Michele Sommariva

Dr. Michele Sommariva


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

8Years (2019-Present)

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

Representative Publications

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18 July 2019 in Cancers
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
FCFrancesca Caccuri
Francesca Caccuri
MSMichele Sommariva
Michele Sommariva
Stefania MARSICOStefania MARSICO
Stefania MARSICO
FGFrancesca Giordano
Francesca Giordano
AZAlberto Zani
Alberto Zani
ACArnaldo Caruso
Arnaldo Caruso
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 15–20% of all breast cancers. In spite of initial good response to chemotherapy, the prognosis of TNBC remains poor and no effective specific targeted therapy is readily available. Recently, we demonstrated the ability of U94, the latency gene of human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6), to interfere with proliferation and with crucial steps of the metastatic cascade by using MDA-MB 231 TNBC breast cancer cell line. U94 expression was also associated with a partial mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) of cells, which displayed a less aggressive phenotype. In this study, we show the ability of U94 to exert its anticancer activity on three different TNBC cell lines by inhibiting DNA damage repair genes, cell cycle and eventually leading to cell death following activation of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Interestingly, we found that U94 acted synergistically with DNA-damaging drugs. Overall, we provide evidence that U94 is able to combat tumor cells with different mechanisms, thus attesting for the great potential of this molecule as a multi-target drug in cancer therapy.