Assessing poverty with survey data. Uni-dimensional, multidimensional and resilience poverty analysis in Kenya

Traditionally Poverty has been measured by a unique indicator, income, assuming this was the most relevant dimension of poverty. Sen’s approach has dramatically changed this idea shedding light over the existence of many more dimensions and over the multifaceted nature of poverty; poverty cannot be represented by a unique indicator that only can evaluate a specific aspect of poverty. This thesis tracks an ideal path along with the evolution of the poverty analysis. Starting from the unidimensional analysis based on income and consumptions, this research enter the world of multidimensional analysis. After reviewing the principal approaches, the Foster and Alkire method is critically analyzed and implemented over data from Kenya. A step further is moved in the third part of the thesis, introducing a new approach to multidimensional poverty assessment: the resilience analysis.

Role of αvβ3 – Integrin and TLR2 in the innate response to Herpes Simplex Virus infection and Delivery of retargeted oncolytic Herpes Simplex via carrier cells

In the first part of my thesis I studied the mechanism of initiation of the innate response to HSV-1. Innate immune response is the first line of defense set up by the cell to counteract pathogens infection and it is elicited by the activation of a number of membrane or intracellular receptors and sensors, collectively indicated as PRRs, Patter Recognition Receptors. We reported that the HSV pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP) that activate Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and lead to the initiation of innate response are the virion glycoproteins gH/gL and gB, which constitute the conserved fusion core apparatus across the Herpesvirus. Specifically gH/gL is sufficient to initiate a signaling cascade which leads to NF-κB activation. Then, by gain and loss-of-function approaches, we found that αvβ3-integrin is a sensor of and plays a crucial role in the innate defense against HSV-1. We showed that αvβ3-integrin signals through a pathway that concurs with TLR2, affects activation/induction of interferons type 1, NF-κB, and a polarized set of cytokines and receptors. Thus, we demonstrated that gH/gL is sufficient to induce IFN1 and NF-κB via this pathway. From these data, we proposed that αvβ3-integrin is considered a class of non-TLR pattern recognition receptors. In the second part of my thesis I studied the capacity of human mesenchymal stromal cells isolated by fetal membranes (FM-hMSCs) to be used as carrier cells for the delivery of retargeted R-LM249 virus. The use of systemically administrated carrier cells to deliver oncolytic viruses to tumoral targets is a promising strategy in oncolytic virotherapy. We observed that FM-hMSCs can be infected by R-LM249 and we optimized the infection condition; then we demonstrate that stromal cells sustain the replication of retargeted R-LM249 and spread it to target tumoral cells. From these preliminary data FM-hMSCs resulted suitable to be used as carrier cells