Mario D Cordero

Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA) · Inflammation and metabolism during ageing research group

In the past, mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) were considered a byproduct of cellular metabolism. Due to the capacity of mtROS to cause oxidative damage, they were proposed as the main drivers of ageing and age-related diseases. Today, we know that mtROS are cellular messengers instrumental in maintaining cellular homeostasis. As cellu...

Senescence is a cellular aging-related process triggered by different stresses and characterized by the secretion of various inflammatory factors referred to as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Here, we present evidence that the inflammasome sensor, NLRP1, is a key mediator of senescence induced by irradiation both in vitro and...

Inflammasomes including those assembled by NLRP1 and NLRP3 regulate the innate immune system by inducing interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 maturation. Inflammasomes are functionally regulated by post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation. The current paradigm posits that NEK7 is the essential and seletive activator of NLRP3; whether this...

Aims: Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases (GM2 gangliosidosis) are autosomal recessive disorders of lysosomal function that cause progressive neurodegeneration in infants and young children. Impaired hydrolysis catalysed by β-hexosaminidase A (HexA) leads to the accumulation of GM2 ganglioside in neuronal lysosomes. Despite the storage phenotype, the...

Inflammation is a hallmark of aging and accelerated aging syndromes such as Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS). In this study, we present evidence of increased expression of the components of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway in HGPS skin fibroblasts, an outcome that was associated with morphological changes of the nuclei of the cells. Lympho...

Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases (GM2 gangliosidosis) are autosomal recessive disorders of lysosomal function that cause progressive neurodegeneration in infants and young children. Impaired hydrolysis catalysed by β-hexosaminidase A (HexA) leads to the accumulation of GM2 ganglioside in neuronal lysosomes. Despite the storage phenotype, the role of...

The Papillon–Lefèvre syndrome (PLS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the Cathepsin C (CTSC) gene, characterized by periodontitis and palmoplantar hyperkeratosis. The main inflammatory deficiencies include oxidative stress and autophagic dysfunction. Mitochondria are the main source of reactive oxygen species; their impa...

Inflammation is a hallmark of aging and negatively affecting female fertility. In this study, we evaluate the role of the NLRP3-inflammasome in ovarian aging and female fertility. Age-dependent increased expression of NLRP3 in the ovary was observed in female WT mice during reproductive aging. High expression of NLRP3, caspase 1 and IL-1β was also...

Cardiomyocytes are subjected to the intense mechanical stress and metabolic demands of the beating heart. It is unclear whether these cells, which are long-lived and rarely renew, manage to preserve homeostasis on their own. While analyzing macrophages lodged within the healthy myocardium, we discovered that they actively took up material, includin...

Aging is associated with metabolic changes and low-grade inflammation in several organs, which may be due to NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Methods: Here we asked whether age related liver changes such as lipid metabolism and fibrosis are reduced in aged mice lacking the NLRP3 inflammasome. Results: We report reduced protein levels of lipid markers...

Inflammation is a hallmark of aging and accelerated aging syndromes. In this context, inflammation has been associated to the pathophysiology of Hutchinson Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS). In this study, we report that progeroid skin fibroblasts and animal models present an hyperactivation of the NLRP3-inflammasome complex. High expression of NLRP...

Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) is a critical fertility defect characterized by anticipated impairment of the follicular reserve which pathophysiological mechanisms have not yet been identified. We have investigated the possible relationship between AMPK and the pathophysiology of POI. We studied thirty-five POI patients with altered levels of...

Increasing evidence connects periodontitis with a variety of systemic diseases, including metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The proposal of this study was to evaluate the role of diets rich in saturated fat and cholesterol in some aspects of periodontal diseases in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced...

Inflammation is a hallmark of many processes during aging and reproductive physiology, negatively affecting female fertility. The goal of this study was to evaluate the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in ovarian aging and female fertility. Age-dependent increased expression of NLRP3 in the ovary was observed in female WT mice during reproductive agi...

Cancer cells have unlimited replicative potential, insensitivity to growth-inhibitory signals, evasion of apoptosis, cellular stress, and sustained angiogenesis, invasiveness and metastatic potential. Cancer cells adequately adapt cell metabolism and integrate several intracellular and redox signalling to promote cell survival in an inflammatory an...

Background and objective: Our aims were to improve the understanding of the pathogenic relationship between cardiovascular diseases and periodontitis and to generate new perspectives in the prevention and treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and periodontitis. The present study evaluates possible differences in inflammation, oxidative st...

The heart pumps blood throughout the whole life of an organism, without rest periods during which to replenish energy or detoxify. Hence, cardiomyocytes, the working units of the heart, have mechanisms to ensure constitutive production of energy and detoxification to preserve fitness and function for decades. Even more challenging, the heart must a...

Introduction: Inflammasomes are recognized as key components of the innate immune response in sepsis. We aimed to describe the transcriptional expression of nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat-containing receptor, pyrin domain-containing-3 (NLRP3) and serum interleukin-1β (IL-1 β) in critically ill patients, their changes over the first...

