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Background: Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common pediatric hepatic malignancy. Despite the progress in HB treatment, investigating HB pathomechanisms to optimize stratification and therapies remains a focal point to improve the outcome for high-risk patients., Methods: Here, we pointed to explore the impact of these mechanisms in HB. An observational study was performed on liver samples from a cohort of 17 patients with a diagnosis of HB and two normal liver samples. The in vitro experiments were executed on the Huh6 human HB cell line treated with the FAK inhibitor TAE226., Results: Our results highlight a significant up-regulation of mRNA and protein expression of FAK in livers from HB with respect to normal livers. The increased protein expression of total and Tyr397 phosphorylated FAK (pTyr397FAK) was significantly correlated with the expression of some epigenetic regulators of histone H3 methylation and acetylation. Of note, the expression of pTyr397FAK, N-methyltransferase enzyme (EZH2) and tri-methylation of the H3K27 residue correlated with tumor size and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. Finally, TAE226 caused a significant reduction of pTyr397FAK, epigenetic regulators, AFP , EPCAM , OCT4 , and SOX2 , in association with anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects on HB cells., Conclusion: Our results suggest a role of FAK in HB that requires further investigations mainly focused on the exploration of its effective diagnostic and therapeutic translatability., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Braghini, De Stefanis, Tiano, Castellano, Cicolani, Pezzullo, Tocco, Spada, Alaggio, Alisi and Francalanci.)

Novel therapeutic strategies are needed for paediatric patients affected by Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), particularly for those at high-risk for relapse. MicroRNAs (miRs) have been extensively studied as biomarkers in cancer and haematological disorders, and their expression has been correlated to the presence of recurrent molecular abnormalities, expression of oncogenes, as well as to prognosis/clinical outcome. In the present study, expression signatures of different miRs related both to presence of myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukaemia 1 and Fms like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplications rearrangements and to the clinical outcome of paediatric patients with AML were identified. Notably, miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p resulted as a possible relapse-risk related miR. Thus, miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p expression modulation was investigated by using a Bromodomain‑containing protein 4 (BRD4) inhibitor (JQ1) and a natural compound that acts as histone acetyl transferase inhibitor (curcumin), alone or in association, in order to decrease acetylation of histone tails and potentiate the effect of BRD4 inhibition. JQ1 modulates miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p expression in AML with a synergic effect when associated with curcumin. Moreover, changes were observed in the expression of CDKN1B , a known target of miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p, increase in apoptosis and downregulation of miR-221-3p and miR-222-3p expression in CD34 + AML primary cells. Altogether, these findings suggested that several miRs expression signatures at diagnosis may be used for risk stratification and as relapse prediction biomarkers in paediatric AML outlining that epigenetic drugs, could represent a novel therapeutic strategy for high-risk paediatric patients with AML. For these epigenetic drugs, additional research for enhancing activity, bioavailability and safety is needed.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused approximately 6.3 million deaths, mainly due to the acute respiratory distress syndrome or multi-organ failure that characterizes COVID-19 acute disease. Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, also known as long-COVID, is a condition characterized by a complex of symptoms that affects 10-20% of the individuals who have recovered from the infection. Scientific and clinical evidence demonstrates that long-COVID can develop in both adults and children. It has been hypothesized that multi-organ effects of long-COVID could be associated with the persistence of virus RNA/proteins in host cells, but the real mechanism remains to be elucidated. Therefore, we sought to determine the effects of the exogenous expression of the papain-like protease (PLpro) domain of the non-structural protein (NSP3) of SARS-CoV-2 in polarized human airway (Calu-3), intestinal (Caco-2), and liver (HepG2) epithelial cells, and to evaluate the ability of the natural antioxidant hydroxytyrosol (HXT) in neutralizing these effects. Our results demonstrated that PLpro was able to induce a cascade of inflammatory genes and proteins (mainly associated with the interferon pathway) and increase the apoptotic rate and expression of several oxidative stress markers in all evaluated epithelial cells. Noteably, the treatment with 10 μM HXT reverted PL-pro-dependent effects almost completely. This study provides the first evidence that SARS-CoV-2 PLpro remaining in host cells after viral clearance may contribute to the pathogenetic mechanisms of long-COVID. These effects may be counteracted by natural antioxidants. Further clinical and experimental studies are necessary to confirm this hypothesis.

