Rocco Caggiano

• PhD
• Italian National Research Council

MAFG (v-Maf avian musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog G) is a bZIP-type transcriptional regulator that belongs to the small MAF (sMAFs) protein family. By interacting with other bZIP transcription factors, sMAFs can form homo- and heterodimers governing either repressive or activating transcriptional functions. As heterodimeric partner...

A general hallmark of neurological diseases is the loss of redox homeostasis that triggers oxidative damages to biomolecules compromising neuronal function. Under physiological conditions the steady-state concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are finely regulated for proper cellular functions. Reduced s...

A common metabolic condition for living organisms is starvation/fasting, a state that could play systemic-beneficial roles. Complex adaptive responses are activated during fasting to help the organism to maintain energy homeostasis and avoid nutrient stress. Metabolic rearrangements during fasting cause mild oxidative stress in skeletal muscle. The...

The estrogen receptor (ER) signaling regulates numerous physiological processes mainly through activation of gene transcription (genomic pathways). Caveolin1 (CAV1) is a membrane-resident protein that behaves as platform to enable different signaling molecules and receptors for membrane-initiated pathways. CAV1 directly interacts with ERs and allow...

Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) is crucially involved in cell adaptation to oxidative stress and has been demonstrated to play an important role in cancer progression and resistance to therapies. We recently highlighted that undifferentiated neuroblastoma (NB) cells are prone to counteract oxidative stress through the induction of HO-1. Conversely, differe...

The ADP-ribosyl hydrolases PARG and ARH3 counteract PARP enzymatic activity by removing ADP-ribosylation. PARG and ARH3 activities have a synthetic lethal effect; however, the specific molecular mechanisms underlying this response remain unknown. Here, we show that the PARG and ARH3 synthetic lethality is enhanced further in the presence of DNA alk...

The chemical modification of cellular macromolecules by the transfer of ADP-ribose unit(s), known as ADP-ribosylation, is an ancient homeostatic and stress response control system. Highly conserved across the evolution, ADP-ribosyltransferases and ADP-ribosylhydrolases control ADP-ribosylation signalling and cellular responses. In addition to prote...

ERK1/2 kinases and other related MAPKs are involved in both physiological and pathological process, including cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, survival and tumour formation and progression. Quantitative models of the ERK1/2 pathway have been focused on simulating a few reactions or specific parts of the pathway, i.e. receptor activat...

Systems biology allows analytical investigation of intracellular dynamics, analyzing complex processes and taking into account the interactions among the various subsystems. In this study, biochemical models describing the behavior of regulatory molecular networks were created and interfaced with a simulation system able to reproduce motility and p...

(A) Expression levels of mature miR-494 and miR-128 in undifferentiated and 6- or 8-day-differentiated SK-N-BE(2C) NB cells. hsa-miR-425-5p and hsa-let7g-5p have been used as endogenous reference miRs. Results are reported as relative to the values obtained in untreated undifferentiated cells which was set equal to 1. Statistical analysis: n = 3; *...

Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) up-regulation drives cell adaptation to different stressors. Previous works from our lab have shown that HO-1 plays a crucial role in neuroblastoma cells (NB) response to oxidative stress (OS), but also demonstrated that sensitivity to OS increases after retinoic acid-induced NB-differentiation. In this study, we evaluated t...

Neuroblastoma cells (NB) are able to counteract oxidative stress (OS) through the activation of antioxidant defense mechanisms among which Nrf2/HO-1 system plays a crucial role. By using SH-SY5Y NB cells in resting condition or after differentiation with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), we showed that differentiated cells are more sensitive to OS th...