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Salpini R, Piermatteo L, Torre G, D'Anna S, Khan S, Duca L, Bertoli A, La Frazia S, Malagnino V, Teti E, Iannetta M, Paba P, Ciotti M, Lenci I, Francioso S, Paquazzi C, Lichtner M, Mastroianni C, Santopaolo F, De Sanctis G, Pellicelli A, Galati G, Moretti A, Casinelli K, Caterini L, Iapadre N, Parruti G, Vecchiet I, Paoloni M, Marignani M, Ceccherini-Silberstein F, Baiocchi L, Grelli S, Sarmati L, Svicher V. Prevalence of hepatitis D virus infection in Central Italy has remained stable across the last 2 decades with dominance of subgenotypes 1 and characterized by elevated viral replication. Int J Infect Dis 2024; 138:1-9. [PMID: 37944585 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2023.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Revised: 11/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Here we investigate Hepatitis D virus (HDV)-prevalence in Italy and its fluctuations over time and we provide an extensive characterization of HDV-infected patients. METHODS The rate of HDV seroprevalence and HDV chronicity was assessed in 1579 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)+ patients collected from 2005 to 2022 in Central Italy. RESULTS In total, 45.3% of HBsAg+ patients received HDV screening with an increasing temporal trend: 15.6% (2005-2010), 45.0% (2011-2014), 49.4% (2015-2018), 71.8% (2019-2022). By multivariable model, factors correlated with the lack of HDV screening were alanine-aminotransferase (ALT) less than two times of upper limit of normality (<2ULN) and previous time windows (P <0.002). Furthermore, 13.4% of HDV-screened patients resulted anti-HDV+ with a stable temporal trend. Among them, 80.8% had detectable HDV-ribonucleic acid (RNA) (median [IQR]:4.6 [3.6-5.6] log copies/ml) with altered ALT in 89.3% (median [IQR]:92 [62-177] U/L). Anti-HDV+ patients from Eastern/South-eastern Europe were younger than Italians (44 [37-54] vs 53 [47-62] years, P <0.0001), less frequently nucleos(t)ide analogs (NUC)-treated (58.5% vs 80%, P = 0.026) with higher HDV-RNA (4.8 [3.6-5.8] vs 3.9 [1.4-4.9] log copies/ml, P = 0.016) and HBsAg (9461 [4159-24,532] vs 4447 [737-13,336] IU/ml, P = 0.032). Phylogenetic analysis revealed the circulation of HDV subgenotype 1e (47.4%) and -1c (52.6%). Notably, subgenotype 1e correlated with higher ALT than 1c (168 [89-190] vs 58 [54-88] U/l, P = 0.015) despite comparable HDV-RNA. CONCLUSIONS HDV-screening awareness is increasing over time even if some gaps persist to achieve HDV screening in all HBsAg+ patients. HDV prevalence in tertiary care centers tend to scarcely decline in native/non-native patients. Detection of subgenotypes, triggering variable inflammatory stimuli, supports the need to expand HDV molecular characterization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romina Salpini
- Tor Vergata University, Department of Biology, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Giulia Torre
- Tor Vergata University, Department of Biology, Rome, Italy
| | - Stefano D'Anna
- Tor Vergata University, Department of Experimental Medicine, Rome, Italy
| | - Sohaib Khan
- Tor Vergata University, Department of Experimental Medicine, Rome, Italy
| | - Leonardo Duca
- Tor Vergata University, Department of Experimental Medicine, Rome, Italy
| | - Ada Bertoli
- Tor Vergata University, Department of Experimental Medicine, Rome, Italy; Tor Vergata University Hospital, Virology Unit, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Elisabetta Teti
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Infectious Diseases Unit, Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Iannetta
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Infectious Diseases Unit, Rome, Italy
| | - Pierpaolo Paba
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Virology Unit, Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Ciotti
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Virology Unit, Rome, Italy
| | - Ilaria Lenci
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Hepatology Unit, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Miriam Lichtner
- La Sapienza University, Department of Public Health and Infectious Disease, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudio Mastroianni
- La Sapienza University, Department of Public Health and Infectious Disease, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Santopaolo
- Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology-Hepatology Unit, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Giovanni Galati
- University Campus Bio-Medico, Internal Medicine and Hepatology Unit, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Katia Casinelli
- Spaziani Hospital, Infectious Disease Unit, Frosinone, Italy
| | | | - Nerio Iapadre
- San Salvatore Hospital, Infectious Diseases Unit, L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Giustino Parruti
- Pescara General Hospital, Infectious Disesases Unit, Pescara, Italy
| | - Iacopo Vecchiet
- University "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara, Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Science of Aging, Chieti, Italy
| | - Maurizio Paoloni
- Avezzano General Hospital, Infectious Diseases Unit, Avezzano, Italy
| | - Massimo Marignani
- Regina Apostolorum Hospital, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Albano Laziale, Italy
| | | | | | - Sandro Grelli
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Virology Unit, Rome, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Infectious Diseases Unit, Rome, Italy
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Fanelli M, Petrone V, Maracchioni C, Chirico R, Cipriani C, Coppola L, Malagnino V, Teti E, Sorace C, Zordan M, Vitale P, Iannetta M, Balestrieri E, Rasi G, Grelli S, Malergue F, Sarmati L, Minutolo A, Matteucci C. Persistence of circulating CD169+monocytes and HLA-DR downregulation underline the immune response impairment in PASC individuals: the potential contribution of different COVID-19 pandemic waves. Curr Res Microb Sci 2023; 6:100215. [PMID: 38187999 PMCID: PMC10767315 DOI: 10.1016/j.crmicr.2023.100215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
The use of CD169 as a marker of viral infection has been widely discussed in the context of COVID-19, and in particular, its crucial role in the early detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its association with the severity and clinical outcome of COVID-19 were demonstrated. COVID-19 patients show relevant systemic alteration and immunological dysfunction that persists in individuals with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). It is critical to implement the characterization of the disease, focusing also on the possible impact of the different COVID-19 waves and the consequent effects found after infection. On this basis, we evaluated by flow cytometry the expression of CD169 and HLA-DR on monocytes from COVID-19 patients and PASC individuals to better elucidate their involvement in immunological dysfunction, also evaluating the possible impact of different pandemic waves. The results confirm CD169 RMFI is a good marker of viral infection. Moreover, COVID-19 patients and PASC individuals showed high percentage of CD169+ monocytes, but low percentage of HLA-DR+ monocytes and the alteration of systemic inflammatory indices. We have also observed alterations of CD169 and HLA-DR expression and indices of inflammation upon different COVID-19 waves. The persistence of specific myeloid subpopulations suggests a role of CD169+ monocytes and HLA-DR in COVID-19 disease and chronic post-infection inflammation, opening new opportunities to evaluate the impact of specific pandemic waves on the immune response impairment and systemic alterations with the perspective to provide new tools to monitoring new variants and diseases associated to emerging respiratory viruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Vita Petrone
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Christian Maracchioni
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Rossella Chirico
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Chiara Cipriani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Luigi Coppola
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Malagnino
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Elisabetta Teti
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Chiara Sorace
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Marta Zordan
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Pietro Vitale
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Marco Iannetta
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Guido Rasi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
- Virology Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Fabrice Malergue
- Global Research Organization, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, Marseille, 13009, France
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
| | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier, 1 - 00133, Rome, 00133, Italy
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3
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Piermatteo L, D'Anna S, Bertoli A, Bellocchi M, Carioti L, Fabeni L, Alkhatib M, Frazia SL, Lichtner M, Mastroianni C, Sanctis GD, Marignani M, Pasquazzi C, Iapadre N, Parruti G, Cappiello G, Vecchiet J, Malagnino V, Grelli S, Ceccherini-Silbertein F, Andreoni M, Sarmati L, Svicher V, Salpini R. Unexpected rise in the circulation of complex HBV variants enriched of HBsAg vaccine-escape mutations in HBV genotype-D: potential impact on HBsAg detection/quantification and vaccination strategies. Emerg Microbes Infect 2023; 12:2219347. [PMID: 37288750 DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2023.2219347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Specific HBsAg mutations are known to hamper HBsAg recognition by neutralizing antibodies thus challenging HBV-vaccination efficacy. Nevertheless, information on their impact and spreading over time is limited. Here, we characterize the circulation of vaccine-escape mutations from 2005 to 2019 and their correlation with virological parameters in a large cohort of patients infected with HBV genotype-D (N = 947), dominant in Europe. Overall, 17.7% of patients harbours ≥1 vaccine-escape mutation with the highest prevalence in subgenotype-D3. Notably, complex profiles (characterized by ≥2 vaccine-escape mutations) are revealed in 3.1% of patients with a prevalence rising from 0.4% in 2005-2009 to 3.0% in 2010-2014 and 5.1% in 2015-2019 (P = 0.007) (OR[95%CI]:11.04[1.42-85.58], P = 0.02, by multivariable-analysis). The presence of complex profiles correlates with lower HBsAg-levels (median[IQR]:40[0-2905]IU/mL for complex profiles vs 2078[115-6037]IU/ml and 1881[410-7622]IU/mL for single or no vaccine-escape mutation [P < 0.02]). Even more, the presence of complex profiles correlates with HBsAg-negativity despite HBV-DNA positivity (HBsAg-negativity in 34.8% with ≥2 vaccine-escape mutations vs 6.7% and 2.3% with a single or no vaccine-escape mutation, P < 0.007). These in-vivo findings are in keeping with our in-vitro results showing the ability of these mutations in hampering HBsAg secretion or HBsAg recognition by diagnostic antibodies. In conclusion, vaccine-escape mutations, single or in complex profiles, circulate in a not negligible fraction of HBV genotype-D infected patients with an increasing temporal trend, suggesting a progressive enrichment in the circulation of variants able to evade humoral responses. This should be considered for a proper clinical interpretation of HBsAg-results and for the development of novel vaccine formulations for prophylactic and therapeutic purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorenzo Piermatteo
- Department of Biology, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
| | - Stefano D'Anna
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
| | - Ada Bertoli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
| | - Maria Bellocchi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
| | - Luca Carioti
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
| | - Lavinia Fabeni
- National Institute for Infectious Disease, IRCCS L. Spallanzani, Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit, Rome, Italy
| | - Mohammad Alkhatib
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Miriam Lichtner
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Disease, "Sapienza" University, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudio Mastroianni
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Disease, "Sapienza" University, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | | | | | - Giustino Parruti
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy
| | | | - Jacopo Vecchiet
- Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Science of Aging, University "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | | | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
- Virology Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Massimo Andreoni
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Romina Salpini
- Department of Biology, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
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4
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Balestrieri E, Corinaldesi E, Fabi M, Cipriani C, Giudice M, Conti A, Minutolo A, Petrone V, Fanelli M, Miele MT, Andreozzi L, Guida F, Filice E, Meli M, Grelli S, Rasi G, Toschi N, Torcetta F, Matteucci C, Lanari M, Sinibaldi-Vallebona P. Preliminary Evidence of the Differential Expression of Human Endogenous Retroviruses in Kawasaki Disease and SARS-CoV-2-Associated Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:15086. [PMID: 37894766 PMCID: PMC10606856 DOI: 10.3390/ijms242015086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Revised: 10/03/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a postinfectious sequela of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), with some clinical features overlapping with Kawasaki disease (KD). Our research group and others have highlighted that the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 can trigger the activation of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), which in turn induces inflammatory and immune reactions, suggesting HERVs as contributing factors in COVID-19 immunopathology. With the aim to identify new factors involved in the processes underlying KD and MIS-C, we analysed the transcriptional levels of HERVs, HERV-related genes, and immune mediators in children during the acute and subacute phases compared with COVID-19 paediatric patients and healthy controls. The results showed higher levels of HERV-W, HERV-K, Syn-1, and ASCT-1/2 in KD, MIS-C, and COV patients, while higher levels of Syn-2 and MFSD2A were found only in MIS-C patients. Moreover, KD and MIS-C shared the dysregulation of several inflammatory and regulatory cytokines. Interestingly, in MIS-C patients, negative correlations have been found between HERV-W and IL-10 and between Syn-2 and IL-10, while positive correlations have been found between HERV-K and IL-10. In addition, HERV-W expression positively correlated with the C-reactive protein. This pilot study supports the role of HERVs in inflammatory diseases, suggesting their interplay with the immune system in this setting. The elevated expression of Syn-2 and MFSD2A seems to be a distinctive trait of MIS-C patients, allowing to distinguish them from KD ones. The understanding of pathological mechanisms can lead to the best available treatment for these two diseases, limiting complications and serious outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Elena Corinaldesi
- Pediatric Unit, Ramazzini Hospital, 41012 Carpi, Italy; (E.C.); (F.T.)
| | - Marianna Fabi
- Pediatric Emergency Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (L.A.); (F.G.); (E.F.); (M.M.); (M.L.)
| | - Chiara Cipriani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Martina Giudice
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Allegra Conti
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.C.); (N.T.)
