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Publications (62)
The hepatitis D virus (HDV) superinfection of individuals with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection causes severe liver damage and the poorest long-term prognosis among viral hepatitis. This is attributed to the unique pathogenic mechanisms of HDV characterized by a direct cytopathic effect on hepatocytes and a significant impairment of the ho...
BCR::ABL1‐negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are clonal haematopoietic stem cell disorders characterized by specific driver mutations and an increased risk of both macrothrombosis and microthrombosis. Serotonin receptor type 1B (HTR1B) was found to be expressed by various solid tumours, and also primary bone marrow mononuclear cells from...
Immunosuppressed individuals, such as people living with HIV (PLWH), remain vulnerable to severe COVID-19. We analyzed the persistence of specific SARS-CoV-2 humoral and cellular immune responses in a retrospective, cross-sectional study in PLWH on antiretroviral therapy. Among 104 participants, 70.2% had anti-S IgG antibodies, and 55.8% had signif...
Immunosuppressed individuals, such as people living with HIV (PLWH), remain vulnerable to severe COVID-19. We analyzed the persistence of specific SARS-CoV-2 humoral and cellular immune responses in a retrospective, cross-sectional study in PLWH on antiretroviral therapy. Among 104 participants, 70.2% had anti-S IgG antibodies and 55.8% had signifi...
More than 3 years after the start of SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic, the molecular mechanisms behind the viral pathogenesis are still not completely understood. Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs), well‐known players in viral infections, can represent prime candidates for patients' risk stratification. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the lncRNA...
Approximately 62–72 million people are infected worldwide with HDV. Patients with chronic hepatitis D (CHD) have a higher risk of developing cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and an increased mortality rate compared to those with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The stage of liver fibrosis or the risk of developing HCC can also be estimated by...
Somatic frameshift mutations in exon 9 of calreticulin ( CALR ) gene are recognized as disease drivers in primary myelofibrosis (PMF), one of the three classical Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). Type 1/type 1-like CALR mutations particularly confer a favorable prognostic and survival advantage in PMF patients. We report an...
Background:
In this study, we compared programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in primary tissue samples and its soluble form (sPD-L1) concentration in matched preoperative plasma samples from gastric cancer patients to understand the relationship between tissue and plasma PD-L1 expression and to determine its diagnostic and prognostic value....
With approximately one million diagnosed cases and over 700,000 deaths recorded annually, gastric cancer (GC) is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. GC is a heterogeneous tumor. Thus, optimal management requires biomarkers of prognosis, treatment selection, and treatment response. The Cancer Genome Atlas program sub-clas...
Experimental models of a clinical, pathophysiological context are used to understand molecular mechanisms and develop novel therapies. Previous studies revealed better outcomes for spinal cord injury chronic ethanol-consuming patients. This study evaluated cellular and molecular changes in a model mimicking spinal cord injury (hypoxic stress induce...
Despite advances in cancer detection and therapy, it has been estimated that the incidence of cancers will increase, while the mortality rate will continue to remain high, a fact explained by the large number of patients diagnosed in advanced stages when therapy is often useless. Therefore, it is necessary to invest knowledge and resources in the d...
In the genomic medicine era, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 was immediately followed by viral genome sequencing and world-wide sequences sharing. Almost in real-time, based on these sequences, resources were developed and applied around the world, such as molecular diagnostic tests, informed public health decisions, and vaccines. Molecular SARS-CoV-2...
The continuous variability of SARS-CoV-2 and the rapid waning of specific antibodies threatens the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. We aimed to evaluate antibody kinetics one year after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination with an mRNA vaccine in healthcare workers (HCW), with or without a booster. A marked decline in anti-Spike(S)/Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) an...
This paper aimed to develop two types of support materials with a mesoporous structure of mobile crystalline matter (known in the literature as MCM, namely MCM-41 and MCM-48) and to load them with gallic acid. Soft templating methodology was chosen for the preparation of the mesoporous structures—the cylindrical micelles with certain structural cha...
Gastric cancer has remained in the top five cancers for over ten years, both in terms of incidence and mortality due to the shortage of biomarkers for disease follow-up and effective therapies. Aiming to fill this gap, we performed a bioinformatics assessment on our data and two additional GEO microarray profiles, followed by a deep analysis of the...
SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are highly efficient against severe forms of the disease, hospitalization and death. Nevertheless, insufficient protection against several circulating viral variants might suggest waning immunity and the need for an additional vaccine dose. We conducted a longitudinal study on the kinetics and persistence of immune responses in...
The purpose of this study was to obtain and characterize curcumin-loaded hydroxyapatite materials for bone cancer treatment. The hydroxyapatite synthesis was performed under controlled conditions in order to obtain monodisperse, fine nanoparticles and to avoid later uncontrolled deposition of these nanoparticles, starting from Ca(OH)2 and (NH4)2HPO...
