Endocrine Abstracts

Obesity is a multifactorial disease in which environmental conditions and genetic factors play an important pathogenic role [1]. Interestingly, some of these obesogenic environmental and genetic conditions are shared with neurodegenerative diseases (NDD). The common biological mechanisms involved in obesity and NDD are insulin resistance, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and oxidative damage, in turn leading to cognitive dysfunction or cell death. In this aspect, a poly-pharmacolog...

We have already reported that synthetic analogs of 3-iodothyronamine (T1AM), a naturally occurring thyroid hormone derivative, share a pleiotropic activity with the endogenous parent compound, including autophagic flux promotion (ATG), neuroprotection, and metabolic reprogramming. Our study aimed to determine whether the T1AM lead analog SG2 and its derivatives SG22 and SG23, developed as prodrugs of SG2, can protect human glioblastoma U87 MG cells from the toxic effects induc...

Introduction: Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) is a non-classical HLA-class Ib molecule with multiple immunoregulatory properties. Its main role is the maintenance of tolerance between maternal immune system and semiallogenic fetus. The expression of HLA-G antigen has been reported in several cancers and seems to play an important role in the escape of tumour cells from immune surveillance. A 14 bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in exon 8 of the 3′ untranslated region ...

Microglial dysfunction is one of the hallmarks and leading causes of common neurodegenerative diseases (NDD), including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (AD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). All these pathologies are characterized by aberrant aggregation of disease-causing proteins in the brain, which can directly activate microglia, trigger microglia-mediated neuroinflammation, and increase oxidative stress. The availability of cell-permeable i...

The endogenous thyroid hormone derivative 3-iodothyronamine (T1AM), and its metabolite 3-iodothyroacetic acid (TA1) are known to stimulate learning and induce hyperalgesia in mice. Recently, it has been demonstrated that exogenous T1AM is able to rescue synaptic impairment after transient ischemia in the entorhinal cortex (EC), a brain area crucially involved in learning and memory, and early affected during Alzheimer’s disease. However, i...

Extracellular nucleotides, via specific plasma membrane receptors (P2Rs) of the X and Y subtype, modulate several cell functions, including cell-to-cell cross talk. We have previously demonstrated the expression of several functional P2XRs subtypes, including P2X7, in primary human thyrocytes. P2X7 is the main player in inflammation and immunomodulation; a strong expression of this receptor has been shown in several human solid tumors. Polymorphisms of the gene enco...