Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are potent inducers of an antigen-specific immunological response. A role of chaperon of immunogenic peptides and a direct effect on APC activation and function have been described. However, the signal transduction events involved in the activation of human APCs are poorly characterized. We investigated, using human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs), the signal transduction pathways activated by a human recombinant HSP70 (r)HSP70 purified from eukaryotic cells. rHSP70 effectively induced a partial maturation of DCs in vitro and a significant increase in the titers of antigen-specific IgG when used as a vaccine adjuvant in vivo. rHSP70 did not desensitize human DCs to LPS stimulation and retained its adjuvant properties in C3H/HeJ mice, which are LPS-resistant as a result of a mutation in TLR-4, ruling out the potential interference of LPS contamination. Effects on DC maturation and in vivo functions correlate to the ability of rHSP70 to activate IkappaB-alpha/NF-kappaB and ERK1/2 pathways in human DCs. No activation of p38 was induced in the same experimental conditions. Our data suggest that the IkappaB-alpha/NF-kappaB pathway has a critical role in the partial maturation of DCs induced by rHSP70.

This research paper explores Italian study programs in data science in order to verify if knowledge and skills developed during the universities' path are fit with data scientist job demand. The issue is introduced considering the companies' growing need to derive insights from data, and consequently, to search for a staff with analytical expertise, the so-called data scientists quite rare. Literature review is focused on the data scientist's specific characteristics. According to the ideal profile, the data scientist should possess skills enabling the scientific collection, analysis and use of quantitative data in addition to managerial and communication skills, ensuring profitable interactions with decision-makers. The methodology introduces an innovative semi-automatic linguistic analysis of textual data, which enriches traditional statistical methods in text annotation and increasingly constitutes a key step to retrieve more and more precise information from large corpora. As results, the data scientist education in Italy is not widespread and the skills match highlights significant gaps between universities and companies in developing programming and software development skills. In conclusion, an intensive university-business cooperation in order to prepare future professionals, in line with technological trends and company requirements, could contribute to fill this gap, producing positive effects for the social and economic development.

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