Liquid biopsy represents an exciting new area in the field of cancer diagnosis and management, offering a less invasive and more convenient approach to obtain a time-point image of the tumor burden and its genomic profile. Samples collected from several body fluids, mostly blood, can be used to gain access to circulating tumor cells and DNA, non-co...
The aim of this study was to to evaluate and correlate the expression of some actors of canonical inflammasome pathway with the degree of cervical lesions in cytologic specimens. Methods: The study group included 128 Romanian female patients aged between 16 and 68 years that were referred to Synevo laboratories for performing both a cytological eva...
Three novel Co(II) complexes of the type [Co(C4H5O2)2L2] (where C4H5O2 is methacrylate anion; L = C3H4N2 (imidazole; HIm) (1), C4H6N2 (2-methylimidazole; 2-MeIm) (2), C5H8N2 (2-ethylimidazole; 2-EtIm) (3)) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques, thermal analysis and single crystal X-ray...
Starting from isoniazid and carboxylic acids as precursors, thirteen new hydrazides and 1,3,4-oxadiazoles of 2-(4-substituted-phenoxymethyl)-benzoic acids were synthesized and characterized by appropriate means. Their biological properties were evaluated in terms of apoptosis, cell cycle blocking, and drug metabolism genes expression on HCT-8 and H...
Background:
Gastric cancer (GC) remains an aggressive malignancy with a high rate of mortality, being the third leading cause of cancer-related death. More than one million newly diagnosed cases and 782685 deaths due to GC were reported in 2018. GC is characterized by limited effective treatment options and the lack of consistent biomarkers for th...
The role of cancer stem cells in gastrointestinal cancer-associated death has been widely recognized. Gastrointestinal cancer stem cells (GCSCs) are considered to be responsible for tumor initiation, growth, resistance to cytotoxic therapies, recurrence and metastasis due to their unique properties. These properties make the current therapeutic tri...
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and lethal viral disease of swine with significant socioeconomic impact in the developed and developing world. Since its reintroduction in 2007 in the Republic of Georgia, the disease has spread dramatically thorough Europe and Asia. Among the most affected countries in Europe is Romania, which initi...
We designed new pyrazole derivatives as inhibitors of the cell cycle kinases and developed a simple environmentally sustainable synthesis process. We synthesized the pyrazolyl thiourea derivatives using rapid ultrasound mediated methods and confirmed their structures by NMR and IR spectra. The apoptosis and necrosis inducing effects of the new comp...
Gastric cancer (GC) remains an important cause of cancer death worldwide with a high mortality rate due to the fact that the majority of GC cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage when the prognosis is poor and the treatment options are limited. Unfortunately, the existing circulating biomarkers for GC diagnosis and prognosis display low sensitivi...
Alterations in the bone marrow niche induced by abnormal production of cytokines and other soluble factors have been associated with disease progression in classical BCR‐ABL1 negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Variations in circulating proteins might reflect local disease processes and plasma proteome profiling could serve to identify pos...
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive malignant disease defined by abnormal expansion of myeloid blasts. Despite recent advances in understanding AML pathogenesis and identifying their molecular subtypes based on somatic mutations, AML is still characterized by poor outcomes, with a 5-year survival rate of only 30%-40%, the majority of the...
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most lethal and aggressive cancers, being the third cause of cancer related death worldwide. Even with radical gastrectomy and the latest generation of molecular chemotherapeutics, the numbers of recurrence and mortality remains high. This is due to its biological heterogeneity based on the interaction between mult...
The tumor suppressor TP53 gene is one of the commonest mutated genes in colorectal cancer. Beside somatic mutations, the gene harbors numerous genetic variations that may alter the protein functionality, affecting cancer risk and clinical outcome. Among genetic variations, single nucleotide polymorphisms were investigated in relation to cancer risk...
In the food industry, genetic modifications (GM) are defined as a group of methods that change the genetic composition of a plant or animal to improve its nutritional content, shelf life, flavor, color, texture, agronomic properties, or processing characteristics. There are several methods that can be used to obtain genetically modified plants, eac...
Background
Keratin 17 (KRT17) was shown to be an important molecular marker for predicting the carcinogenesis, progression, and prognosis of various cancer types. Our previous studies identified KRT17 as a possible biomarker for gastric cancer by gene microarray, with an elevated expression that occurred early during tumorigenesis and increased dur...
The objective of this study was to evaluate the antiviral/virucidal characteristics of two types of propolis extracts (alcoholic and aqueous) against human pathogenic DNA-viruses. In our tests three virus strains were used: HSV1 (Herpex simplex virus) (strain VR # 3), Varicella zoster (VZV) and adenovirus type 5 (ADV5). The cells used in each exper...
Despite their commensal status, staphylococci can become problematic pathogens expressing multiple and redundant virulence factors. This study aimed to evaluate aggressiveness markers comparatively in staphylococcal strains isolated from severe infections versus asymptomatic carriage in order to identify clinically relevant bacterial traits that co...
