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Olga Piskareva

Olga Piskareva

Researcher and Honorary Lecturer at RCSI

Contact

olgapiskareva@rcsi.ie

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Dr Piskareva’s current research is focused on elucidating how the tumour microenvironment works together with genetic and epigenetic changes to affect cell behaviour of neuroblastoma, an embryonal malignancy of the sympathetic nervous system. High-risk neuroblastoma represents the most challenging subtype. These tumours have more aggressive behaviour and poorly respond to treatment leading to tumour relapse.

The native neuroblastoma tissue microenvironment contributes to disease initiation, progression, patient prognosis and response to treatment. Tumour cells send different types of messages from one cell to other using microvesicles called exosomes. This type of interactions represents a powerful relationship. In her research, Olga investigates how neuroblastoma cells communicate with each other and its environment through exosomes. To recapitulate native neuroblastoma microenvironment Olga has developed a reproducible and controllable 3D tissue engineered model system in collaboration with Dr. Caroline Curtin and Professor Fergal O’Brien’s group at RCSI.

In the next stage, Olga’s goal is to get a systems level understanding of information flow in the neuroblastoma microenvironment and to utilise those insights to identify targetable nodes for novel anti-cancer therapy in neuroblastoma.

Olga Piskareva

Researcher and Honorary Lecturer at RCSI

Contact

olgapiskareva@rcsi.ie

LinkedIn

Twitter

Dr John Nolan
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
johnnolan@rcsi.ie

Role:
John Nolan has gained expertise in neuroblastoma through the successful completion of his PhD project, funded by the NCRC, under the supervision of Professor Ray Stallings and Dr Olga Piskareva. John has a particular interest in neuroblastoma cell biology and cell-to-cell communication.

Thomas Frawley
Position: PhD student
thomasfrawley@rcsi.ie

Role:
Thomas Frawley is a PhD student, funded by the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme, under the supervision of Dr Olga Piskareva. Tom's project is focused on the role of exosomes neuroblastoma biology.

Modulation of drug resistance in high-risk neuroblastoma through exosomal miRNA

The acquisition of multidrug resistance is a major impediment to the successful treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma. Tumour cells send different types of messages from one cell to other using microvesicles called exosomes. Exosomes contain miRNAs and proteins. The miRNA content is cell type dependent and could represent tumour cell responsiveness to chemotherapy. The aim of the study is to understand how tumour cells communicate via exosomes and to develop exosomal miRNA biomarkers of tumour response to drugs that might be used to help select patients for treatment, and identify novel targets for the development of more effective personalised therapy with anticipated improvement in clinical outcome.

3D cell culture model of drug resistant neuroblastoma using collagen-based scaffolds

In the native tissue, cancer cells are surrounded by a three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment which provides biological and physical support and determines disease initiation, progression, patient prognosis and response to treatment. 3D scaffold-based in vitro cell culturing is a recent advancement in cancer research bridging the gap between conventional 2D culture and in vivo tumours. The aim of the proposed work is to evaluate a 3D scaffold-based cell culture model of drug-resistant neuroblastoma and to assess the potential of the model to evaluate cell sensitivity to chemotherapeutics both in monolayer and orthotopic neuroblastoma murine models.

Talking about neuroblastoma

This blog is about neuroblastoma biology, its research challenges, and people and media view of this disease. The blog also covers other cancer – and science – related topics of my interest. I also share the everyday life of researchers as well as ups and downs of my current research projects. Stay in touch via neuroblastomablog.com.

The list of publications below is automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed. As a result, there may be incorrect or missing publications.