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Vita Petrone
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Martino Tony Miele
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Laura Andreozzi
- Pediatric Emergency Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (L.A.); (F.G.); (E.F.); (M.M.); (M.L.)
| | - Fiorentina Guida
- Pediatric Emergency Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (L.A.); (F.G.); (E.F.); (M.M.); (M.L.)
| | - Emanuele Filice
- Pediatric Emergency Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (L.A.); (F.G.); (E.F.); (M.M.); (M.L.)
| | - Matteo Meli
- Pediatric Emergency Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (L.A.); (F.G.); (E.F.); (M.M.); (M.L.)
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Guido Rasi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Nicola Toschi
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.C.); (N.T.)
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129, USA
| | | | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
| | - Marcello Lanari
- Pediatric Emergency Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (L.A.); (F.G.); (E.F.); (M.M.); (M.L.)
| | - Paola Sinibaldi-Vallebona
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.C.); (M.G.); (A.M.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (M.T.M.); (S.G.); (G.R.); (C.M.); (P.S.-V.)
- National Research Council, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, 00133 Rome, Italy
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5
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Marino-Merlo F, Grelli S, Mastino A, Lai M, Ferrari P, Nicolini A, Pistello M, Macchi B. Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Oncogenesis between Active Expression and Latency: A Possible Source for the Development of Therapeutic Targets. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:14807. [PMID: 37834255 PMCID: PMC10572738 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241914807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2023] [Revised: 09/16/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the only known human oncogenic retrovirus. HTLV-1 can cause a type of cancer called adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). The virus is transmitted through the body fluids of infected individuals, primarily breast milk, blood, and semen. At least 5-10 million people in the world are infected with HTLV-1. In addition to ATL, HTLV-1 infection can also cause HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP). ATL is characterized by a low viral expression and poor prognosis. The oncogenic mechanism triggered by HTLV-1 is extremely complex and the molecular pathways are not fully understood. However, viral regulatory proteins Tax and HTLV-1 bZIP factor (HBZ) have been shown to play key roles in the transformation of HTLV-1-infected T cells. Moreover, several studies have shown that the final fate of HTLV-1-infected transformed Tcell clones is the result of a complex interplay of HTLV-1 oncogenic protein expression with cellular transcription factors that subvert the cell cycle and disrupt regulated cell death, thereby exerting their transforming effects. This review provides updated information on the mechanisms underlying the transforming action of HTLV-1 and highlights potential therapeutic targets to combat ATL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Marino-Merlo
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy;
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy;
| | - Antonio Mastino
- The Institute of Translational Pharmacology, CNR, 00133 Rome, Italy;
| | - Michele Lai
- Retrovirus Center and Virology Section, Department of Translational Research, University of Pisa, 56100 Pisa, Italy; (M.L.); (M.P.)
| | - Paola Ferrari
- Unit of Oncology, Department of Medical and Oncological Area, Azienda Ospedaliera—Universitaria Pisana, 56125 Pisa, Italy;
| | - Andrea Nicolini
- Department of Oncology, Transplantations and New Technologies in Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - Mauro Pistello
- Retrovirus Center and Virology Section, Department of Translational Research, University of Pisa, 56100 Pisa, Italy; (M.L.); (M.P.)
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Chemical Science and Technology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy;
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6
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Minutolo A, Gismondi A, Chirico R, Di Marco G, Petrone V, Fanelli M, D’Agostino A, Canini A, Grelli S, Albanese L, Centritto M, Zabini F, Matteucci C, Meneguzzo F. Antioxidant Phytocomplexes Extracted from Pomegranate ( Punica granatum L.) Using Hydrodynamic Cavitation Show Potential Anticancer Activity In Vitro. Antioxidants (Basel) 2023; 12:1560. [PMID: 37627555 PMCID: PMC10451776 DOI: 10.3390/antiox12081560] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Revised: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC), as an effective, efficient, and scalable extraction technique for natural products, could enable the affordable production of valuable antioxidant extracts from plant resources. For the first time, whole pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruits, rich in bioactive phytochemicals endowed with anti-cancer properties, were extracted in water using HC. Aqueous fractions sequentially collected during the process (M1-M5) were lyophilized (L), filtered (A), or used as such, i.e., crude (C), and analyzed for their biochemical profile and in vitro antioxidant power. The fractions M3 and M4 from the L and C series showed the highest antiradical activity and phytochemical content. While the lyophilized form is preferable for application purposes, sample L-M3, which was produced faster and with lower energy consumption than M4, was used to assess the potential antiproliferative effect on human breast cancer line (AU565-PAR) and peripheral blood mononuclear (PBMC) cells from healthy donors. In a pilot study, cell growth, death, and redox state were assessed, showing that L-M3 significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation and intracellular oxygen reactive species. No effect on PBMCs was detected. Thus, the antioxidant phytocomplex extracted from pomegranate quickly (15 min), at room temperature (30 °C), and efficiently showed potential anticancer activity without harming healthy cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (R.C.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (S.G.); (C.M.)
| | - Angelo Gismondi
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.G.); (G.D.M.); (A.D.); (A.C.)
| | - Rossella Chirico
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (R.C.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (S.G.); (C.M.)
| | - Gabriele Di Marco
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.G.); (G.D.M.); (A.D.); (A.C.)
| | - Vita Petrone
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (R.C.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (S.G.); (C.M.)
| | - Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (R.C.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (S.G.); (C.M.)
| | - Alessia D’Agostino
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.G.); (G.D.M.); (A.D.); (A.C.)
| | - Antonella Canini
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.G.); (G.D.M.); (A.D.); (A.C.)
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (R.C.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (S.G.); (C.M.)
- Virology Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Albanese
- Institute of Bioeconomy, National Research Council of Italy, Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Florence, Italy; (L.A.); (F.Z.)
| | - Mauro Centritto
- Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, National Research Council of Italy, Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Florence, Italy;
| | - Federica Zabini
- Institute of Bioeconomy, National Research Council of Italy, Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Florence, Italy; (L.A.); (F.Z.)
| | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (R.C.); (V.P.); (M.F.); (S.G.); (C.M.)
| | - Francesco Meneguzzo
- Institute of Bioeconomy, National Research Council of Italy, Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Florence, Italy; (L.A.); (F.Z.)
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Nicolai E, Sarubbi S, Pelagalli M, Basile V, Terrinoni A, Minieri M, Cennamo O, Grelli S, Bernardini S, Pieri M. Performance Evaluation of the New Chemiluminescence Immunoassay CL-1200i for HBV, HIV Panels. Diseases 2023; 11:83. [PMID: 37366871 DOI: 10.3390/diseases11020083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Revised: 05/30/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Infectious diseases such as HIV and HBV are a global concern for their impact in terms of public health and costs for national health services. A central role in contrasting the spread of the infections is represented by timely diagnosis. The speed of detection depends on several factors including the type of test used. Antibody response to hepatitis B surface antigens (anti-HBs) is an important serological marker used for HBV-infection detection. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the Abbott system and of the new analyser Mindray 1200i in the detection of HBV- and HIV-infections. Clinical serum samples were collected from patients randomly selected from PTV University Hospital of University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and tested for HBV and HIV antibodies. Samples were evaluated by Mindray Cl 1200i CLIA screening tests for HBV and HIV and the results were compared with the Abbott Architect analytical system, the routine instrument of the hospital clinical biochemistry laboratory. Precision study, linearity, and carryover were performed on the results obtained. The agreement between the results of the Abbott and Mindray CLIA ranged from 99% to 100% and the discrepancy rate from 0% to 1%. The measurements demonstrated that the Mindray CL-1200i platform offers high-level performance with accurate and consistent test results and could represent a valuable tool if implemented in routine analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleonora Nicolai
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Serena Sarubbi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Martina Pelagalli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Valerio Basile
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Alessandro Terrinoni
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Viale Oxford 81, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Marilena Minieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Viale Oxford 81, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Oreste Cennamo
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Viale Oxford 81, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Viale Oxford 81, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Sergio Bernardini
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Viale Oxford 81, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Pieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Viale Oxford 81, 00133 Rome, Italy
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8
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Petrone V, Fanelli M, Giudice M, Toschi N, Conti A, Maracchioni C, Iannetta M, Resta C, Cipriani C, Miele MT, Amati F, Andreoni M, Sarmati L, Rogliani P, Novelli G, Garaci E, Rasi G, Sinibaldi-Vallebona P, Minutolo A, Matteucci C, Balestrieri E, Grelli S. Expression profile of HERVs and inflammatory mediators detected in nasal mucosa as a predictive biomarker of COVID-19 severity. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1155624. [PMID: 37283924 PMCID: PMC10239953 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1155624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Our research group and others demonstrated the implication of the human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) in SARS-CoV-2 infection and their association with disease progression, suggesting HERVs as contributing factors in COVID-19 immunopathology. To identify early predictive biomarkers of the COVID-19 severity, we analyzed the expression of HERVs and inflammatory mediators in SARS-CoV-2-positive and -negative nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs with respect to biochemical parameters and clinical outcome. Methods Residuals of swab samples (20 SARS-CoV-2-negative and 43 SARS-CoV-2-positive) were collected during the first wave of the pandemic and expression levels of HERVs and inflammatory mediators were analyzed by qRT-Real time PCR. Results The results obtained show that infection with SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a general increase in the expression of HERVs and mediators of the immune response. In particular, SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with increased expression of HERV-K and HERV-W, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-17, TNF-α, MCP-1, INF-γ, TLR-3, and TLR-7, while lower levels of IL-10, IFN-α, IFN-β, and TLR-4 were found in individuals who underwent hospitalization. Moreover, higher expression of HERV-W, IL-1β, IL-6, IFN-α, and IFN-β reflected the respiratory outcome of patients during hospitalization. Interestingly, a machine learning model was able to classify hospitalized vs not hospitalized patients with good accuracy based on the expression levels of HERV-K, HERV-W, IL-6, TNF-a, TLR-3, TLR-7, and the N gene of SARS-CoV-2. These latest biomarkers also correlated with parameters of coagulation and inflammation. Discussion Overall, the present results suggest HERVs as contributing elements in COVID-19 and early genomic biomarkers to predict COVID-19 severity and disease outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vita Petrone
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Martina Giudice
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Nicola Toschi
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Allegra Conti
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Marco Iannetta
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia Resta
- Respiratory Medicine Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Chiara Cipriani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Martino Tony Miele
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesca Amati
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Paola Rogliani
- Respiratory Medicine Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Novelli
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- Neuromed IRCCS Institute, Pozzilli, IS, Italy
- University of Nevada, Department of Pharmacology, Reno, NV, United States
| | | | - Guido Rasi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Paola Sinibaldi-Vallebona
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- National Research Council, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- Virology Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
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9
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Marino-Merlo F, Klett A, Papaianni E, Drago SFA, Macchi B, Rincón MG, Andreola F, Serafino A, Grelli S, Mastino A, Borner C. Caspase-8 is required for HSV-1-induced apoptosis and promotes effective viral particle release via autophagy inhibition. Cell Death Differ 2022; 30:885-896. [PMID: 36418547 PMCID: PMC10070401 DOI: 10.1038/s41418-022-01084-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2022] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractRegulated cell death (RCD) plays an important role in the progression of viral replication and particle release in cells infected by herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1). However, the kind of RCD (apoptosis, necroptosis, others) and the resulting cytopathic effect of HSV-1 depends on the cell type and the species. In this study, we further investigated the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis induced by HSV-1. Although a role of caspase-8 has previously been suggested, we now clearly show that caspase-8 is required for HSV-1-induced apoptosis in a FADD-/death receptor-independent manner in both mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF) and human monocytes (U937). While wild-type (wt) MEFs and U937 cells exhibited increased caspase-8 and caspase-3 activation and apoptosis after HSV-1 infection, respective caspase-8-deficient (caspase-8−/−) cells were largely impeded in any of these effects. Unexpectedly, caspase-8−/− MEF and U937 cells also showed less virus particle release associated with increased autophagy as evidenced by higher Beclin-1 and lower p62/SQSTM1 levels and increased LC3-I to LC3-II conversion. Confocal and electron microscopy revealed that HSV-1 stimulated a strong perinuclear multivesicular body response, resembling increased autophagy in caspase-8−/− cells, entrapping virions in cellular endosomes. Pharmacological inhibition of autophagy by wortmannin restored the ability of caspase-8−/− cells to release viral particles in similar amounts as in wt cells. Altogether our results support a non-canonical role of caspase-8 in both HSV-1-induced apoptosis and viral particle release through autophagic regulation.