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma is a group of incurable extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphomas that develop from the skin-homing CD4 + T cell. Mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome are the most common histological subtypes. Although next-generation sequencing data provided significant advances in the comprehension of the genetic basis of this lymphoma, there is not uniform consensus on the identity and prevalence of putative driver genes for this heterogeneous group of tumors. Additional studies may increase the knowledge about the complex genetic etiology characterizing this lymphoma. We used SNP6 arrays and GISTIC algorithm to prioritize a list of focal somatic copy-number alterations in a dataset of multiple sequential samples from 21 Sézary syndrome patients. Our results confirmed a prevalence of significant focal deletions over amplifications: single well-known tumor suppressors, such as TP53, PTEN, and RB1, are targeted by these aberrations. In our cohort, ZEB1 (TCF8, ZFHX1A) spans a deletion having the highest level of significance. In a larger group of 43 patients, we found that ZEB1 is affected by deletions and somatic inactivating mutations in 46.5% of cases; also, we found potentially relevant ZEB1 germline variants. The survival analysis shows a worse clinical course for patients with ZEB1 biallelic inactivation. Multiple abnormal expression signatures were found associated with ZEB1 depletion in Sézary patients we verified that ZEB1 exerts a role in oxidative response of Sézary cells. Our data confirm the importance of deletions in the pathogenesis of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The characterization of ZEB1 abnormalities in Sézary syndrome fulfils the criteria of a canonical tumor suppressor gene. Although additional confirmations are needed, our findings suggest, for the first time, that ZEB1 germline variants might contribute to the risk of developing this disease. Also, we provide evidence that ZEB1 activity in Sézary cells, influencing the reactive oxygen species production, affects cell viability and apoptosis.

Sézary syndrome (SS) is an incurable leukemic variant of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma characterized by recurrent chromosomal alterations, among which, chromosome 10q deletion is very frequent. In this study, we investigated the PTEN status, on locus 10q23, in 44 SS patients; our findings show that PTEN is deleted in 36% of SS cases, whereas PTEN downregulation is observed in almost all of the samples evaluated by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting analysis. Neither DNA sequence mutation nor promoter hypermethylation were found at the PTEN locus, but we demonstrate that PTEN level can be also reduced by a group of miRs previously found upregulated and of prognostic relevance in SS; particularly, miR-21, miR-106b, and miR-486 were able to control PTEN abundance either in vitro or in vivo. Finally, because reduced PTEN activates the PI3/AKT-mediated pathway of cell growth and survival, we demonstrate that PTEN deficiency is associated with activated AKT in skin resident but not circulating SS cells, suggesting that the cutaneous milieu may strongly contribute to the SS cell growth. To our knowledge, this is the first study fully exploring the PTEN status in a large cohort of SS patients, unveiling potential elements of clinical utility in this malignancy.

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection causes B cell lymphoproliferative disorders that include type II mixed cryoglobulinemia and lymphoma. This virus drives the monoclonal expansion and, occasionally, the malignant transformation of B cells producing a polyreactive natural Ab commonly encoded by the V(H)1-69 variable gene. Owing to their property of producing natural Ab, these cells are reminiscent of murine B-1 and marginal zone B cells. We used anti-Id Abs to track the stages of differentiation and clonal expansion of V(H)1-69(+) cells in patients with type II mixed cryoglobulinemia. By immunophenotyping and cell size analysis, we could define three discrete stages of differentiation of V(H)1-69(+) B cells: naive (small, IgM(high)IgD(high)CD38(+)CD27(-)CD21(high)CD95(-)CD5(-)), "early memory" (medium-sized, IgM(high)IgD(low)CD38(-)CD27(+)CD21(low)CD95(+)CD5(+)), and "late memory" (large-sized, IgM(low)IgD(low-neg)CD38(-)CD27(low)CD21(low-neg)CD5(-)CD95(-)). The B cells expanded in cryoglobulinemia patients have a "memory" phenotype; this fact, together with the evidence for intraclonal variation, suggests that antigenic stimulation by hepatitis C virus causes the unconstrained expansion of activated V(H)1-69(+) B cells. In some cases, these cells replace the entire pool of circulating B cells, although the absolute B cell number remains within normal limits. Absolute monoclonal V(H)1-69(+) B lymphocytosis was seen in three patients with cryoglobulinemia and splenic lymphoma; in two of these patients, expanded cells carried trisomy 3q. The data presented here indicate that the hepatitis C virus-driven clonal expansion of memory B cells producing a V(H)1-69(+) natural Ab escapes control mechanisms and subverts B cell homeostasis. Genetic alterations may provide a further growth advantage leading to an overt lymphoproliferative disorder.