Hemoglobinopathies, such as beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease (SCD), are among the most common congenital diseases in the world, with high mortality and morbidity rates. The most straightforward approach to correct the main culprit in hemoglobinopathies - the imbalance between the amounts of alpha-like globins/betalike globins-will need to t...
Current therapeutic strategies used in many types of cancer are confronted with the major problem of multidrug resistance (MDR) that can be acquired through several mechanisms. To overcome this limitation, new therapeutic options are being explored involving state-of-the-art technologies. In this respect, small-interfering RNA (siRNA) technology of...
The current understanding of BCR-ABL1 negative myeloproliferative neoplasms pathogenesis is centred on the phenotypic driver mutations in JAK2, MPL, or CALR genes, and the constitutive activation of JAK-STAT pathway. Nonetheless, there is still a need to better characterize the cellular processes that are triggered by these genetic alterations, suc...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of HeLa cells to the interaction with inactivated Staphylococcus aureus cells and live challenge with herpes simplex virus (HSV).The results of this study are indicating that the interaction between the HeLa cells and S. aureus inactivated whole cells could modulate the host cell apoptosis a...
We designed and synthesized new pyrazole thiourea chimeric derivatives and confirmed their structures by NMR and IR spectra. Apoptotic effects were studied in human cancer cells. The N-[(1-methyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)carbonyl]-N'-(3-bromophenyl)-thiourea compound (4b) exhibited the highest apoptosis-inducing effect. Compound 4b and the thiazole derivati...
Hox genes are critical regulators of embryonic development,being involved in formation of the skeleton and limbs, craniofacial morphogenesis, and in development of the central nervous system, gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts. Furthermore, in adults, Hox genes play an important role in cell renewal and tissue regeneration processes such as hem...
A series of several new isoniazid derivatives, isonicotinic acid 2-(2-hydroxy-8-substituted-tricyclo[7.3.1.02.7]tridec-13-ylidene)-hydrazides, were synthesized and fully characterized. These new isoniazid derivatives were studied regarding their antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity, as well as their influences on some metabolizing enzymes. The b...
Thrombotic events are highly prevalent in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Antiphospholipid antibodies play an essential role in promoting thrombosis by activating several intracellular signaling pathways (TLR4, p38MAPK, NFkB) in platelets, monocytes and endothelial cells. New therapeutic opportunities might be offered by addressing these molecu...
The aim of this study was to investigate the virucid and cytotoxic activity of two hydroalcoholic extracts from French tamarisk (Tamarix gallica) and Milk thistle (Silybum marianum), plants that have been used for their therapeutic effects from ancient times. Each of these extracts was extensively studied for their hepatoprotective and stimulant ef...
This paper presents the synthesis and characterization of hybrid PVA/Al2O3 thin film at room temperature (RT) and respectively under hydrothermal conditions (HC). The synthesis starts from commercially available Al2O3 and 10% PVA solution. When working at RT, regardless of the mixing ratio of PVA and Al2O3 (1:4; 1:1 and 4:1 wt) two phases can be id...
The aim of the study was to synthesize some new compounds with potential anti-tuberculosis activity, containing isoniazid and α,β-unsaturated thiocinnamamide-like thioamides as precursors. The obtained derivatives were evaluated regarding their biological activity (antioxidant and antibacterial), as well as their influence on the eukaryotic cell cy...
The aim of this paper is to review the antimicrobial activity of thiourea derivatives against planktonic and adherent bacterial and fungal strains, as well as to show how nanotechnology could improve the intrinsic antimicrobial activity of the novel substances, by obtaining biocompatible nanocomposites based on magnetite nanoparticles and newly syn...
Starting from 4-amino-antipyrine, six new compounds were synthesized and characterized. The new compounds contain moieties with particular properties, such are ionophore (benzo-15-crown-5), fluorescent (nitrobenzofurazan), stable free radical (nitroxide), or other types of biological active residues, like nitroderivatives, antipyrine or isoniazid r...
Active suppression by Regulatory T lymphocytes (Treg) might be important in controlling immune responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Our aim was to evaluate the local cellular immune response to Mtb, by evaluation of Treg cells in pleural fluid (PF) compared to peripheral blood (PB) from patients with active Mtb infection and healthy...
The number of evidences regarding the role of tumor stem cells (TSC) in the initiation and progression of high-grade astrocytomas became more and more numerous in the last years. This issue has been intensively tested in glioblastoma, but little attention has been paid for anaplastic astrocytoma. The main objective of this paper was to study the mo...
Although significant progresses were made in the field of molecular biology of malignant cerebral gliomas, the prognostic of these tumors continues to be reserved. One of the therapeutic failure reasons is the incomplete knowledge regarding the origin of these tumors and cells features, which in fact represent an obstacle in developing a cell and m...
Although significant progresses were made in the field of molecular biology of malignant cerebral gliomas, the prognostic of these tumors continues to be reserved. One of the therapeutic failure reasons is the incomplete knowledge regarding the origin of these tumors and cells features, which in fact represent an obstacle in developing a cell and m...