Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36140348›Full record

ArticleBiomedicines2022

GJA1/CX43 High Expression Levels in the Cervical Spinal Cord of ALS Patients Correlate to Microglia-Mediated Neuroinflammatory Profile.

Nunzio Vicario, Paola Castrogiovanni, Rosa Imbesi, Sebastiano Giallongo, Giuliana Mannino, Debora Lo Furno, Rosario Giuffrida, Agata Zappalà, Giovanni Li Volti, Daniele Tibullo and 2 more

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biomedicines, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Sigma-1 receptor targeting inhibits connexin 43 based intercellular communication in chronic neuropathic pain.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2024
    Article
  5. Article
  6. The Role of Epigenetics in Neuroinflammatory-Driven Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022
    Review
  7. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Nunzio VicarioDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Paola CastrogiovanniDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Anatomy, Histology and Movement Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-5873-2456
Rosa ImbesiDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Anatomy, Histology and Movement Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-4228-4163
Sebastiano GiallongoDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-5047-7515
Giuliana ManninoDepartment of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-9777-4154
Debora Lo FurnoDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-1971-8990
Rosario GiuffridaDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-7494-3675
Agata ZappalàDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Giovanni Li VoltiDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-8678-2183
Daniele TibulloDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-4416-8556
Michelino Di RosaDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Anatomy, Histology and Movement Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-1837-9325
Rosalba ParentiDepartment of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-1614-4696
University of Catania · ITUniversity of Messina · IT

Funding

PON AIM R&I 2014-2020 E66C18001240007University Research Project Grant PIACERI 2020-2022
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting motoneurons (MNs) with a fatal outcome. The typical degeneration of cortico-spinal, spinal, and bulbar MNs, observed in post-mortem biopsies, is associated with the activation of neuroimmune cells. GJA1, a member of the connexins (Cxs) gene family, encodes for connexin 43 (Cx43), a core gap junctions (GJs)- and hemichannels (HCs)-forming protein, involved in cell death, proliferation, and differentiation. Recently, Cx43 expression was found to play a role in ALS pathogenesis. Here, we used microarray and RNA-seq datasets from the NCBI of the spinal cord of control (NDC) and ALS patients, which were stratified according to the GJA1 gene expression. Genes that positively or negatively correlated to GJA1 expression were used to perform a genomic deconvolution analysis (GDA) using neuroimmune signatures. Expression analysis revealed a significantly higher GJA1 expression in the MNs of ALS patients as compared to NDC. Gene deconvolution analysis revealed that positively correlated genes were associated with microglia activation, whereas negatively correlated genes were associated with neuronal activation profiles. Moreover, gene ontology analysis, performed on genes characterizing either microglia or neuronal signature, indicated immune activation or neurogenesis as main biological processes. Finally, using a synthetic analysis of drugs able to revert the GJA1 transcriptomic signatures, we found a specific drug profile for ALS patients with high GJA1 expression levels, composed of amlodipine, sertraline, and prednisolone. In conclusion, our exploratory study suggests GJA1 as a new neuro-immunological gene correlated to microglial cellular profile in the spinal cord of ALS patients. Further studies are warranted to confirm these results and to evaluate the therapeutic potential of drugs able to revert typical GJA1/CX43 signature in ALS patients.

Indexed as

ALSbioinformaticbrainGJA1microglia

Identifiers

PMID36140348
PMCPMC9496195
OpenAlexW4295560945

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.