University of Milano-Bicocca

About: University of Milano-Bicocca is a education organization based out in Milan, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Blood pressure. The organization has 8972 authors who have published 22322 publications receiving 620484 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca & Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.

Implications of LHCb measurements and future prospects

Abstract: During 2011 the LHCb experiment at CERN collected 1.0 fb-1 of sqrt{s} = 7 TeV pp collisions. Due to the large heavy quark production cross-sections, these data provide unprecedented samples of heavy flavoured hadrons. The first results from LHCb have made a significant impact on the flavour physics landscape and have definitively proved the concept of a dedicated experiment in the forward region at a hadron collider. This document discusses the implications of these first measurements on classes of extensions to the Standard Model, bearing in mind the interplay with the results of searches for on-shell production of new particles at ATLAS and CMS. The physics potential of an upgrade to the LHCb detector, which would allow an order of magnitude more data to be collected, is emphasised.

Evolutionary and Functional Analysis of Celiac Risk Loci Reveals SH2B3 as a Protective Factor against Bacterial Infection

Abstract: Celiac disease (CD) is an intolerance to dietary proteins of wheat, barley, and rye. CD may have substantial morbidity, yet it is quite common with a prevalence of 1%–2% in Western populations. It is not clear why the CD phenotype is so prevalent despite its negative effects on human health, especially because appropriate treatment in the form of a gluten-free diet has only been available since the 1950s, when dietary gluten was discovered to be the triggering factor. The high prevalence of CD might suggest that genes underlying this disease may have been favored by the process of natural selection. We assessed signatures of selection for ten confirmed CD-associated loci in several genome-wide data sets, comprising 8154 controls from four European populations and 195 individuals from a North African population, by studying haplotype lengths via the integrated haplotype score (iHS) method. Consistent signs of positive selection for CD-associated derived alleles were observed in three loci: IL12A, IL18RAP, and SH2B3. For the SH2B3 risk allele, we also show a difference in allele frequency distribution (Fst) between HapMap phase II populations. Functional investigation of the effect of the SH2B3 genotype in response to lipopolysaccharide and muramyl dipeptide revealed that carriers of the SH2B3 rs3184504∗A risk allele showed stronger activation of the NOD2 recognition pathway. This suggests that SH2B3 plays a role in protection against bacteria infection, and it provides a possible explanation for the selective sweep on SH2B3, which occurred sometime between 1200 and 1700 years ago.

Early IL-2 Production by Mouse Dendritic Cells Is the Result of Microbial-Induced Priming

Abstract: Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional APCs able to initiate innate and adaptive immune responses against invading pathogens Different properties such as the efficient Ag processing machinery, the high levels of expression of costimulatory molecules and peptide-MHC complexes, and the production of cytokines contribute in making DCs potent stimulators of naive T cell responses Recently we have observed that DCs are able to produce IL-2 following bacterial stimulation, and we have demonstrated that this particular cytokine is a key molecule conferring to early bacterial activated DCs unique T cell priming capacity In the present study we show that many different microbial stimuli, but not inflammatory cytokines, are able to stimulate DCs to produce IL-2, indicating that DCs can distinguish a cytokine-mediated inflammatory process from the actual presence of an infection The capacity to produce IL-2 following a microbial stimuli encounter is a feature shared by diverse DC subtypes in vivo, such as CD8α + and CD8α − splenic DCs and epidermal Langerhans cells When early activated DCs interact with T cells, IL-2 produced by DCs is enriched at the site of cell-cell contact, confirming the importance of DCs-derived IL-2 in T cell activation

The non-psychoactive cannabidiol triggers caspase activation and oxidative stress in human glioma cells

Abstract: Recently, we have shown that the non-psychoactive cannabinoid compound cannabidiol (CBD) induces apoptosis of glioma cells in vitro and tumor regression in vivo The present study investigated a possible involvement of caspase activation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) induction in the apoptotic effect of CBD CBD produced a gradual, time-dependent activation of caspase-3, which preceded the appearance of apoptotic death In addiction, release of cytochrome c and caspase-9 and caspase-8 activation were detected The exposure to CBD caused in glioma cells an early production of ROS, depletion of intracellular glutathione and increase activity of glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase enzymes Under the same experimental condition, CBD did not impair primary glia Thus, we found a different sensitivity to the anti-proliferative effect of CBD in human glioma cells and non-transformed cells that appears closely related to a selective ability of CBD in inducing ROS production and caspase activation in tumor cells

Similarity coefficients for binary chemoinformatics data: overview and extended comparison using simulated and real data sets.

Abstract: This paper reports an analysis and comparison of the use of 51 different similarity coefficients for computing the similarities between binary fingerprints for both simulated and real chemical data sets. Five pairs and a triplet of coefficients were found to yield identical similarity values, leading to the elimination of seven of the coefficients. The remaining 44 coefficients were then compared in two ways: by their theoretical characteristics using simple descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multidimensional scaling, Hasse diagrams, and the recently described atemporal target diffusion model; and by their effectiveness for similarity-based virtual screening using MDDR, WOMBAT, and MUV data. The comparisons demonstrate the general utility of the well-known Tanimoto method but also suggest other coefficients that may be worthy of further attention.