Apoptosis plays an important role during all stages of carcinogenesis and the development of chemoresistance in tumor cells may be due to their selective defects in the intracellular signaling proteins, central to apoptotic pathways. Consequently, many studies have focused on rendering the chemotherapy more effective in order to prevent chemoresistance and pre-clinical and clinical data has suggested that protein kinase C (PKC) may represent an attractive target for cancer therapy. Therefore, a complete understanding of how PKC regulates apoptosis and chemoresistance may lead to obtaining a PKC-based therapy that is able to reduce drug dosages and to prevent the development of chemoresistance.

Yersinia enterocolitica (Ye) is a very important zoonosis andwild boars play a pivotal role in its transmission. In the last decade, the wild boar population has undergone a strong increase that haspushed them towards urbanized areas, facilitating the human–wildlife interface and the spread of infectious diseases from wildlife to domestic animals and humans. Therefore, it is important to know the serotype, antimicrobial resistance and presence of pathogenicity genes of Yersinia enterocolitica (Ye) isolated in species. From 2013 to 2018, we analyzed the liver of 4890 wild boars hunted in Liguria region; we isolated and serotyped 126 Ye positive samples. A decisive role in the pathogenicity is given by the presence of virulence genes; in Ye isolated we found ystB (~70%), ymoA (45.2%), ail (43.6%) and ystA (~20%). Moreover, we evaluated the susceptibility at various antimicrobic agents (Ampicillin, Chloramphenicol, Enrofloxacin, Gentamicin, Kanamycin, Trimethoprim–Sulfamethoxazole, Sulfisoxazole, Ceftiofur and Tetracycline). The antibiotic resistance was analyzed, and we found a time-dependent increase. It is important to shed light on the role of the wild boars as a reserve of potentially dangerous diseases for humans, and also on the antibiotic resistance that represents a public health problem.

Osteosarcoma (OSA) is a rare cancer both in human and dog although the incidence rate in dogs is 27 times higher than in human. Many studies employed D-17 as cell line for in vitro test to evaluate conventional anticancer therapies; however, little is known about D-17 cell line. The aim of our study was to evaluate the basal level of gene expression of pivotal molecules in the innate immune response and cell cycle regulation and to establish the ability of this cell line to react to Salmonella typhimurium (ST) infective stressor. IL15, IL10, iNOS, TLR5, CD14, PTEN and IL18 were expressed in an inconsistent manner among experiments. The other genes under study were expressed in all samples. ST showed ability to penetrate D-17 causing pro-inflammatory response. Our results outline the expression in D-17 of important genes involved in innate immune response. These results provide important data on D-17 basal gene expression profile useful for in vitro preliminary evaluation of new therapeutic approaches.