International journal of molecular sciences

Traditional remedies have been used for thousand years for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, particularly in developing countries. Of growing interest, the plant Artemisia annua, known for its malarial properties, has bee…

BACKGROUND: Early and accurate diagnosis of endometriosis is crucial for the management of this benign, yet debilitating pathology. Despite the advances of modern medicine, there is no common ground regarding the pathophysiology of this dis…

Endometriosis is a chronic, inflammatory, hormone-dependent disease characterized by histological lesions produced by the presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity. Despite the fact that an estimated 176 million women are af…

CC chemokines (or β-chemokines) are 28 chemotactic cytokines with an N-terminal CC domain that play an important role in immune system cells, such as CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes, dendritic cells, eosinophils, macrophages, monocytes, and NK ce…

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is becoming more prevalent as the population lives longer. For individuals over 60 years of age, the prevalence of AD is estimated at 40.19% across the world. Regarding the cognitive decline caused by the disease, m…

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a malignant disease with an incidence of over 1.8 million new cases per year worldwide. CRC outcome is closely related to the respective stage of CRC and is more favorable at less advanced stages. Detection of ear…

Dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) is a rare inherited disease of impaired telomere maintenance that progressively leads to multi-organ failure, including the bone marrow. By enhancing telomerase activity, androgen derivatives (ADs) are a potenti…

MicroRNAs (miRNA), are short regulatory RNA molecules that regulate gene expression by binding specific sequences within target messenger RNA (mRNA) [...].

Endometriosis is one of the main common gynecological disorders, which is characterized by the presence of glands and stroma outside the uterine cavity. Some findings have highlighted the main role of inflammation in endometriosis by acting…

Endometriosis is a gynecological condition that is associated with chronic pelvic inflammation, pain, and infertility. Although substantial evidence supports that immunological alterations contribute to its pathogenesis and we previously po…

Background Estrogen receptor α (ERα) contributes to maintaining biological processes preserving health during aging. DNA methylation changes of ERα gene (ESR1) were established as playing a direct role in the regulation of ERα levels. In th…

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has rapidly developed and is now widely practised worldwide. Both the characteristics of ART (handling gametes/embryos in vitro) and the infertility backgrounds of ART parents (such as infertility dise…

Anthropogenic endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can contaminate air, soil, and water. Human exposures to EDCs occur through inhalation, absorption, and ingestion. EDCs act by disrupting various pathways in the endocrine system. When the…

Anthropogenic contaminants in water can impose risks to reproductive health. Most of these compounds are known to be endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs can impact the endocrine system and subsequently impair the development and fer…

Most of environment-related diseases often result from multiple exposures of abiotic and/or biotic stressors across various life stages. The application of environmental DNA/RNA (eDNA/eRNA) to advance ecological understanding has been very …

Preterm birth (PTB) can be defined as the endpoint of a complex process that could be influenced by maternal and environmental factors. Epigenetics recently emerged as an interesting field of investigation since it represents an important m…

Endometriosis is a frequent and chronic inflammatory disease with impacts on reproduction, health and quality of life. This disorder is highly estrogen-dependent and the purpose of hormonal treatments is to decrease the endogenous ovarian p…

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an inflammatory disorder of the pancreas that, when classified as severe, is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Promptly identifying the severity of AP is of extreme importance for improving clinical ou…

Breast cancer (BC) is the second most common cancer and the fifth deadliest in the world. Exposure to endocrine disrupting pollutants has been suggested to contribute to the increase in disease incidence. Indeed, a growing number of researc…

To study the association between urinary phthalate metabolite levels, endometriosis, and their effects on human granulosa cells, we recruited patients who underwent laparoscopy to confirm endometriosis (n = 123) and control patients (n = 78…

Endometriosis is a condition defined as presence of endometrium outside of the uterine cavity. These endometrial cells are able to attach and invade the peritoneum or ovary, thus forming respectively the deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE…

Fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation is a key feature of wound-healing in soft tissues, including the vagina. Vaginal fibroblasts maintain the integrity of the vaginal wall tissues, essential to keep pelvic organs in place and avoid …

Embryo-maternal crosstalk is an important event that involves many biological processes, which must occur perfectly for pregnancy success. This complex communication starts from the zygote stage within the oviduct and continues in the uteru…

Embryo implantation is a complex process regulated by a network of biological molecules. Recently, it has been described that fractalkine (CX3CL1, FKN) might have an important role in the feto-maternal interaction during gestation since the…

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are a group of inherited metabolic diseases caused by mutations leading to defective degradation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and their accumulation in cells. Among 11 known types and subtypes of MPS, neuronopath…