Neuroscience
Axo-glia interaction
Myelin, a remarkable highly specialized membrane enwrapping the axons in Central (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous system (PNS), is crucial to ensure efficient propagation of the electric impulse, to execute complex CNS functions, and to maintain the integrity of the axons: ultimately neuronal survival. Alteration in myelination can have dramatic consequences spanning from reduction of nerve conduction velocity to neuronal cell death.
Myelin is formed and maintained by continuous communication between axons and myelinating glial cells, Schwann cells in the PNS and oligodendrocytes in the CNS. This continuous communication is necessary not only for the correct development of the nervous system but to ensure a permanent and efficient transmission of the electric impulse. While it was known that neurons provide trophic and metabolic support to glial cells, thus promoting proliferation, survival and differentiation of myelinating glia, only more recent studies have highlighted the importance of glial cells in neuronal survival and in providing the required metabolic support to the axons. Indeed, in the absence of glial cells, axons degenerate leading eventually to neuronal cell death and permanent damage of the nervous system.
Research activity
In our lab we pursue two main lines of research. On one side we investigate the cross talk between glial cells and axons in the PNS under physiological conditions, studying how it is impaired in pathological settings, such as demyelinating neuropathies.
On the other side, we study the mechanisms and the basis of perineural invasion, which is characterized by the pathological presence of cancer cells along nerves. Indeed, the communication between cancer cells and peripheral nerves actively influences tumor microenvironment, tumor progression, and the formation of metastasis in several forms of cancer. The events commencing perineural invasion, as well as the mechanisms determining how cancer cells alter Schwann cells–axons interaction and sustain cancer progression are in fact largely unknown.
Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the processes involved in axo-glial interaction is crucial to develop effective treatments for demyelinating disorders in which this interplay is affected, but could be instrumental to identify new therapeutic targets that could hinder disease progression in cancer.
