Biomedical subjects

Aurelia Santoro

Publications and source records attributed to Aurelia Santoro.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Mitochondrial DNA involvement in human longevity.

The main message of this review can be summarized as follows: aging and longevity, as complex traits having a significant genetic component, likely depend on a number of nuclear gene variants interacting with mtDNA variability both inherited and somatic. We reviewed the data available in the literature with particular attention to human longevity, and argued that what we hypothesize for aging and longevity could have a more general relevance and be extended to other age-related complex traits such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The genetics which emerges for complex traits, including aging and longevity, is thus even more complicated than previously thought, as epistatic interactions between nuclear gene polymorphisms and mtDNA variability (both somatic and inherited) as well as between mtDNA somatic mutations (tissue specific) and mtDNA inherited variants (haplogroups and sub-haplogroups) must be considered as additional players capable of explaining a part of the aging and longevity phenotype. To test this hypothesis is one of the main challenge in the genetics of aging and longevity in the next future.

Cell Nucleus↗

PubMed2006

Immunoproteasome and LMP2 polymorphism in aged and Alzheimer's disease brains.

In this study, we investigated the presence and role of immunoproteasome and its LMP2 subunit polymorphism at codon 60 in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Immunoproteasome was present in brain areas such as hippocampus and cerebellum and localized in neurons, astrocytes and endothelial cells. A higher expression of immunoproteasome was found in brain of AD patients than in brain of non-demented elderly, being its expression in young brain negligible or absent. Furthermore, AD affected regions showed a partial decrease in proteasome trypsin-like activity. The study of LMP2 polymorphism (R/H) showed that it does not influence LMP2 expression (neither the mRNA nor mature protein) in brain tissue. However, control brain areas of AD patients carrying the RR genotype showed an increased proteasome activity in comparison with RH carriers. To test whether this effect of the genotype might be related to AD onset we performed a genetic study, which allowed us to exclude an association of LMP2 codon 60 polymorphism with AD onset, despite its influence on the proteasome activity in human brain.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

A structural model of 20S immunoproteasomes: effect of LMP2 codon 60 polymorphism on expression, activity, intracellular localisation and insight into the regulatory mechanisms.

The immunoproteasome subunit low molecular weight protein 2 (LMP2) codon 60 polymorphism has been associated with autoimmune diseases. It has also been demonstrated to influence susceptibility to TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis in blood cells and proteasome activity in aged human brain. In the present study, an in silico model of immunoproteasome was used to examine the effect of the R60H polymorphism in the LMP2 subunit. The investigation of immunoproteasome expression, activity and intracellular localisation in an in vitro cellular model, namely lymphoblastoid cell lines, showed no major variations in functionality and amount, while a significant difference in antibody affinity was apparent. These data were integrated with previous results obtained in different tissues and combined with a structural model of the LMP2 polymorphism. Accordingly, we identified three prospective mechanisms that could explain the biological data for the polymorphism, such as modulation of the binding affinity of a putative non-catalytic modifier site on the external surface of the immunoproteasome core, or the modification of any channel between alpha and beta rings.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

PubMed2003

Immunoproteasomes and immunosenescence.

Aging is a complex process which is accompanied with the decline and the reshaping of different functions of the body. In particular the immune system is characterized, during ageing (immunosenescence) by a remodeling of innate immunity (well preserved, up-regulated) and clonotypical immunity (severely altered) and by the occurrence of a chronic inflammatory process (inflammaging) which are, at least in part, genetically controlled. In this scenario, it can be anticipated that a crucial role is played by age-related structural and functional alterations and modifications of proteasomes and immunoproteasomes, the last being a key component of antigen processing and MHC class I antigen presentation. A variety of experimental data are available, suggesting that proteasomes are affected by age, and that in centenarians they are relatively preserved. On the contrary, few data are available on immunoproteasomes, likely as a consequence of the poverty of suitable cellular models. Lymphoblastoid cell lines from EBV immortalized B cells from old donors is envisaged as a possible model for the study of immunoproteasomes in humans and their changes with age. Thus, basic questions such as those related to possible consequences, for immune responses in infectious diseases and cancer, of age-related alterations of antigen processing and presenting, change with age of self-antigen repertoire, and the genetic basis of immunoproteasome activity and its change with age, remain largely unanswered.

Aged↗