Nolan JC, Salvucci M, Carberry S, Barat A, Segura MF, Fenn J, Prehn JHM, Stallings RL, Piskareva O, 2020, A Context-Dependent Role for MiR-124-3p on Cell Phenotype, Viability and Chemosensitivity in Neuroblastoma in vitro. Front Cell Dev Biol, DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2020.559553
Frawley T, Piskareva O, 2020 Oct 30, Extracellular Vesicle Dissemination of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor and Ligands and Its Role in Cancer Progression. Cancers (Basel), DOI: 10.3390/cancers12113200
Nolan JC, Frawley T, Tighe J, Soh H, Curtin C, Piskareva O, 2020 Apr 1, Preclinical models for neuroblastoma: Advances and challenges. Cancer Lett, DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2020.01.015
Piacenti V, Langella E, Autiero I, Nolan JC, Piskareva O, Adamo MFA, Saviano M, Moccia M, 2019 Oct, A combined experimental and computational study on peptide nucleic acid (PNA) analogues of tumor suppressive miRNA-34a. Bioorg Chem, DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2019.103165
Soriano A, Masanas M, Boloix A, Masiá N, París-Coderch L, Piskareva O, Jiménez C, Henrich KO, Roma J, Westermann F, Stallings RL, Sábado C, de Toledo JS, Santamaria A, Gallego S, Segura MF, 2019 Jun, Functional high-throughput screening reveals miR-323a-5p and miR-342-5p as new tumor-suppressive microRNA for neuroblastoma. Cell Mol Life Sci, DOI: 10.1007/s00018-019-03041-4
Monopoli MP, Zendrini A, Wu D, Cheung S, Sampedro G, Ffrench B, Nolan J, Piskareva O, Stalings RL, Ducoli S, Bergese P, O'Shea DF, 2018 Jun 26, Endogenous exosome labelling with an amphiphilic NIR-fluorescent probe. Chem Commun (Camb), DOI: 10.1039/c8cc02135j
Curtin C, Nolan JC, Conlon R, Deneweth L, Gallagher C, Tan YJ, Cavanagh BL, Asraf AZ, Harvey H, Miller-Delaney S, Shohet J, Bray I, O'Brien FJ, Stallings RL, Piskareva O, 2018 Apr 1, A physiologically relevant 3D collagen-based scaffold-neuroblastoma cell system exhibits chemosensitivity similar to orthotopic xenograft models. Acta Biomater, DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2018.02.004
Smith S, Fernando T, Wu PW, Seo J, Ní Gabhann J, Piskareva O, McCarthy E, Howard D, O'Connell P, Conway R, Gallagher P, Molloy E, Stallings RL, Kearns G, Forbess L, Ishimori M, Venuturupalli S, Wallace D, Weisman M, Jefferies CA, 2017 May, MicroRNA-302d targets IRF9 to regulate the IFN-induced gene expression in SLE. J Autoimmun, DOI: 10.1016/j.jaut.2017.03.003
Nolan J, Stallings RL, Piskareva O, 2017, Assessment of Basic Biological Functions Exerted by miRNAs. Methods Mol Biol, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6524-3_2
Soriano A, París-Coderch L, Jubierre L, Martínez A, Zhou X, Piskareva O, Bray I, Vidal I, Almazán-Moga A, Molist C, Roma J, Bayascas JR, Casanovas O, Stallings RL, Sánchez de Toledo J, Gallego S, Segura MF, 2016 Feb 23, MicroRNA-497 impairs the growth of chemoresistant neuroblastoma cells by targeting cell cycle, survival and vascular permeability genes. Oncotarget, DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.7005
Piskareva O, Harvey H, Nolan J, Conlon R, Alcock L, Buckley P, Dowling P, Henry M, O'Sullivan F, Bray I, Stallings RL, 2015 Aug 10, The development of cisplatin resistance in neuroblastoma is accompanied by epithelial to mesenchymal transition in vitro. Cancer Lett, DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2015.05.004
Harvey H, Piskareva O, Creevey L, Alcock LC, Buckley PG, O'Sullivan MJ, Segura MF, Gallego S, Stallings RL, Bray IM, 2015 Apr 1, Modulation of chemotherapeutic drug resistance in neuroblastoma SK-N-AS cells by the neural apoptosis inhibitory protein and miR-520f. Int J Cancer, DOI: 10.1002/ijc.29144
Piskareva O, Ernst C, Higgins N, Schmatchenko V, 2013, The carboxy-terminal segment of the human LINE-1 ORF2 protein is involved in RNA binding. FEBS Open Bio, DOI: 10.1016/j.fob.2013.09.005
Domingo-Fernandez R, Watters K, Piskareva O, Stallings RL, Bray I, 2013 Feb, The role of genetic and epigenetic alterations in neuroblastoma disease pathogenesis. Pediatr Surg Int, DOI: 10.1007/s00383-012-3239-7
Das S, Bryan K, Buckley PG, Piskareva O, Bray IM, Foley N, Ryan J, Lynch J, Creevey L, Fay J, Prenter S, Koster J, van Sluis P, Versteeg R, Eggert A, Schulte JH, Schramm A, Mestdagh P, Vandesompele J, Speleman F, Stallings RL, 2013 Jun 13, Modulation of neuroblastoma disease pathogenesis by an extensive network of epigenetically regulated microRNAs. Oncogene, DOI: 10.1038/onc.2012.311
Tivnan A, Orr WS, Gubala V, Nooney R, Williams DE, McDonagh C, Prenter S, Harvey H, Domingo-Fernández R, Bray IM, Piskareva O, Ng CY, Lode HN, Davidoff AM, Stallings RL, 2012, Inhibition of neuroblastoma tumor growth by targeted delivery of microRNA-34a using anti-disialoganglioside GD2 coated nanoparticles. PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038129
Piskareva O, Lackington W, Lemass D, Hendrick C, Doolan P, Barron N, 2011 Jun, The human L1 element: a potential biomarker in cancer prognosis, current status and future directions. Curr Mol Med, DOI: 10.2174/156652411795677954
Piskareva O, Clynes M, Barron N, 2007 Apr, Detection and cloning of LINE-1 elements in CHO cells. Cytotechnology, DOI: 10.1007/s10616-007-9051-x
Barron N, Piskareva O, Muniyappa M, 2007 Apr, Targeted genetic modification of cell lines for recombinant protein production. Cytotechnology, DOI: 10.1007/s10616-007-9050-y
Piskareva O, Clynes M, Barron N, 2007 May, Detection and cloning of LINE-1 elements in CHO cells. Cytotechnology, DOI: 10.1007/s10616-007-9068-1
Piskareva O, Schmatchenko V, 2006 Jan 23, DNA polymerization by the reverse transcriptase of the human L1 retrotransposon on its own template in vitro. FEBS Lett, DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2005.12.077
Piskareva OA, Barron N, Clynes M, Shmatchenko VV, 2004 Mar-Apr, In vivo cytoplasmic localization of the p40 protein of the L1 transposable element of human genome. Dokl Biochem Biophys, DOI: 10.1023/b:dobi.0000025561.05664.c1
Piskareva O, Denmukhametova S, Schmatchenko V, 2003 Mar, Functional reverse transcriptase encoded by the human LINE-1 from baculovirus-infected insect cells. Protein Expr Purif, DOI: 10.1016/s1046-5928(02)00655-1
Piskareva OA, Rochev IuA, Gavriliuk BK, Gorelov AV, Golubeva TA, Dawson KA, 1999 Mar-Apr, [Effect of thermoreverse polymer matrix and collagen on the growth of human fibroblasts]. Biofizika, DOI: 10.1016/s1046-5928(02)00655-1

