Immunization against β-amyloid (Aβ) is pursued as a possible strategy for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In clinical trials, Aβ 1-42 proved poorly immunogenic and caused severe adverse effects; therefore, safer and more immunogenic candidate vaccines are needed. Multimeric protein (1-11)E2 is able to induce an antibody response to Aβ, immunological memory, and IL-4 production, with no concomitant anti-Aβ T cell response. Antisera recognize Aβ oligomers, protofibrils, and fibrils. In this study, we evaluated the effect of prophylactic immunization with three doses of (1-11)E2 in alum in the 3xTg mouse model of AD. Immunization with (1-11)E2 efficiently induced anti-Aβ antibodies, but afforded no protection against Aβ accumulation and neuroinflammation. The identification of the features of the anti-Aβ immune response that correlate with the ability to prevent Aβ accumulation remains an open problem that deserves further investigation.

Proper regulation of neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are generated from neural stem and progenitor cells (NS/PCs), is essential for embryonic brain development and adult brain function. The transcription regulator Patz1 is ubiquitously expressed in early mouse embryos and has a key role in embryonic stem cell maintenance. At later stages, the detection of Patz1 expression mainly in the developing brain suggests a specific involvement of Patz1 in neurogenesis. To address this point, we first got insights in Patz1 expression profile in different brain territories at both embryonic and postnatal stages, evidencing a general decreasing trend with respect to time. Then, we performed in vivo and ex vivo analysis of Patz1-knockout mice, focusing on the ventricular and subventricular zone, where we confirmed Patz1 enrichment through the analysis of public RNA-seq datasets. Both embryos and adults showed a significant reduction in the number of Patz1-null NS/PCs, as well as of their self-renewal capability, compared to controls. Consistently, molecular analysis revealed the downregulation of stemness markers in NS/PCs derived from Patz1-null mice. Overall, these data demonstrate the requirement of Patz1 for NS/PC maintenance and proliferation, suggesting new roles for this key transcription factor specifically in brain development and plasticity, with possible implications for neurodegenerative disorders and glial brain tumors.

Background: Many pseudogenes possess biological activities and play important roles in the pathogenesis of various types of cancer including bladder cancer (BlCa), which still lacks suitable molecular biomarkers. Recently, pseudogenes were found to be significantly enriched in a pan-cancer classification based on the Cancer Genome Atlas gene expression data. Among them, the top-ranking pseudogene was the proliferation-associated 2G4 pseudogene 4 (PA2G4P4). Methods: Genomic and transcript features of PA2G4P4 were determined by GeneBank database analysis followed by 5’ RACE experiments. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective molecular study on a cohort of 45 patients of BlCa. PA2G4P4 expression was measured by RT-qPCR, whereas PA2G4P4 transcript distribution was analyzed by in situ hybridization on both normal and cancerous histological sections and compared to the immunolocalization of its parental PA2G4/EBP1 protein. Finally, we tested the effects of PA2G4P4 depletion on proliferation, migration, and death of BlCa cells. Results: We showed for the first time PA2G4P4 overexpression in BlCa tissues and in cell lines. PA2G4P4 distribution strictly overlaps PA2G4/EBP1 protein localization. Moreover, we showed that PA2G4P4 knockdown affects both proliferation and migration of BlCa cells, highlighting its potential oncogenic role. Conclusions: PA2G4P4 may play a functional role as an oncogene in BlCa development, suggesting it as a good candidate for future investigation and new clinical applications.

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