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Fanelli M, Petrone V, Buonifacio M, Delibato E, Balestrieri E, Grelli S, Minutolo A, Matteucci C. Multidistrict Host-Pathogen Interaction during COVID-19 and the Development Post-Infection Chronic Inflammation. Pathogens 2022; 11:1198. [PMID: 36297256 PMCID: PMC9607297 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens11101198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Revised: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Due to the presence of the ACE2 receptor in different tissues (nasopharynx, lung, nervous tissue, intestine, liver), the COVID-19 disease involves several organs in our bodies. SARS-CoV-2 is able to infect different cell types, spreading to different districts. In the host, an uncontrolled and altered immunological response is triggered, leading to cytokine storm, lymphopenia, and cellular exhaustion. Hence, respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and systemic multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) are established. This scenario is also reflected in the composition of the microbiota, the balance of which is regulated by the interaction with the immune system. A change in microbial diversity has been demonstrated in COVID-19 patients compared with healthy donors, with an increase in potentially pathogenic microbial genera. In addition to other symptoms, particularly neurological, the occurrence of dysbiosis persists after the SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterizing the post-acute COVID syndrome. This review will describe and contextualize the role of the immune system in unbalance and dysbiosis during SARS-CoV-2 infection, from the acute phase to the post-COVID-19 phase. Considering the tight relationship between the immune system and the gut-brain axis, the analysis of new, multidistrict parameters should be aimed at understanding and addressing chronic multisystem dysfunction related to COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Vita Petrone
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Margherita Buonifacio
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Elisabetta Delibato
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Virology Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
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11
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Latini A, Vancheri C, Amati F, Morini E, Grelli S, Claudia M, Vita P, Colona VL, Murdocca M, Andreoni M, Malagnino V, Raponi M, Cocciadiferro D, Novelli A, Borgiani P, Novelli G. Expression analysis of miRNA hsa-let7b-5p in naso-oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients supports its role in regulating ACE2 and DPP4 receptors. J Cell Mol Med 2022; 26:4940-4948. [PMID: 36073344 PMCID: PMC9538662 DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.17492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Revised: 06/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the novel coronavirus responsible for worldwide coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We previously observed that Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) are significantly overexpressed in naso-oropharyngeal swabs (NPS) of COVID-19 patients, suggesting their putative functional role in the disease progression. ACE2 and DPP4 overexpression in COVID-19 patients may be associated to epigenetic mechanism, such as miRNA differential expression. We investigated if hsa-let7b-5p, reported to target both ACE2 and DPP4 transcripts, could be involved in the regulation of these genes. We verified that the inhibition and overexpression of hsa-let7b-5p matched to a modulation of both ACE2 and DPP4 levels. Then, we observed a statistically significant downregulation (FC = -1.5; p < 0.05) of hsa-let7b-5p in the same COVID-19 and control samples of our previous study. This is the first study that shows hsa-let7b-5p low expression in naso-oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients and demonstrates a functional role of this miR in regulating ACE2 and DPP4 levels. These data suggest the involvement of hsa-let7b-5p in the regulation of genes necessary for SARS-CoV-2 infections and its putative role as a therapeutic target for COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Latini
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Genetics Unit, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Chiara Vancheri
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Genetics Unit, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Francesca Amati
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Genetics Unit, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Elena Morini
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Genetics Unit, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Matteucci Claudia
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Petrone Vita
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | | | - Michela Murdocca
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Genetics Unit, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Malagnino
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | | | - Paola Borgiani
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Genetics Unit, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Novelli
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Genetics Unit, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.,Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy.,Neuromed IRCCS Institute, Pozzilli, Italy.,School of Medicine, Reno University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA
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12
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Ferrari L, Compagno M, Campogiani L, Teti E, Mulas T, Checchi D, Alessio G, Caldara F, Coppola L, De Simone G, Ceccarelli L, Spalliera I, Vitale P, Grelli S, Andreoni M, Sarmati L, Iannetta M. Increased Mild Vaccine-Related Side Effects and Higher Specific Antibody Titers in Health Care Workers with Previous SARS-CoV-2 Infection after the mRNA BNT162b2 Vaccine. Vaccines (Basel) 2022; 10:vaccines10081238. [PMID: 36016128 PMCID: PMC9414957 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10081238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Revised: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: to evaluate whether prior SARS-CoV-2 infection affects side effects and specific antibody production after vaccination with BNT162b2. Methods: We included 1106 health care workers vaccinated with BNT162b2. We assessed whether prior SARS-CoV-2 infection affects the number and type of side effects and performed a nested case−control analysis comparing plasma levels of specific IgG titers between SARS-CoV-2-naïve and previously infected subjects after the first and the second vaccine doses. Results: After the first dose, SARS-CoV-2-naïve subjects experienced side effects more often than SARS-CoV-2 naïve subjects. Individuals with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection more often reported pain at the injection site, weakness, and fever than SARS-CoV-2-naïve subjects. After the second dose, the frequency of side effects was similar in the two groups. All subjects with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection developed either a high (>100 AU/mL) or intermediate (10−100 AU/mL) antibody titer. Among SARS-CoV-2-naïve subjects, the majority developed an intermediate titer. After the second dose, a high (>2000 AU/mL) antibody titer was more common among subjects with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusions: vaccine-related side effects and a higher anti-SARS-CoV-2-RBD IgG titer were more common in subjects with previous infection than in SARS-CoV-2-naïve after the first, but not after the second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ludovica Ferrari
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Mirko Compagno
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Laura Campogiani
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Elisabetta Teti
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Tiziana Mulas
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Davide Checchi
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Grazia Alessio
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Federica Caldara
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Luigi Coppola
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Giuseppe De Simone
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Laura Ceccarelli
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Ilaria Spalliera
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Pietro Vitale
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.F.); (M.C.); (L.C.); (E.T.); (T.M.); (D.C.); (G.A.); (F.C.); (L.C.); (G.D.S.); (L.C.); (I.S.); (P.V.)
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy;
- Virology Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (M.A.); (M.I.)
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (M.A.); (M.I.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Marco Iannetta
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (M.A.); (M.I.)
