Dr. Antonino Cattaneo

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Academic Career Length

48Years (1979-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

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1 February 2006 in Current Biology

Journal Article

Resveratrol Prolongs Lifespan and Retards the Onset of Age-Related Markers in a Short-Lived Vertebrate

Dario R. Valenzano

Eva Terzibasi Tozzini

1 December 1993 in Nature

Journal Article

Transgenic plants expressing a functional single-chain Fv antibody are specifically protected from virus attack

Paraskevi Tavladoraki

Eugenio Benvenuto

Stefania Trinca

Domenico De Martinis

Antonino Cattaneo

Patrizia Galeffi

15 December 1997 in Journal of Neuroscience

Journal Article

Activity-Dependent Dendritic Targeting of BDNF and TrkB mRNAs in Hippocampal Neurons

Enrico Tongiorgi

Massimo Righi

Antonino Cattaneo

The mechanisms underlying the subcellular localization of neurotrophins and their receptors are poorly understood. We show that in cultured hippocampal neurons, the mRNAs for BDNF and TrkB have a somatodendritic localization, and we quantify the extent of their dendritic mRNA localization. In the dendrites the labeling covers on average the proximal 30% of the total dendritic length. On high potassium depolarization, the labeling of BDNF and TrkB mRNA extends on average to 68% of the dendritic length. This increase does not depend on new RNA synthesis, is inhibited by the Na⁺channel blocker tetrodotoxin, and involves the activation of glutamate receptors. Extracellular Ca²⁺, partly flowing through L-type Ca²⁺channels, is absolutely required for this process to occur. At the protein level, a brief stimulation of hippocampal neurons with 10 mmKCl leads to a marked increase of BDNF and TrkB immunofluorescence density in the distal portion of dendrites, which also occurs, even if at lower levels, when transport is inhibited by nocodazole. The protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide abolishes this increase. The activity-dependent modulation of mRNA targeting and protein accumulation in the dendrites may provide a mechanism for achieving a selective local regulation of the activity of neurotrophins and their receptors, close to their sites of action.

22 August 2005 in Aging Cell

Journal Article

Annual fishes of the genus Nothobranchius as a model system for aging research

Tyrone Genade

Mauro Benedetti

Eva Terzibasi Tozzini

Paola Roncaglia

Dario Riccardo Valenzano

Alessandro Cellerino

23 February 2005 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Journal Article

Intranasal administration of nerve growth factor (NGF) rescues recognition memory deficits in AD11 anti-NGF transgenic mice

Roberta De Rosa

Addys Ancheta Garcia

Chiara Braschi

Simona Capsoni

Lamberto Maffei

Antonino Cattaneo

Nerve growth factor (NGF) delivery to the brain of patients appears to be an emerging potential therapeutic approach to neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The intranasal route of administration could provide an alternative to intracere-broventricular infusion and gene therapy. We previously showed that intranasal administration of NGF determined an amelioration of cholinergic deficit and a decrease in the number of phosphotau-positive neurons and of β-amyloid accumulation in AD11 mice, which express transgenic antibodies neutralizing NGF action and exhibit a progressive Alzheimer-like neurodegeneration. In this study, we report that the Alzheimer-like neurodegeneration in AD11 mice is linked to progressive behavioral deficits in visual recognition memory and spatial memory starting from 4 months of age. To establish whether intranasal administration of NGF, started after the appearance of the first memory deficits, could revert the cognitive deficits in AD11 mice, we assessed the performance of NGF-treated or control AD11 mice in the object recognition test and in a test of memory for place and context. Deficits exhibited by untreated AD11 mice could be rescued by the intranasal administration of NGF. Thus, this route of administration provides a promising way to deliver NGF to the brain in a therapeutic perspective.

6 June 2000 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Journal Article

Alzheimer-like neurodegeneration in aged antinerve growth factor transgenic mice

Simona Capsoni

Gabriele Ugolini

Alessandro Comparini

Francesca Ruberti

Nicoletta Berardi

Antonino Cattaneo

Neurotrophin nerve growth factor (NGF) has been suggested to be involved in age-related neurodegenerative diseases, but no transgenic model is currently available to study this concept. We have obtained transgenic mice expressing a neutralizing anti-NGF recombinant antibody, in which the levels of antibodies are three orders of magnitude higher in adult than in newborn mice [F.R., S. C., A.C., E. Di Daniel, J. Franzot, S. Gonfloni, G. Rossi, N. B. & A. C. (2000) J. Neurosci. , 20, 2589–2601]. In this paper, we analyze the phenotype of aged anti-NGF transgenic mice and demonstrate that these mice acquire an age-dependent neurodegenerative pathology including amyloid plaques, insoluble and hyperphosphorylated τ, and neurofibrillary tangles in cortical and hippocampal neurons. Aged anti-NGF mice also display extensive neuronal loss throughout the cortex, cholinergic deficit in the basal forebrain, and behavioral deficits. The overall picture is strikingly reminiscent of human Alzheimer's disease. Aged anti-NGF mice represent, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive animal model for this severe neurodegenerative disease. Also, these results demonstrate that, in mice, a deficit in the signaling and/or transport of NGF leads to neurodegeneration.

About Me

Prof. Antonino Cattaneo worked as a PhD student at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa) with Lamberto Maffei and as a postdoc and staff scientist with Rita Levi-Montalcini (Nobel Laureate for the discovery of NGF) at the CNR Institute of Neurobiology in Rome. He later worked with Cesar Milstein (Nobel Prize laureate for the discovery of monoclonal antibodies) and Michael Neuberger at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK). From 1991 to 2008, he was a Full Professor of Biophysics at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste (Italy), where he was Head of the Biophysics Department from 1991 to 1995 and the Deputy Director of SISSA from 1996 to 2001. Since 2008, he has been a Professor of Neurobiology at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa), where he is also the Director of the Biology Lab Bio@SnS. He is the author of more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed international scientific journals and has been the recipient of several awards including the Domenico Marotta Prize (Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta XL), the W. Jansenius Medal (Slovak Academy of Sciences) and the “G. Tartufari” International Prize for Biology (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei). He is a member of EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) and the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta XL, the Academia Europaea and of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Since 2018, he has been President of the European Brain Research Institute ‘Rita Levi-Montalcini’.

Dr. Antonino Cattaneo

Dr. Antonino Cattaneo

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