Aging is the major risk factor for many metabolic chronic diseases. Several metabolic pathways suffer a progressive impairment during aging including body composition and insulin resistance which are associated to autophagy dysfunction and increased inflammation. Many of these alterations are aggravated by non-healthy lifestyle such as obesity and...

While NLRP3-inflammasome has been implicated in cardiovascular diseases, its role in physiological cardiac aging is largely unknown. During aging, many alterations occur in the organism which are associated with progressive impairment of metabolic pathways related to insulin resistance, autophagy dysfunction and inflammation. Here, we investigated...

The NLRP3 inflammasome has emerged as an important regulator of metabolic disorders and age-associated diseases as reported in NLRP3 deficient mice. Here we asked whether in old mice C57BL6J the NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor MCC950 is able to attenuate age- assocociated metabolic syndrome providing health benefits. We report that MCC950 attenuates m...

Our results illustrate that dysregulated mevalonate pathway associated with high intracellular cholesterol content and mitochondrial dysfunction as well as extensive mitophagy and inflammasome activation may participate in Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) pathophysiology. AMPK activation by CoQ10 treatment reduced SREBP-2 activation and cholester...

Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an autosomal co-dominant genetic disorder characterized by elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and increased risk for premature cardiovascular disease. Here, we examined FH pathophysiology in skin fibroblasts derived from FH patients harbouring heterozygous mutations in the LDL-receptor. F...

Damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are released form red blood cells (RBCs) during intravascular hemolysis (IVH). Extracellular heme, with its pro-oxidant, pro-inflammatory and cytotoxic effects, is sensed by innate immune cells through pattern recognition receptors such as toll-like receptor 4 and nucleotide-binding domain and leucine ri...

The inflammasomes are innate immune system sensors that control the activation of caspase-1 and induce inflammation in response to infectious microbes and molecules originating from host proteins, leading to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, Il1b and IL18, and a particular inflammatory type of cell death termed pyroptosis. It is broadly co...

Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes formed and activated after exposure to pathogenic microbes and host danger signals that control the maturation and production of IL-1β and IL-18. Their implication in different diseases such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, psychiatric, and metabolic diseases opens a door to developing new therapeutic p...

Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, a multiprotein complex, leading to caspase activation with production of proinflammatory IL-1 represents a major pathway of inflammation. Recent, studies in mice and human patients uncovered several gain-of- function (GOF) mutations in inflammasome sensor proteins that allow inflammasome assembly in the absenc...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death worldwide, with high prevalence in industrialized countries. Cardiovascular risk factors are mainly influenced by diet, which like other lifestyle factors can be modified to either reduce or increase cardiovascular risk. Other metabolic diseases such as metabolic syndrome, type II diabete...

Hemolytic or hemorrhagic episodes are often associated with inflammation even when infectious agents are absent suggesting that red blood cells (RBCs) release damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). DAMPs activate immune and nonimmune cells through pattern recognition receptors. Heme, released from RBCs, is a DAMP and induces IL-1 β productio...

Background: Cathepsin C (CatC) is a lysosomal enzyme involved in the activation of serine proteases from immune and inflammatory cells. Several mutations with loss of function in the Cathepsin C (CatC) gene have been shown to be the genetic mark of Papillon-Lefèvre syndrome (PLS), a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by severe early-ons...

This volume focuses on the role of inflammasomes in a variety of diseases and their therapeutic options. It gives an overview of the current studies elucidating the molecular implications in the medical and clinical contexts. It covers inflammasomes as potential therapeutic targets and evaluates the benefits of inflammasome inhibitors.

The NLRP3 inflammasome has recently emerged as an unexpected marker of stress and metabolic risk and has also been implicated in the development of major aging-related diseases such as gout, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer, and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disorders. Several pathways regulating the NLRP3 inflammasome are currently being st...

The NLRP3-inflammasome complex has emerged as an important component of inflammatory processes in metabolic dysfunction induced by high-caloric diets. In this study, we investigate the molecular mechanisms by which NLRP3 inhibition may attenuate diet-induced cardiac injury. Here we show the cardiac damage induced by high sugar diet (HSD), high fat...

Regulation of lipid metabolism is essential for treatment and prevention of several chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, which are responsible for most deaths worldwide. It has been demonstrated that the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has a direct impact on lipid metabolism by modulating several downstream-s...

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD, ICD-10: F-33) is a prevalent illness in which the pathogenic mechanism remains elusive. Recently an important role has been attributed to neuro-inflammation, and specifically the NLRP3-inflammasome complex, in the pathogenesis of MDD. This suggests a key role for immunomodulation as a key pathway in the treatment of...

Cell cytoskeleton makes profound changes during apoptosis including the organization of an Apoptotic Microtubule Network (AMN). AMN forms a cortical structure which plays an important role in preserving plasma membrane integrity during apoptosis. Here, we examined the cytoskeleton rearrangements during apoptosis induced by camptothecin (CPT), a top...

Stress is a complex event that induce disturbances to physiological and psychological homeostasis, and it may have a detrimental impact on certain brain and physiological functions. In the las years, a dual role of the stress effect has been studied in order to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which can to induce physiological symptoms after ps...

Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an important energy sensor which is activated by increases in adenosine monophosphate (AMP)/adenosine triphosphate (ATP) ratio and/or adenosine diphosphate (ADP)/ATP ratio, and increases different metabolic pathways such as fatty acid oxidation, glucose transport and mitochondrial biogenesi...

Conventional cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) are accepted to identify asymptomatic individuals with high risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, AMI affects many patients previously classified at low risk. New biomarkers are needed to improve risk prediction. We propose to evaluate the NLRP3-inflammasome complex as a potential CVR in...

Series: Experientia Supplementum, Vol. 107 ▶ Extensive coverage of the role of AMPK as master regulator of cell energy levels in disease and aging ▶ Presents new methods and animal models for the study of this enzyme ▶ Includes effects of drugs and nutraceutical compounds AMPK has emerged as an important integrator of signals that control energy ba...

Systemic treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been largely unsuccessful. This study investigated the antitumoral activity of Amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant, in hepatoma cells. Amitriptyline-induced toxicity involved early mitophagy activation that subsequently switched to apoptosis. Amitriptyline induced mitochondria dysfun...

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome with number of symptoms that present challenge in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Patients with FM show abnormal profile of purines in plasma. In this work, we measured serum activities of enzymes involved in purine metabolism, namely total adenosine deaminase (ADE) and its isoforms (ADE1 and ADE2), ec...

Deregulated inflammation is considered to be one of the hallmarks of cancer initiation and development regulation. Emerging evidence indicates that the inflammasome plays a central role in regulating immune cells and cytokines related to cancer. The inflammasome is a multimeric complex consisting of Nod-like receptors (NLRs) and responds to a varie...

AMPK inductors and Metformin for the fibromyalgia treatment

Background: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a world-wide diffuse musculoskeletal chronic pain condition that affects up to 5% of the general population. Many symptoms associated with mitochondrial diseases are reported in FM patients such as exercise intolerance, fatigue, myopathy and mitochondrial dysfunction. In this study, we report a mutation cytochrome b...

Introduction: Mitochondrial diseases are a group of rare genetic diseases with complex and heterogeneous origins which manifest a great variety of phenotypes. Disruption of the oxidative phosphorylation system is the main cause of pathogenicity in mitochondrial diseases since it causes accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and ATP depletio...

Apoptosis is a genetically programmed energy-dependent process of cell demise, characterized by specific morphological and biochemical events in which the activation of caspases has an essential role. During apoptosis the cytoskeleton participates actively in characteristic morphological rearrangements of the dying cell. This reorganisation has bee...

MELAS syndrome is a mitochondrial disorder that is caused mainly by the m.3243A>G mutation in mitochondrial DNA. Here, we report on how the severity of pathophysiological alterations is differently expressed in fibroblasts derived from patients with MELAS disease. We evaluated mitophagy activation and mitochondrial biogenesis which are the main mec...

Depression is a major public health concern in modern society, yet little is known about the molecular link between this condition and neuroinflammation. The inflammasome complex was recently shown to be implicated in depression. The present study show the implication of NLRP3-inflammasome in animal model of stress-induced depression. Accordingly,...

Introduction: Mitochondrial diseases are a group of rare genetic diseases with complex and heterogeneous origins which manifest a great variety of phenotypes. Disruption of the oxidative phosphorylation system is the main cause of pathogenicity in mitochondrial diseases since it causes accumulation of reac-tive oxygen species (ROS) and ATP depletio...

An age-dependent model of the periodontium was reproduced to evaluate the effect of life-long feeding on a low coenzyme Q10 dosage in n-6, n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid or monounsaturated fatty acid-based diets on periodontal tissues of young and old rats. Results shown that exacerbated age-related alveolar bone loss previously associated to n-6 p...

Aims: Impairment in AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity and NLRP3-inflammasome activation are associated with several metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Herein, we investigated the role of AMPK/NLRP3-inflammasome axis in the molecular mechanism underlying pain perception. Results: Impairment in AMPK activation induced by Compound C or su...

Gaucher disease (GD) is caused by mutations in the GBA1 gene, which encodes lysosomal -glucocerebrosidase. Homozygosity for the L444P mutation in GBA1 is associated with high risk of neurological manifestations which are not improved by enzyme replacement therapy. Alternatively, pharmacological chaperones (PCs) capable of restoring the correct fol...

Oxidative stress is one of the main factors studied to explain the pathophysiological mechanisms of inflammatory conditions, such as periodontitis. In this respect, nutrition may be of great importance. Actually, research on nutrients' effects on periodontal diseases has expanded to include those influencing the redox status, which correlates to th...

Impaired AMPK is associated with a wide spectrum of clinical and pathological conditions, ranging from obesity, altered responses to exercise or metabolic syndrome, to inflammation, disturbed mitochondrial biogenesis and defective response to energy stress. Fibromyalgia (FM) is a world-wide diffused musculoskeletal chronic pain condition that affec...

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome with unknown etiology. Recent studies have shown some evidence demonstrating that oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation may have a role in the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia. Despite several skin-related symptoms accompanied by small fiber neuropathy have been studied in FM, these mito...