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Iannetta M, Landi D, Cola G, Campogiani L, Malagnino V, Teti E, Coppola L, Di Lorenzo A, Fraboni D, Buccisano F, Grelli S, Mozzani M, Zingaropoli MA, Ciardi MR, Nisini R, Bernardini S, Andreoni M, Marfia GA, Sarmati L. B- and T-Cell Responses After SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Receiving Disease Modifying Therapies: Immunological Patterns and Clinical Implications. Front Immunol 2022; 12:796482. [PMID: 35111162 PMCID: PMC8801814 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.796482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Vaccination campaign to contrast the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has raised the issue of vaccine immunogenicity in special populations such as people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) on highly effective disease modifying treatments (DMTs). While humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines have been well characterized in the general population and in PwMS, very little is known about cell-mediated responses in conferring protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Methods PwMS on ocrelizumab, fingolimod or natalizumab, vaccinated with two doses of mRNABNT162b2 (Comirnaty®) vaccine were enrolled. Anti-Spike (S) and anti-Nucleoprotein (N) antibody titers, IFN-gamma production upon S and N peptide libraries stimulation, peripheral blood lymphocyte absolute counts were assessed after at least 1 month and within 4 months from vaccine second dose administration. A group of age and sex matched healthy donors (HD) were included as reference group. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 8.2.1. Results Thirty PwMS and 9 HDs were enrolled. All the patients were negative for anti-N antibody detection, nor reported previous symptoms of COVID-19. Peripheral blood lymphocyte counts were assessed in PwMS showing: (i) reduction of circulating B-lymphocytes in PwMS on ocrelizumab; (ii) reduction of peripheral blood B- and T-lymphocyte absolute counts in PwMS on fingolimod and (iii) normal B- and T-lymphocyte absolute counts with an increase in circulating CD16+CD56+ NK-cells in PwMS on natalizumab. Three patterns of immunological responses were identified in PwMS. In patients on ocrelizumab, anti-S antibody were lacking or reduced, while T-cell responses were normal. In patients on fingolimod both anti-S titers and T-cell mediated responses were impaired. In patients on natalizumab both anti-S titers and T-cell responses were present and comparable to those observed in HD. Conclusions The evaluation of T-cell responses, anti-S titers and peripheral blood lymphocyte absolute count in PwMS on DMTs can help to better characterize the immunological response after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. The evaluation of T-cell responses in longitudinal cohorts of PwMS will help to clarify their protective role in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19. The correlation between DMT treatment and immunological responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines could help to better evaluate vaccination strategies in PwMS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Iannetta
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Doriana Landi
- Multiple Sclerosis Clinical and Research Unit, Department of Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Gaia Cola
- Multiple Sclerosis Clinical and Research Unit, Department of Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Laura Campogiani
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Malagnino
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Elisabetta Teti
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Luigi Coppola
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Andrea Di Lorenzo
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Daniela Fraboni
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Buccisano
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Marcello Mozzani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Maria Rosa Ciardi
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Roberto Nisini
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Roma, Italy
| | - Sergio Bernardini
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Girolama Alessandra Marfia
- Multiple Sclerosis Clinical and Research Unit, Department of Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy.,Unit of Neurology, IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo NEUROMED, Pozzilli, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Infectious Disease Unit, Department of System Medicine, Tor Vergata University and Hospital, Rome, Italy
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Alkhatib M, Bellocchi MC, Marchegiani G, Grelli S, Micheli V, Stella D, Zerillo B, Carioti L, Svicher V, Rogliani P, Ceccherini-Silberstein F. First Case of a COVID-19 Patient Infected by Delta AY.4 with a Rare Deletion Leading to a N Gene Target Failure by a Specific Real Time PCR Assay: Novel Omicron VOC Might Be Doing Similar Scenario? Microorganisms 2022; 10:microorganisms10020268. [PMID: 35208724 PMCID: PMC8875198 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10020268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2021] [Revised: 01/17/2022] [Accepted: 01/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Herein, we report a case of an Italian male infected by Delta sublineage AY.4 harboring an atypical deletion, leading to a N gene target failure (NGTF) by a commercial molecular assay for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis (AllplexTM SARS-CoV-2 Assay, Seegene). A 59-year-old unvaccinated patient was hospitalized for pulmonary embolism, with first negative results obtained by both molecular and antigen tests. After several days of viral negativity, he presented positive results for E and RdRP/S genes, but negative in N gene. Negativity in N gene was repeatedly confirmed in the following days. Suspecting an infection by the Omicron variant, SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing was rapidly performed from nasopharyngeal swab by MiSeq and revealed the presence of the Delta sublineage AY.4 variant with an atypical deletion of six nucleotides, leading to G214-G215 deletion in the Nucleocapsid, thus responsible for NGTF. The analysis of GISAID sequences (N = 2,618,373 12 January 2022) showed that G214-G215 deletion is rarely occurring in most circulating Delta lineages and sublineages in the globe and Europe, with an overall prevalence never exceeding 0.2%. Hence, this study highlights the importance to perform SARS-CoV-2 sequencing and to characterize novel mutations/deletions that could jeopardize the proper interpretation of molecular diagnostic tests. Based on these assumptions, the role of deletions in the recently identified Omicron variant deserves further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Alkhatib
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
| | - Maria Concetta Bellocchi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
| | - Greta Marchegiani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
- Virology Unit, Policlinico Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Valeria Micheli
- Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Virology and Bioemergencies, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco L. Sacco Hospital, 20157 Milan, Italy;
| | - Daniele Stella
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
| | | | - Luca Carioti
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
| | - Valentina Svicher
- Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy;
| | - Paola Rogliani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
- Respiratory Medicine Unit, Policlinico Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy;
| | - Francesca Ceccherini-Silberstein
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; mohammad-- (M.A.); (M.C.B.); (G.M.); (S.G.); (D.S.); (L.C.); (P.R.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +39-06-72596566
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15
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Coppeta L, Ferrari C, Somma G, Mazza A, D’Ancona U, Marcuccilli F, Grelli S, Aurilio MT, Pietroiusti A, Magrini A, Rizza S. Reduced Titers of Circulating Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies and Risk of COVID-19 Infection in Healthcare Workers during the Nine Months after Immunization with the BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine. Vaccines (Basel) 2022; 10:vaccines10020141. [PMID: 35214600 PMCID: PMC8879462 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10020141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2021] [Revised: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 01/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has had a tremendous impact on health services; hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers (HCWs) have died from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The introduction of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in Italy provided recipients with significant protection against COVID-19 within one to two weeks after the administration of the second of the two recommended doses. While the vaccine induces a robust T cell response, the protective role of factors and pathways other than those related to memory B cell responses to specific SARS-CoV-2 antigens remains unclear. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the determinants of serological protection in a group of vaccinated HCWs (n = 793) by evaluating circulating levels of antiviral spike receptor-binding domain (S-RBD) antibodies during the nine-month period following vaccination. We found that 99.5% of the HCWs who received the two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine developed protective antibodies that were maintained at detectable levels for as long as 250 days after the second dose of the vaccine. Multivariate analysis was performed on anti-S-RBD titers in a subgroup of participants (n = 173) that were evaluated twice during this period. The results of this analysis reveal that the antibody titer observed at the second time point was significantly related to the magnitude of the primary response, the time that had elapsed between the first and the second evaluation, and a previous history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Of importance is the finding that despite waning antibody titers following vaccination, none of the study participants contracted severe COVID-19 during the observational period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Coppeta
- Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.C.); (C.F.); (G.S.); (A.M.); (U.D.); (A.M.)
| | - Cristiana Ferrari
- Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.C.); (C.F.); (G.S.); (A.M.); (U.D.); (A.M.)
| | - Giuseppina Somma
- Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.C.); (C.F.); (G.S.); (A.M.); (U.D.); (A.M.)
| | - Andrea Mazza
- Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.C.); (C.F.); (G.S.); (A.M.); (U.D.); (A.M.)
| | - Umberto D’Ancona
- Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.C.); (C.F.); (G.S.); (A.M.); (U.D.); (A.M.)
| | - Fabbio Marcuccilli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (F.M.); (S.G.)
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (F.M.); (S.G.)
| | - Marco Trabucco Aurilio
- Department of Medicine and Health Sciences “V. Tiberio”, University of Molise, 86100 Campobasso, Italy;
| | - Antonio Pietroiusti
- Departmental Faculty of Medicine, University Unicamillus, 00131 Rome, Italy;
| | - Andrea Magrini
- Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.C.); (C.F.); (G.S.); (A.M.); (U.D.); (A.M.)
| | - Stefano Rizza
- Department of System Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford 81, 00133 Roma, Italy
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +39-0620908330
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Piermatteo L, Alkhatib M, D’Anna S, Malagnino V, Bertoli A, Andreassi E, Basile E, Iuvara A, De Cristofaro M, Cappiello G, Cerva C, Minichini C, Pisaturo M, Starace M, Coppola N, Fontana C, Grelli S, Ceccherini-Silberstein F, Andreoni M, Gill US, Kennedy PTF, Sarmati L, Salpini R, Svicher V. HBeAg Levels Vary across the Different Stages of HBV Infection According to the Extent of Immunological Pressure and Are Associated with Therapeutic Outcome in the Setting of Immunosuppression-Driven HBV Reactivation. Biomedicines 2021; 9:biomedicines9101352. [PMID: 34680469 PMCID: PMC8533134 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines9101352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2021] [Revised: 09/21/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
HBeAg is a marker of HBV-activity, and HBeAg-loss predicts a favorable clinical outcome. Here, we characterize HBeAg-levels across different phases of HBV infection, their correlation with virological/biochemical markers and the virological response to anti-HBV therapy. Quantitative HBeAg (qHBeAg, DiaSorin) is assessed in 101 HBeAg+ patients: 20 with acute-infection, 20 with chronic infection, 32 with chronic hepatitis and 29 with immunosuppression-driven HBV-reactivation (HBV-R). A total of 15/29 patients with HBV-R are monitored for >12 months after starting TDF/ETV. qHBeAg is higher in immunosuppression-driven HBV-R (median[IQR]:930[206-1945]PEIU/mL) and declines in chronic hepatitis (481[28-1393]PEIU/mL, p = 0.03), suggesting HBeAg production, modulated by the extent of immunological pressure. This is reinforced by the negative correlation between qHBeAg and ALT in acute infection (Rho = -0.66, p = 0.006) and chronic hepatitis (Rho = -0.35; p = 0.05). Interestingly, qHBeAg strongly and positively correlates with qHBsAg across the study groups, suggesting cccDNA as a major source of both proteins in the setting of HBeAg positivity (with limited contribution of integrated HBV-DNA to HBsAg production). Focusing on 15 patients with HBV-R starting TDF/ETV, virological suppression and HBeAg-loss are achieved in 60% and 53.3%. Notably, the combination of qHBeAg > 2000 PEIU/mL + qHBsAg > 52,000 IU/mL at HBV-R is the only factor predicting no HBeAg loss (HBeAg loss: 0% with vs. 72.7% without qHBeAg > 2000 PEIU/mL + qHBsAg > 52,000 IU/mL, p = 0.03). In conclusion, qHBeAg varies over the natural course of HBV infection, according to the extent of immunological pressure. In the setting of HBV-R, qHBeAg could be useful in predicting the treatment response under immunosuppression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorenzo Piermatteo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
| | - Mohammad Alkhatib
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
| | - Stefano D’Anna
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
| | - Vincenzo Malagnino
- Infectious Disease Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (V.M.); (C.C.); (M.A.); (L.S.)
| | - Ada Bertoli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
- Microbiology and Virology Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (A.I.); (C.F.)
| | - Eleonora Andreassi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
| | - Elisa Basile
- Microbiology and Virology Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (A.I.); (C.F.)
| | - Alessandra Iuvara
- Microbiology and Virology Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (A.I.); (C.F.)
| | - Maria De Cristofaro
- Microbiology Unit, “Sandro Pertini” Hospital, 00133 Rome, Italy; (M.D.C.); (G.C.)
| | - Giuseppina Cappiello
- Microbiology Unit, “Sandro Pertini” Hospital, 00133 Rome, Italy; (M.D.C.); (G.C.)
| | - Carlotta Cerva
- Infectious Disease Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (V.M.); (C.C.); (M.A.); (L.S.)
| | - Carmine Minichini
- Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic and Aging Sciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 80138 Naples, Italy; (C.M.); (M.P.); (M.S.); (N.C.)
| | - Mariantonietta Pisaturo
- Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic and Aging Sciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 80138 Naples, Italy; (C.M.); (M.P.); (M.S.); (N.C.)
| | - Mario Starace
- Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic and Aging Sciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 80138 Naples, Italy; (C.M.); (M.P.); (M.S.); (N.C.)
| | - Nicola Coppola
- Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic and Aging Sciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 80138 Naples, Italy; (C.M.); (M.P.); (M.S.); (N.C.)
| | - Carla Fontana
- Microbiology and Virology Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (A.I.); (C.F.)
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
- Microbiology and Virology Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (A.I.); (C.F.)
| | - Francesca Ceccherini-Silberstein
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Infectious Disease Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (V.M.); (C.C.); (M.A.); (L.S.)
| | - Upkar S. Gill
- Barts Liver Centre, Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK; (U.S.G.); (P.T.F.K.)
| | - Patrick T. F. Kennedy
- Barts Liver Centre, Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK; (U.S.G.); (P.T.F.K.)
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Infectious Disease Unit, University Hospital of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (V.M.); (C.C.); (M.A.); (L.S.)
| | - Romina Salpini
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Valentina Svicher
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (L.P.); mohammad-- (M.A.); (S.D.); (A.B.); (E.A.); (S.G.); (F.C.-S.); (V.S.)
