Month: January 2021

CLICI – Centre for Italian language and culture of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” – organizes extensive Italian language courses for foreigners from 15 March to early June 2021.
In the second semester of the academic year 2020-2021, CLICI will provide online Italian language courses remotely.
The courses include 40 hours in synchronous mode (20 lessons of two hours each, held twice a week on the Zoom platform) + 20 hours in asynchronous mode for a total of 60 hours.
Official Grade Certificate
Students, who attend 70% of the 40 hours in synchronous mode and 70% of the activities in asynchronous mode, will be given a certificate of attendance and will be admitted to the final exam. Students, who pass the final test, will receive a final grade certificate.
Admissions and Enrollment
The courses are free for all foreign students enrolled at Tor Vergata University of Rome. It is possible to register from 31 December 2020 to 8 February 2021.
• Students who are absolute beginners in Italian language are requested to register on CLICI’s platform without taking the placement test.
• Students who are not beginners are requested to:
– register on the platform providing their personal information;
– choose a date to take an online interview for the speaking skills assessment (21, 26, 29 January, 5, 9, 12 February 2021);
– complete the online placement test that has to be taken remotely between 7 January and 10 February 2021 and up to two days before the online interview.
It is possible to book the online interview – which has to take place after completing the placement test – up to a week before.

All information on the enrolment procedure is available at clici.uniroma2.it
From the academic year 2020-2021, it’s also possible to attend asynchronous online courses in Italian language in self-learning modality provided in collaboration with the ICON – Italian Culture On the Net – Consortium.

All information is available on the CLICI website.

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CLICI contacts
Clici Office: Campus X, Via di Passolombardo 341, 00133 Roma
Email: info.linguaitaliana@uniroma2.it
Website: clici.uniroma2.it
Tel. +39 06 725991027-30

For the first time, a team of researchers has shown a significant increase in the chemokine prokineticin 2 (PK2), a chemokine-like peptide, in the serum of patients with Parkinson’s disease. The results of this pilot study conducted by Cinzia Severini of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the National Research Council (Cnr-Ibbc), by Nicola Biagio Mercuri and Tommaso Schirinzi of the Neurological Clinic of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and by Roberta Lattanzi and Daniela Maftei from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the Sapienza University of Rome have been published in Movement Disorders.
The study analyzed the blood of 31 patients with Parkinson’s disease and for the first time it was shown that serum levels of PK2 are significantly increased compared to healthy control subjects.
Cinzia Severini researcher of the CNR-Ibbc explains:
“PK2 is abundantly present in the central nervous system and is involved in various physiological and pathological functions including neuroinflammation. Experimental evidence has previously shown that PK2 is a factor that is activated early in nigrostriatal degeneration associated with Parkinson’s disease, suggesting its neuroprotective role through an action to restore mitochondrial damage.”
“The correlation between the increase in PK2 in serum and two markers of neurodegeneration in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF or CSF) of the same patients was particularly interesting, such as the beta amyloid1-42 protein and lactate. In particular, the increase in serum of PK2, associated with the higher levels of beta amyloid1-42 found in the CSF, may indicate a protective effect of this chemokine against the pathology at the level of neuronal synapses and the deposition of plaques of amyloid, common events in both Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.”
“Furthermore, this increase in PK2 correlates with the decrease in lactate levels in the CSF, an index of oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage, confirming the hypothesis of an antioxidant action and restoration of mitochondrial damage “.
These results suggest that PK2 may represent not only a potential early biomarker of the disease, but also a pharmacological target for the creation of potentially useful therapies in Parkinson’s disease.
“These encouraging preliminary data now need to be confirmed in a larger study, including a larger and heterogeneous sample of patients, and to evaluate additional biological tissues. The ultimate goal is to fully understand the role of PK2 in Parkinson’s disease, thus opening the way to possible clinical developments centered on this peptide “, concludes Severini.