basal DNA synthesis in the M cells. Binding of...

TSH-independent mutant clones (M cells) derived from FRTL5 cells, proliferate vigorously in the absence of TSH. The growth of M cells is stimulated by IGF-I in a dose-dependent fashion, but it is not influenced by TSH. Sm1.2, an antibody against IGF-I cross-reacting with IGF-II, significantly decreases basal DNA synthesis in the M cells. Binding of...

Abstract Proto-oncogenes play an important role in the regulation of cellular growth and differentiation. C-Jun activity has been studied in the testis of a non mammalian vertebrate, the lizard Podarcis s. sicula, during two different periods: winter stasis and the breeding season. C-Jun protein was localized by immunocytochemistry in the cytoplasm...