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Cosio T, Gaziano R, Zuccari G, Costanza G, Grelli S, Di Francesco P, Bianchi L, Campione E. Retinoids in Fungal Infections: From Bench to Bedside. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2021; 14:ph14100962. [PMID: 34681186 PMCID: PMC8539705 DOI: 10.3390/ph14100962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 09/17/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Retinoids-a class of chemical compounds derived from vitamin A or chemically related to it-are used especially in dermatology, oncohematology and infectious diseases. It has been shown that retinoids-from their first generation-exert a potent antimicrobial activity against a wide range of pathogens, including bacteria, fungi and viruses. In this review, we summarize current evidence on retinoids' efficacy as antifungal agents. Studies were identified by searching electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane, Trials.gov) and reference lists of respective articles from 1946 to today. Only articles published in the English language were included. A total of thirty-nine articles were found according to the criteria. In this regard, to date, In vitro and In vivo studies have demonstrated the efficacy of retinoids against a broad-spectrum of human opportunistic fungal pathogens, including yeast fungi that normally colonize the skin and mucosal surfaces of humans such as Candida spp., Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Malassezia furfur, as well as environmental moulds such as Aspergillus spp., Fonsecae monofora and many species of dermatophytes associated with fungal infections both in humans and animals. Notwithstanding a lack of double-blind clinical trials, the efficacy, tolerability and safety profile of retinoids have been demonstrated against localized and systemic fungal infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terenzio Cosio
- Dermatology Unit, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (T.C.); (L.B.)
| | - Roberta Gaziano
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (R.G.); (P.D.F.)
| | - Guendalina Zuccari
- Department of Pharmacy, University of Genoa, Viale Cembrano, 16148 Genoa, Italy;
| | - Gaetana Costanza
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (G.C.); (S.G.)
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (G.C.); (S.G.)
| | - Paolo Di Francesco
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy; (R.G.); (P.D.F.)
| | - Luca Bianchi
- Dermatology Unit, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (T.C.); (L.B.)
| | - Elena Campione
- Dermatology Unit, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy; (T.C.); (L.B.)
- Correspondence:
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Rizza S, Coppeta L, Grelli S, Ferrazza G, Chiocchi M, Vanni G, Bonomo OC, Bellia A, Andreoni M, Magrini A, Federici M. High body mass index and night shift work are associated with COVID-19 in health care workers. J Endocrinol Invest 2021; 44:1097-1101. [PMID: 32852704 PMCID: PMC7450678 DOI: 10.1007/s40618-020-01397-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Accepted: 08/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To assess the magnitude of COVID-19 spread and the associated risk factors among health care workers (HCWs), we conducted an in-hospital survey in a central Italian COVID Hospital. METHODS Participants underwent nasopharyngeal swab and/or serum collection for SARS-CoV-2 IgG examination. We divided participants according to working status, into rotating-night shift workers (r-NSW) and day-workers. RESULTS We found 30 cases of COVID-19 infection in a total of 1180 HCWs (2.5%). Most COVID-19-positive hospital employees were r-NSWs with significantly higher BMI than that of individuals who tested negative. After adjustment for covariates, night work and BMI > 30 were associated with a markedly greater risk of COVID-19 diagnosis (OR 3.049 [95%CI 1.260-7.380] and OR 7.15 [95%CI 2.91-17.51], respectively). CONCLUSIONS Our results describe a low prevalence of COVID-19 infection among HCWs at a central Italian COVID Hospital. COVID-19 infection risk appears to be associated with obesity and night shift work, thus supporting the need for careful health surveillance among frontline HCWs exposed to COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Rizza
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy.
| | - L Coppeta
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - S Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - G Ferrazza
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - M Chiocchi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - G Vanni
- Department of Surgical Science, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - O C Bonomo
- Department of Surgical Science, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - A Bellia
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - M Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - A Magrini
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - M Federici
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy
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19
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Balestrieri E, Minutolo A, Petrone V, Fanelli M, Iannetta M, Malagnino V, Zordan M, Vitale P, Charvet B, Horvat B, Bernardini S, Garaci E, di Francesco P, Sinibaldi Vallebona P, Sarmati L, Grelli S, Andreoni M, Perron H, Matteucci C. Evidence of the pathogenic HERV-W envelope expression in T lymphocytes in association with the respiratory outcome of COVID-19 patients. EBioMedicine 2021; 66:103341. [PMID: 33867312 PMCID: PMC8082064 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2021] [Revised: 03/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Despite an impressive effort in clinical research, no standard therapeutic approach for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients has been established, highlighting the need to identify early biomarkers for predicting disease progression and new therapeutic interventions for patient management. The present study aimed to evaluate the involvement of the human endogenous retrovirus -W envelope (HERV-W ENV) in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection considering recent findings that HERVs are activated in response to infectious agents and lead to various immunopathological effects. We analysed HERV-W ENV expression in blood cells of COVID-19 patients in correlation with clinical characteristics and have discussed its potential role in the outcome of the disease. Methods We analysed HERV-W ENV expression in blood samples of COVID-19 patients and healthy donors by flow cytometry and quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR analysis, and evaluated its correlation with clinical signs, inflammatory markers, cytokine expression, and disease progression. Findings HERV-W ENV was highly expressed in the leukocytes of COVID-19 patients but not in those of healthy donors. Its expression correlated with the markers of T-cell differentiation and exhaustion and blood cytokine levels. The percentage of HERV-W ENV-positive lymphocytes correlated with inflammatory markers and pneumonia severity in COVID-19 patients. Notably, HERV-W ENV expression reflects the respiratory outcome of patients during hospitalization. Interpretation Given the known immuno- and neuro-pathogenicity of HERV-W ENV protein, it could promote certain pathogenic features of COVID-19 and therefore serve as a biomarker to predict clinical progression of disease and open to further studies for therapeutic intervention. Funding Information available at the end of the manuscript.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Vita Petrone
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Marco Iannetta
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy; Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Malagnino
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy; Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Marta Zordan
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy; Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Pietro Vitale
- Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Benjamin Charvet
- International Center for Infectiology Research (CIRI), INSERM U1111, CNRS UMR5308, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, University of Lyon, Lyon, France; Geneuro - Innovation, Lyon 69008, France
| | - Branka Horvat
- International Center for Infectiology Research (CIRI), INSERM U1111, CNRS UMR5308, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, University of Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Sergio Bernardini
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | | | - Paolo di Francesco
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Paola Sinibaldi Vallebona
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy; Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy; Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy; Virology Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy; Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Hervé Perron
- Geneuro - Innovation, Lyon 69008, France; University of Lyon, Lyon 69007, France
| | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy.
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20
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Novelli G, Liu J, Biancolella M, Alonzi T, Novelli A, Patten JJ, Cocciadiferro D, Agolini E, Colona VL, Rizzacasa B, Giannini R, Bigio B, Goletti D, Capobianchi MR, Grelli S, Mann J, McKee TD, Cheng K, Amanat F, Krammer F, Guarracino A, Pepe G, Tomino C, Tandjaoui-Lambiotte Y, Uzunhan Y, Tubiana S, Ghosn J, Notarangelo LD, Su HC, Abel L, Cobat A, Elhanan G, Grzymski JJ, Latini A, Sidhu SS, Jain S, Davey RA, Casanova JL, Wei W, Pandolfi PP. Inhibition of HECT E3 ligases as potential therapy for COVID-19. Cell Death Dis 2021; 12:310. [PMID: 33762578 PMCID: PMC7987752 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-021-03513-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 02/04/2021] [Accepted: 02/05/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the ongoing world-wide pandemic which has already taken more than two million lives. Effective treatments are urgently needed. The enzymatic activity of the HECT-E3 ligase family members has been implicated in the cell egression phase of deadly RNA viruses such as Ebola through direct interaction of its VP40 Protein. Here we report that HECT-E3 ligase family members such as NEDD4 and WWP1 interact with and ubiquitylate the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. Furthermore, we find that HECT family members are overexpressed in primary samples derived from COVID-19 infected patients and COVID-19 mouse models. Importantly, rare germline activating variants in the NEDD4 and WWP1 genes are associated with severe COVID-19 cases. Critically, I3C, a natural NEDD4 and WWP1 inhibitor from Brassicaceae, displays potent antiviral effects and inhibits viral egression. In conclusion, we identify the HECT family members of E3 ligases as likely novel biomarkers for COVID-19, as well as new potential targets of therapeutic strategy easily testable in clinical trials in view of the established well-tolerated nature of the Brassicaceae natural compounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giuseppe Novelli
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy.
- IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, (IS), Italy.
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.
| | - Jing Liu
- Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | | | - Tonino Alonzi
- Translational Research Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Preclinical Research, National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani - IRCCS, 00149, Rome, Italy
| | - Antonio Novelli
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, IRCCS Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, 00165, Rome, Italy
| | - J J Patten
- National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Dario Cocciadiferro
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, IRCCS Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, 00165, Rome, Italy
| | - Emanuele Agolini
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, IRCCS Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, 00165, Rome, Italy
| | - Vito Luigi Colona
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Barbara Rizzacasa
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Rosalinda Giannini
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Benedetta Bigio
- St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Rockefeller Branch, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 10065, USA
| | - Delia Goletti
- Translational Research Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Preclinical Research, National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani - IRCCS, 00149, Rome, Italy
| | - Maria Rosaria Capobianchi
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Epidemiology and Preclinical Research, National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani - IRCCS, 00149, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Ke Cheng
- HistoWiz Inc, Brooklyn, NY, 11226, USA
| | - Fatima Amanat
- Department of Microbiology, Icahn school of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA
| | - Florian Krammer
- Department of Microbiology, Icahn school of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA
| | | | - Gerardo Pepe
- Department of Biology, Tor Vergata University, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Carlo Tomino
- San Raffaele University of Rome, 00166, Rome, Italy
| | - Yacine Tandjaoui-Lambiotte
- Intensive Care Unit, Avicenne Hospital, APHP, Bobigny, France
- INSERM U1272 Hypoxia & Lung, Bobigny, France
| | - Yurdagul Uzunhan
- Pneumology Department, Reference Center for Rare Pulmonary Diseases, Hôpital Avicenne, APHP, Bobigny; INSERM UMR1272, Université Paris 13, Bobigny, France
| | - Sarah Tubiana
- Hôpital Bichat Claude Bernard, APHP, Paris, France
- Centre d'investigation Clinique, Inserm CIC, 1425, Paris, France
| | - Jade Ghosn
- Infection, Antimicrobials, Modelling, Evolution (IAME), INSERM, UMRS1137, University of Paris, Paris, France
- AP-HP, Bichat Claude Bernard Hospital, Infectious and Tropical Disease Department, Paris, France
| | | | - Helen C Su
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Laurent Abel
- St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Rockefeller Branch, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 10065, USA
- Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Necker Branch, INSERM, Necker Hospital for Sick Children, Paris, France
- University of Paris, Imagine Institute, Paris, France
| | - Aurélie Cobat
- St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Rockefeller Branch, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 10065, USA
- Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Necker Branch, INSERM, Necker Hospital for Sick Children, Paris, France
- University of Paris, Imagine Institute, Paris, France
| | - Gai Elhanan
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, 89502, USA
- Renown Institute for Cancer, Nevada System of Higher Education, Reno, NV, 89502, USA
| | - Joseph J Grzymski
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, 89502, USA
- Renown Institute for Cancer, Nevada System of Higher Education, Reno, NV, 89502, USA
| | - Andrea Latini
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Sachdev S Sidhu
- The Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3E1 416-946-0863
| | | | - Robert A Davey
- Department of Microbiology Boston University, National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, Boston, MA, 02118, USA
| | - Jean-Laurent Casanova
- St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Rockefeller Branch, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 10065, USA
- Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Necker Branch, INSERM, Necker Hospital for Sick Children, Paris, France
- University of Paris, Imagine Institute, Paris, France
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY, USA
| | - Wenyi Wei
- Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Pier Paolo Pandolfi
- Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
- Renown Institute for Cancer, Nevada System of Higher Education, Reno, NV, 89502, USA.