Funding Agency:Irish Research Council - National Children’s Research Centre
Project Title:Decoding exosomal proteome and glycoprofile in drug-resistant neuroblastoma.
Start Date/End Date:01/01/2018 – 31/12/2021
Funding Agency:National Children’s Research Centre
Project Title:Modulation of drug resistance in high-risk neuroblastoma through exosomal miRNA
Start Date/End Date:03/04/2017 – 31/03/2020
Funding Agency:Neuroblatoma UK
Project Title:Evaluation of 3D cell culture model of drug resistant neuroblastoma using collagen-based scaffolds
Start Date/End Date:01/05/2017 – 01/12/2017
Name:Professor Jochen Prehn
DepartmentDepartment of Physiology and Medical Physics
Institution:Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Country:Ireland
Name:Professor Fergal O’Brien
DepartmentTERG Department of Anatomy
Institution:Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Country:Ireland
Name:Dr. Caroline Curtin
DepartmentTERG Department of Anatomy
Institution:Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Country:Ireland
Name:Dr. Eduardo Ruiz-Hernandez
DepartmentPharmaceutical Chemistry of Nanocarrier Drug Delivery Systems
Institution:Trinity College Dublin
Country:Ireland
Name:Prof Susan Burchill
DepartmentLeeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology
Institution:University of Leeds
Country:UK
Name:Dr. Miguel F. Segura
DepartmentLaboratory of Translational Research in Child and Adolescent Cancer
Institution:Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR)-UAB
Country:Spain