- MBC, Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, TO, 10126, Italy.
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21
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Minutolo A, Potestà M, Roglia V, Cirilli M, Iacovelli F, Cerva C, Fokam J, Desideri A, Andreoni M, Grelli S, Colizzi V, Muleo R, Montesano C. Plant microRNAs from Moringa oleifera Regulate Immune Response and HIV Infection. Front Pharmacol 2021; 11:620038. [PMID: 33643043 PMCID: PMC7905167 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2020.620038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Traditional medicine is often chosen due to its affordability, its familiarity with patient’s cultural practices, and its wider access to the local community. Plants play an important role in providing indispensable nutrients, while specific small RNAs can regulate human gene expression in a cross-kingdom manner. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of plant-enriched purified extract microRNAs from Moringa oleifera seeds (MO) on the immune response and on HIV infection. Bioinformatic analysis shows that plant microRNAs (p-miRs) from MO belonging to 18 conserved families, including p-miR160h, p-miR166, p-miR482b, p-miR159c, p-miR395d, p-miR2118a, p-miR393a, p-miR167f-3p, and p-miR858b are predicted to target with high affinity BCL2, IL2RA, TNF, and VAV1, all these being involved in the cell cycle, apoptosis, immune response and also in the regulation of HIV pathogenesis. The effects of MO p-miRs transfected into HIV+ PBMCs were analyzed and revealed a decrease in viability associated with an increase of apoptosis; an increase of T helper cells expressing Fas and a decrease of intracellular Bcl2 protein expression. Meanwhile no effects were detected in PBMCs from healthy donors. In CD4+ T cells, transfection significantly reduced cell activation and modified the T cell differentiation, thereby decreasing both central and effector memory cells while increasing terminal effector memory cells. Interestingly, the p-miRs transfection induces a reduction of intracellular HIV p24 protein and a reduction of viral DNA integration. Finally, we evaluated the effect of synthetic (mimic) p-miR858b whose sequence is present in the MO p-miR pool and predicted to target VAV1, a protein involved in HIV-Nef binding. This protein plays a pivotal role in T cell antigen receptor (TCR) signaling, so triggering the activation of various pathways. The transfection of HIV+ PBMCs with the synthetic p-miR858b showed a reduced expression of VAV1 and HIV p24 proteins. Overall, our evidence defines putative mechanisms underlying a supplementary benefit of traditional medicine, alongside current antiretroviral therapy, in managing HIV infection in resource-limited settings where MO remains widely available.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marina Potestà
- Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Valentina Roglia
- Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Cirilli
- Department of Agricultural and Forestry Science, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy.,Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Carlotta Cerva
- Department of System Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Joseph Fokam
- Chantal BIYA International Reference Centre for Research on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Management, Yaoundé, Cameroon
| | | | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of System Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Vittorio Colizzi
- Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.,Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Evangelic University of Cameroon, Bandjoun, Cameroon
| | - Rosario Muleo
- Department of Agricultural and Forestry Science, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
| | - Carla Montesano
- Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
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22
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Pieri M, Nuccetelli M, Nicolai E, Sarubbi S, Grelli S, Bernardini S. Clinical validation of a second generation anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM automated chemiluminescent immunoassay. J Med Virol 2021; 93:2523-2528. [PMID: 33463719 PMCID: PMC8013349 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.26809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Revised: 01/11/2021] [Accepted: 01/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection has proven to be extremely contagious and has spread rapidly all over the world. A key aspect in limiting the virus diffusion is to ensure early and accurate diagnosis. Serological assays could be an alternative in increasing testing capabilities, particularly when used as part of an algorithmic approach combined with molecular analysis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a second generation chemiluminescent automated immunoassay able to detect anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies. Data are carried out on healthy subjects and other infectious diseases pre‐pandemic sera, as controls, and on two different coronavirus disease 2019 hospitalized patient groups (early and late infection time). Data obtained have been analyzed in terms of precision, linearity, sensitivity and specificity. Specificities are: 100% for anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG and 98% for anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgM, in all patient groups. Sensitivities are: 97%, 100%, and 98% for anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG and 87%, 83%, and 86% for anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgM in the early infection, in the late infection and in the total patient group, respectively. The Mindray anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG and IgM assays demonstrated higher sensitivity and specificity, indicating that IgG and IgM simultaneous detection is useful even in the early phases of infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Massimo Pieri
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy.,Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Marzia Nuccetelli
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Eleonora Nicolai
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Serena Sarubbi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy.,Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sergio Bernardini
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy.,Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Division of Emerging Tecnologies, IFCC, Milan, Italy
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23
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Macchi B, Frezza C, Marino-Merlo F, Minutolo A, Stefanizzi V, Balestrieri E, Cerva C, Sarmati L, Andreoni M, Grelli S, Mastino A. Appraisal of a Simple and Effective RT-qPCR Assay for Evaluating the Reverse Transcriptase Activity in Blood Samples from HIV-1 Patients. Pathogens 2020; 9:pathogens9121047. [PMID: 33322208 PMCID: PMC7763350 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens9121047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Revised: 12/10/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Testing HIV-1 RNA in plasma by PCR is universally accepted as the ultimate standard to confirm diagnosis of HIV-1 infection and to monitor viral load in patients under treatment. However, in some cases, this assay could either underestimate or overestimate the replication capacity of a circulating or latent virus. In the present study, we performed the assessment of evaluating the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) activity by means of a new assay for the functional screening of the status of HIV-1 patients. To this purpose, we utilized, for the first time on blood samples, an adapted version of a real-time RT quantitative PCR assay, utilized to evaluate the HIV-1-RT inhibitory activity of compounds. The study analyzed blood samples from 28 HIV-1-infected patients, exhibiting a wide range of viremia and immunological values. Results demonstrated that plasma HIV-1 RT levels, expressed as cycle threshold values obtained with the assay under appraisal, were inversely and highly significantly correlated with the plasma HIV-1-RNA levels of the patients. Thus, an HIV-1 RT quantitative PCR assay was created which we describe in this study, and it may be considered as a promising basis for an additional tool capable of furnishing information on the functional virological status of HIV-1-infected patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Chemical Science and Technology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy;
| | - Caterina Frezza
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.F.); (C.C.); (L.S.); (M.A.)
| | - Francesca Marino-Merlo
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy;
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (V.S.); (E.B.); (S.G.)
| | - Valeria Stefanizzi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (V.S.); (E.B.); (S.G.)
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (V.S.); (E.B.); (S.G.)
| | - Carlotta Cerva
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.F.); (C.C.); (L.S.); (M.A.)
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.F.); (C.C.); (L.S.); (M.A.)
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (C.F.); (C.C.); (L.S.); (M.A.)
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (A.M.); (V.S.); (E.B.); (S.G.)
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Antonio Mastino
- The Institute of Translational Pharmacology, CNR, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +39-3388658161
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24
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Matteucci C, Minutolo A, Balestrieri E, Petrone V, Fanelli M, Malagnino V, Ianetta M, Giovinazzo A, Barreca F, Di Cesare S, De Marco P, Miele MT, Toschi N, Mastino A, Sinibaldi Vallebona P, Bernardini S, Rogliani P, Sarmati L, Andreoni M, Grelli S, Garaci E. Thymosin Alpha 1 Mitigates Cytokine Storm in Blood Cells From Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients. Open Forum Infect Dis 2020; 8:ofaa588. [PMID: 33506065 PMCID: PMC7798699 DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by immune-mediated lung injury and complex alterations of the immune system, such as lymphopenia and cytokine storm, that have been associated with adverse outcomes underlining a fundamental role of host response in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and the pathogenesis of the disease. Thymosin alpha 1 (Tα1) is one of the molecules used in the management of COVID-19, because it is known to restore the homeostasis of the immune system during infections and cancer. Methods In this study, we captured the interconnected biological processes regulated by Tα1 in CD8+ T cells under inflammatory conditions. Results Genes associated with cytokine signaling and production were upregulated in blood cells from patients with COVID-19, and the ex vivo treatment with Tα1-mitigated cytokine expression, and inhibited lymphocyte activation in a CD8+ T-cell subset specifically. Conclusion These data suggest the potential role of Tα1 in modulating the immune response homeostasis and the cytokine storm in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Vita Petrone
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Malagnino
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Ianetta
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Filippo Barreca
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Silvia Di Cesare
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Unit of Immune and Infectious Diseases, Academic Department of Pediatrics, Bambino Gesù Childrens' Hospital-Scientific Institute for Research and Healthcare (IRCCS), Rome, Italy
| | - Patrizia De Marco
- Respiratory Medicine Unit, University Hospital Policlinico Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Martino Tony Miele
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Nicola Toschi
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.,Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Paola Sinibaldi Vallebona
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Sergio Bernardini
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Paola Rogliani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Respiratory Medicine Unit, University Hospital Policlinico Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Virology Unit, Policlinic of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Enrico Garaci
- University San Raffaele, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy
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25
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Salpini R, Battisti A, Piermatteo L, Carioti L, Anastasiou OE, Gill US, Di Carlo D, Colagrossi L, Duca L, Bertoli A, La Rosa KY, Fabeni L, Iuvara A, Malagnino V, Cerva C, Lichtner M, Mastroianni CM, De Sanctis GM, Paoloni M, Marignani M, Pasquazzi C, Iapadre N, Parruti G, Vecchiet J, Sarmati L, Andreoni M, Angelico M, Grelli S, T Kennedy P, Verheyen J, Aquaro S, Silberstein FC, Perno CF, Svicher V. Key mutations in the C-terminus of the HBV surface glycoprotein correlate with lower HBsAg levels in vivo, hinder HBsAg secretion in vitro and reduce HBsAg structural stability in the setting of HBeAg-negative chronic HBV genotype-D infection. Emerg Microbes Infect 2020; 9:928-939. [PMID: 32312174 PMCID: PMC7269061 DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1757998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Increasing evidences suggest that HBsAg-production varies across HBV-genotypes. HBsAg C-terminus plays a crucial role for HBsAg-secretion. Here, we evaluate HBsAg-levels in different HBV-genotypes in HBeAg-negative chronic infection, the correlation of specific mutations in HBsAg C-terminus with HBsAg-levels in-vivo, their impact on HBsAg-secretion in-vitro and on structural stability in-silico. HBsAg-levels were investigated in 323 drug-naïve HBeAg-negative patients chronically infected with HBV genotype-D(N = 228), -A(N = 65) and -E(N = 30). Genotype-D was characterized by HBsAg-levels lower than genotype-A and -E (3.3[2.7–3.8]IU/ml; 3.8[3.5–4.2]IU/ml and 3.9[3.7–4.2]IU/ml, P < 0.001). Results confirmed by multivariable analysis correcting for patients’demographics, HBV-DNA, ALT and infection-status. In genotype-D, specific C-terminus mutations (V190A-S204N-Y206C-Y206F-S210N) significantly correlate with HBsAg<1000IU/ml(P-value from <0.001 to 0.04). These mutations lie in divergent pathways involving other HBsAg C-terminus mutations: V190A + F220L (Phi = 0.41, P = 0.003), S204N + L205P (Phi = 0.36, P = 0.005), Y206F + S210R (Phi = 0.47, P < 0.001) and S210N + F220L (Phi = 0.40, P = 0.006). Notably, patients with these mutational pairs present HBsAg-levels 1log lower than patients without them(P-value from 0.003 to 0.02). In-vitro, the above-mentioned mutational pairs determined a significant decrease in HBsAg secretion-efficiency compared to wt(P-value from <0.001 to 0.02). Structurally, these mutational pairs reduced HBsAg C-terminus stability and determined a rearrangement of this domain. In conclusion, HBsAg-levels in genotype-D are significantly lower than in genotype-A and -E in HBeAg-negative patients. In genotype-D, specific mutational clusters in HBsAg C-terminus correlate with lower HBsAg-levels in-vivo, hamper HBsAg-release in-vitro and affect its structural stability, supporting their detrimental role on HBsAg-secretion. In this light, genotypic-testing can be a valuable tool to optimize the clinical interpretation of HBsAg in genotype-D and to provide information on HBV-pathogenicity and disease-progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romina Salpini
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Arianna Battisti
- Barts Liver Centre, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London SMD, QMUL, London, UK
| | - Lorenzo Piermatteo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Luca Carioti
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Olympia E Anastasiou
- Institute of Virology, University-Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Upkar S Gill
- Barts Liver Centre, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London SMD, QMUL, London, UK
| | - Domenico Di Carlo
- Paediatric Clinical Research Center "Romeo and Enrica Invernizzi", University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Luna Colagrossi
- Microbiology and Virology Unit, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Leonardo Duca
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Ada Bertoli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Katia Yu La Rosa
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Lavinia Fabeni
- Laboratory of Virology, National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Lazzaro Spallanzani" -IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Alessandra Iuvara
- Microbiology and Virology Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Carlotta Cerva
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Miriam Lichtner
- Public Health and Infectious Disease Department, "Sapienza" University, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Maurizio Paoloni
- Infectious Disease Unit, "S.S. Filippo e Nicola" Hospital, Avezzano, Italy
| | | | | | | | - Giustino Parruti
- Infectious Disease Unit, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy
| | - Jacopo Vecchiet
- Department of Medicine and Science of Aging, Clinic of Infectious Diseases, University "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - Loredana Sarmati
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Mario Angelico
- Hepatology Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.,Microbiology and Virology Unit, Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Patrick T Kennedy
- Barts Liver Centre, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London SMD, QMUL, London, UK
| | - Jens Verheyen
- Institute of Virology, University-Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Stefano Aquaro
- Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
| | | | | | - Valentina Svicher
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
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26
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Pellicciaro M, Granai AV, Marchese G, Materazzo M, Cotesta M, Santori F, Giacobbi E, Servadei F, Grelli S, Perretta T, Meucci R, Pistolese CA, Vanni G. Breast cancer patients with hormone neoadjuvant bridging therapy due to asymptomatic Corona virus infection. Case report, clinical and histopathologic findings. Int J Surg Case Rep 2020; 76:377-380. [PMID: 33052300 PMCID: PMC7543888 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijscr.2020.10.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2020] [Revised: 10/05/2020] [Accepted: 10/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Oncological treatments experienced a significant slowdown due to COVID-19 pandemic. Breast cancer management has changed according to scientific recommendations. Breast cancer patients with simultaneous COVID-19 could receive delayed treatments. Treatments delay could impact breast cancer staging.
Introduction Breast cancer management during COVID-19 pandemic has changed and in case of COVID-19 patients with simultaneous neoplasia, it has been strongly recommended to treat Sars-CoV-2 infection firstly. Presentation of case We reported a case of a 53-years-old women with early breast cancer and simultaneous asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. According to COVID-19 breast cancer recommendations she underwent hormone neoadjuvant treatment as a bridging therapy for surgery. Six months from the diagnosis, after virus eradication, patient underwent breast surgery. No SARS-CoV-2 RNA was found both in the surgical specimen and sentinel lymph node but micrometastasis were reported. During the last follow-up, the patient was in good clinical condition and started the adjuvant chemotherapy. Discussion COVID-19 outbreak determined the publication of temporary recommendation leading to an extensive use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Although endocrine therapy is a mainstay in the adjuvant treatment, its role in the neoadjuvant schedule is unclear. Conclusion Upfront awake surgery should be preferred especially in asymptomatic COVID-19 patient with early breast cancer when monitoring of tumor response is not feasible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Pellicciaro
- Breast Unit, Department of Surgical Science, PTV: Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Alessandra Vittoria Granai
- Breast Unit, Department of Surgical Science, PTV: Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | | | - Marco Materazzo
- Breast Unit, Department of Surgical Science, PTV: Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy.
| | - Maria Cotesta
- Breast Unit, Department of Surgical Science, PTV: Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Francesca Santori
- Breast Unit, Department of Surgical Science, PTV: Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Erica Giacobbi
- Anatomic Pathology, Department of Experimental Medicine, Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Francesca Servadei
- Anatomic Pathology, Department of Experimental Medicine, Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Tommaso Perretta
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Molecular Imaging and Radiotherapy, Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Rosaria Meucci
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Molecular Imaging and Radiotherapy, Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Chiara Adriana Pistolese
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Molecular Imaging and Radiotherapy, Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Gianluca Vanni
- Breast Unit, Department of Surgical Science, PTV: Policlinico Tor Vergata University, Viale Oxford 81, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
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27
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Amati F, Vancheri C, Latini A, Colona VL, Grelli S, D'Apice MR, Balestrieri E, Passarelli C, Minutolo A, Loddo S, Di Lorenzo A, Rogliani P, Andreoni M, Novelli G. Expression profiles of the SARS-CoV-2 host invasion genes in nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients. Heliyon 2020; 6:e05143. [PMID: 33024851 PMCID: PMC7528978 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2020] [Revised: 09/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
We collect the nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs of 63 subjects with severe symptoms or contacts with COVID-19 confirmed cases to perform a pilot-study aimed to verify the “in situ” expression of SARS-CoV-2 host invasion genes (ACE2, TMPRSS2, PCSK3, EMILIN1, EMILIN2, MMRN1, MMRN2, DPP4). ACE2 (FC = +1.88, p ≤ 0.05) and DPP4 (FC = +3, p < 0.01) genes showed a significant overexpression in COVID-19 patients. ACE2 and DPP4 expression levels had a good performance (AUC = 0.75; p < 0.001) in distinguishing COVID-19 patients from negative subjects. Interestingly, we found a significant positive association of ACE2 mRNA and PCSK3, EMILIN1, MMRN1 and MMRN2 expression and of DPP4 mRNA and EMILIN2 expression only in COVID-19 patients. Noteworthy, a subgroup of severe COVID-19 (n = 7) patients, showed significant high level of ACE2 mRNA and another subgroup of less severe COVID-19 patients (n = 6) significant raised DPP4 levels. These results indicate that a group of SARS-CoV-2 host invasion genes are functionally related in COVID-19 patients and suggests that ACE2 and DPP4 expression level could act as genomic biomarkers. Moreover, at the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that shows an elevated DPP4 expression in naso- and oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patient thus suggesting a functional role of DPP4 in SARS-CoV-2 infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Amati
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy.,Department for the Promotion of Human Science and Quality of Life, University San Raffaele, 00166, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Chiara Vancheri
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Andrea Latini
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Vito Luigi Colona
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy.,Tor Vergata University Hospital, PTV, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Maria Rosaria D'Apice
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy.,Tor Vergata University Hospital, PTV, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | | | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Sara Loddo
- Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, IRCCS, 00165, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Paola Rogliani
- Unit of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Novelli
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, RM, Italy.,Tor Vergata University Hospital, PTV, 00133, Rome, RM, Italy.,Neuromed IRCCS Institute, 86077, Pozzilli, IS, Italy.,School of Medicine, Reno University of Nevada, NV, 89557, USA
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28
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Novelli A, Biancolella M, Borgiani P, Cocciadiferro D, Colona VL, D'Apice MR, Rogliani P, Zaffina S, Leonardis F, Campana A, Raponi M, Andreoni M, Grelli S, Novelli G. Analysis of ACE2 genetic variants in 131 Italian SARS-CoV-2-positive patients. Hum Genomics 2020; 14:29. [PMID: 32917283 PMCID: PMC7483483 DOI: 10.1186/s40246-020-00279-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that are common in humans and many animal species. Animal coronaviruses rarely infect humans with the exceptions of the Middle East respiratory syndrome ( MERS-CoV ), the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV), and now SARS-CoV-2, which is the cause of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Several studies suggested that genetic variants in the ACE2 gene may influence the host susceptibility or resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection according to the functional role of ACE2 in human pathophysiology. However, many of these studies have been conducted in silico based on epidemiological and population data. We therefore investigated the occurrence of ACE2 variants in a cohort of 131 Italian unrelated individuals clinically diagnosed with COVID-19 and in an Italian control population, to evaluate a possible allelic association with COVID-19, by direct DNA analysis. METHODS As a pilot study, we analyzed, by whole-exome sequencing, genetic variants of ACE2 gene in 131 DNA samples of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Tor Vergata University Hospital and at Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Rome. We used a large control group consisting of 1000 individuals (500 males and 500 females). RESULTS We identified three different germline variants: one intronic c.439+4G>A and two missense c.1888G>C p.(Asp630His) and c.2158A>G p.(Asn720Asp) in a total of 131 patients with a similar frequency in male and female. Thus far, only the c.1888G>C p.(Asp630His) variant shows a statistically different frequency compared to the ethnically matched populations. Therefore, further studies are needed in larger cohorts, since it was found only in one heterozygous COVID-19 patient. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that there is no strong evidence, in our cohort, of consistent association of ACE2 variants with COVID-19 severity. We might speculate that rare susceptibility/resistant alleles could be located in the non-coding regions of the ACE2 gene, known to play a role in regulation of the gene activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Novelli
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Michela Biancolella
- Department of Biology, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy.,Medical Genetics Laboratory, Tor Vergata Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Paola Borgiani
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Dario Cocciadiferro
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Paola Rogliani
- Unit of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Salvatore Zaffina
- Occupational Medicine, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Andrea Campana
- Department of Pediatrics, IRCCS "Bambino Gesù" Children's Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Massimo Andreoni
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Infectious Diseases Clinic, Policlinico Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Novelli
- Medical Genetics Laboratory, Tor Vergata Hospital, Rome, Italy. .,Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133, Rome, Italy. .,Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy. .,IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli (IS), Italy. .,Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.
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29
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Potestà M, Roglia V, Fanelli M, Pietrobono E, Gismondi A, Vumbaca S, Nguedia Tsangueu RG, Canini A, Colizzi V, Grelli S, Minutolo A, Montesano C. Effect of microvesicles from Moringa oleifera containing miRNA on proliferation and apoptosis in tumor cell lines. Cell Death Discov 2020; 6:43. [PMID: 32550010 PMCID: PMC7272625 DOI: 10.1038/s41420-020-0271-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2019] [Revised: 04/10/2020] [Accepted: 04/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Human microvesicles are key mediators of cell-cell communication. Exosomes function as microRNA transporters, playing a crucial role in physiological and pathological processes. Plant microvesicles (MVs) display similar features to mammalian exosomes, and these MVs might enhance plant microRNA delivery in mammals. Considering that plant microRNAs have been newly identified as bioactive constituents in medicinal plants, and that their potential role as regulators in mammals has been underlined, in this study, we characterized MVs purified from Moringa oleifera seeds aqueous extract (MOES MVs) and used flow cytometry methods to quantify the ability to deliver their content to host cells. The microRNAs present in MOES MVs were characterized, and through a bioinformatic analysis, specific human apoptosis-related target genes of plant miRNAs were identified. In tumor cell lines, MOES MVs treatment reduced viability, increased apoptosis levels associated with a decrease in B-cell lymphoma 2 protein expression and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential. Interestingly, the effects observed with MOES MVs treatment were comparable to those observed with MOES treatment and transfection with the pool of small RNAs isolated from MOES, used as a control. These results highlight the role of microRNAs transported by MOES MVs as natural bioactive plant compounds that counteract tumorigenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Potestà
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Valentina Roglia
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Marialaura Fanelli
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Elisa Pietrobono
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Angelo Gismondi
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Simone Vumbaca
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | | | - Antonella Canini
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Vittorio Colizzi
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Carla Montesano
- Department of Biology, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
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30
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Nuccetelli M, Pieri M, Grelli S, Ciotti M, Miano R, Andreoni M, Bernardini S. SARS-CoV-2 infection serology: a useful tool to overcome lockdown? Cell Death Discov 2020; 6:38. [PMID: 32501411 PMCID: PMC7249039 DOI: 10.1038/s41420-020-0275-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2020] [Revised: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 05/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly, inducing a progressive growth in infected patients number. Social isolation (lockdown) has been assessed to prevent and control virus diffusion, leading to a worldwide financial and political crisis. Currently, SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in nasopharyngeal swab takes place by real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). However, molecular tests can give some false-negative results. In this context, serological assays can be useful to detect IgG/IgM antibodies, to assess the degree of immunization, to trace the contacts, and to support the decision to re-admit people at work. A lot of serological diagnostic kits have been proposed on the market but validation studies have not been published for many of them. The aim of our work was to compare and to evaluate different assays analytical performances (two different immunochromatographic cards, an immunofluorescence chromatographic card, and a chemiluminescence-automated immunoassay) on 43 positive samples with RT-qPCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 40 negative control subjects. Our data display excellent IgG/IgM specificities for all the immunocromatographic card tests (100% IgG and 100% IgM) and for the chemiluminescence-automated assay (100% IgG and 94% IgM); IgG/IgM sensitivities are moderately lower for all methods, probably due to the assay viral antigen's nature and/or to the detection time of nasopharyngeal swab RT-qPCR, with respect to symptoms onset. Given that sensitivities (around 94% and 84% for IgG and IgM, respectively) implicate false-negative cases and given the lack of effective vaccines or treatments, the only currently available procedure to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission is to identify and isolate persons who are contagious. For this reason, we would like to submit a flowchart in which serological tests, integrated with nasopharyngeal swab RT-qPCR, are included to help social and work activities implementation after the pandemic acute phase and to overcome lockdown.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Massimo Pieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Roberto Miano
- Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Andreoni
- Tor Vergata University Hospital, Rome, Italy
- Department of System Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sergio Bernardini
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- IFCC Emerging Technologies Division, Milan, Italy
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31
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Marino-Merlo F, Balestrieri E, Matteucci C, Mastino A, Grelli S, Macchi B. Antiretroviral Therapy in HTLV-1 Infection: An Updated Overview. Pathogens 2020; 9:E342. [PMID: 32369988 PMCID: PMC7281255 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens9050342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2020] [Revised: 04/26/2020] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The human T cell leukemic/lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), discovered several years ago, is the causative agent for a rapid progressive haematological malignancy, adult T cell leukemia (ATL), for debilitating neurological diseases and for a number of inflammatory based diseases. Although the heterogeneous features of the diseases caused by HTLV-1, a common topic concerning related therapeutic treatments relies on the use of antiretrovirals. This review will compare the different approaches and opinions in this matter, giving a concise overview of preclinical as well as clinical studies covering all the aspects of antiretrovirals in HTLV-1 infection. Studies will be grouped on the basis of the class of antiretroviral, putting together both pre-clinical and clinical results and generally following a chronological order. Analysis of the existing literature highlights that a number of preclinical studies clearly demonstrate that different classes of antiretrovirals, already utilized as anti-HIV agents, are actually capable to efficiently contrast HTLV-1 infection. Nevertheless, the results of most of the clinical studies are generally discouraging on the same point. In conclusion, the design of new antiretrovirals more specifically focused on HTLV-1 targets, and/or the establishment of early treatments with antiretrovirals could hopefully change the perspectives of diseases caused by HTLV-1.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (C.M.); (S.G.)
| | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (C.M.); (S.G.)
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy
- The Institute of Translational Pharmacology, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy; (E.B.); (C.M.); (S.G.)
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Chemical Science and Technologies, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Healthcare workers (HCWs) have an increased exposure risk to measles, which can put them, their patients and their relatives at risk of infection. In Italy, 4617 cases of measles were reported in 2017; 302 involving HCWs. According to the Italian National Immunization and Prevention Plan, all HCWs should have demonstrable evidence of immunity to measles. AIMS To evaluate measles immunization status in HCWs at a large Italian teaching hospital. METHODS We analysed clinical records and measles-specific IgG antibody titres of HCWs undergoing occupational health surveillance between 1 January and 31 August 2017. RESULTS Among the 1532 HCWs (mean age 32.7 ± 10.4 years) included in the study, 87% (1328) had protective antibody titres. The proportion of protective titres was highest in those born before 1982. No significant gender differences in mean measles-specific IgG antibody titres were detected. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows non-protective measles IgG antibody titres in a substantial percentage of HCWs, especially those born in the 1980s and 1990s. Due to the increased risk of measles transmission in the hospital environment, increased prevention strategies are required, including rigorous screening and prompt vaccination of non-immune workers.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Coppeta
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - A Pietroiusti
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - P Lieto
- School of Occupational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - M Ferraro
- School of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - S Grelli
- Department of Chemical Analytical Laboratory, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - M Stillo
- Department of Public Health of Faenza, Ausl Romagna, Faenza, Italy
| | - A Magrini
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
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33
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Matteucci C, Marino-Merlo F, Minutolo A, Balestrieri E, Valletta E, Macchi B, Mastino A, Grelli S. Inhibition of IκBα phosphorylation potentiates regulated cell death induced by azidothymidine in HTLV-1 infected cells. Cell Death Discov 2020; 6:9. [PMID: 32123585 PMCID: PMC7028944 DOI: 10.1038/s41420-020-0243-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2019] [Revised: 12/30/2019] [Accepted: 01/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) can be susceptible, at least transiently, to treatments with azidothymidine (AZT) plus IFNα and/or arsenic trioxide. However, the real role of AZT in this effect is still unclear. In fact, while reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibition could explain reduction of clonal expansion and of renewal of HTLV-1 infected cells during ATL progression, this effect alone seems insufficient to justify the evident and prompt decrease of the pro-viral load in treated patients. We have previously demonstrated that AZT is endowed with an intrinsic pro-apoptotic potential towards both peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors or some tumor cell lines, but this cytotoxic potential cannot be fully achieved unless IκBα phosphorylation is inhibited. Since the constitutive activation of NF-kappa B (NF-κB) appears a common biological basis of HTLV-1-infected cells, a pharmacological inhibition of IκBα phosphorylation seems a potential strategy for treating and preventing HTLV-1 related pathologies. In this study, we have demonstrated that a combination treatment with the IκBα phosphorylation inhibitor Bay 11-7085 and AZT induced increased levels of regulated cell death (RCD) by apoptosis compared to the single treatments in HTLV-1 infected cells of different origin. Importantly, levels of RCD were considerably higher in infected cells in comparison with the uninfected ones. Inhibition of NF-κB activation following the combined treatment was confirmed by analysis of both gel-shift and functional activity of the NF-κB complex proteins, p65/p52. Moreover, a transcriptional analysis revealed that the addition of Bay 11-7085 to AZT treatment in HTLV-1-infected cells modified their transcriptional profile, by inducing the upregulation of some pro-apoptotic genes together with the downregulation of some anti-apoptotic genes. Our data suggest that addition of adequate concentrations of IκBα phosphorylation inhibitor to therapeutic regimens including AZT could be a promising strategy in ATL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
| | - Elena Valletta
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Chemical Science and Technologies, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
- The Institute of Translational Pharmacology, CNR, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
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34
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Campione E, Lanna C, Diluvio L, Cannizzaro MV, Grelli S, Galluzzo M, Talamonti M, Annicchiarico-Petruzzelli M, Mancini M, Melino G, Candi E, Schiavone G, Wang Y, Shi Y, Bianchi L. Skin immunity and its dysregulation in atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa and vitiligo. Cell Cycle 2020; 19:257-267. [PMID: 31905036 DOI: 10.1080/15384101.2019.1707455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
While the epidermis is the frontline defense against infections and indeed, it is a peripheral lymphoid organ, the same immunological mechanisms may initiate and sustain pathological conditions. Indeed, a deregulated action against exogenous pathogens could activate a T cell response in atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa and vitiligo. Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition with a complex pathophysiology. Although T helper 2 immunity dysregulation is thought to be the main cause of AD etiopathogenesis, the triggering mechanism is not well understood, and the treatment is often difficult. As the AD, hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with a dramatic impact on the quality of life of the affected patients. The exact pathophysiology of HS is still unclear, but many evidences report a follicular obstruction and subsequent inflammation with TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-10, and IL-17 involvement. Vitiligo is an autoimmune epidermal disorder which consists of melanocytes destruction and skin depigmentation. Melanocytes destruction is mainly due to their increased oxidative-stress sensitivity with a consequent activation of innate first and adaptative immunity (CD8+ T cells) later. The understanding of the triggering mechanisms of AD, HS and Vitiligo is pivotal to outline novel therapies aimed at regaining the physiological immune homeostasis of healthy skin. The aim of this review is to provide new insight on the pathogenesis of these skin diseases and to highlight on the new therapeutic approaches adopted in the treatment of AD, HS and Vitiligo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Campione
- Unit of Dermatology, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Caterina Lanna
- Unit of Dermatology, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Laura Diluvio
- Unit of Dermatology, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Galluzzo
- Unit of Dermatology, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Marina Talamonti
- Unit of Dermatology, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Mara Mancini
- Biochemistry Laboratory, Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata (IDI-IRCCS), Rome, Italy
| | - Gerry Melino
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Biochemistry Laboratory, Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata (IDI-IRCCS), Rome, Italy
| | - Eleonora Candi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Gianfranco Schiavone
- Plastic Surgery and Regenerative Surgery Unit, Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata (IDI-IRCCS), Rome, Italy
| | - Ying Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Institute of Health Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Yufang Shi
- Key Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, Institute of Health Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.,The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Institutes for Translational Medicine and Key Laboratory of Stem Cells and Biomedical Materials of Jiangsu Province and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
| | - Luca Bianchi
- Unit of Dermatology, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
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35
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Balestrieri E, Cipriani C, Matteucci C, Benvenuto A, Coniglio A, Argaw-Denboba A, Toschi N, Bucci I, Miele MT, Grelli S, Curatolo P, Sinibaldi-Vallebona P. Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Mothers Share Abnormal Expression of Selected Endogenous Retroviruses Families and Cytokines. Front Immunol 2019; 10:2244. [PMID: 31616420 PMCID: PMC6775388 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Accepted: 09/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders, only clinically diagnosed since the lack of reliable biomarkers. Autism etiology is probably attributable to the combination of genetic vulnerability and environmental factors, and recently, maternal immune activation has been linked to derailed neurodevelopment, resulting in ASD in the offspring. Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are relics of ancestral infections, stably integrated in the human DNA. Given the HERV persistence in the genome, some of HERVs have been co-opted for physiological functions during evolution, while their reactivation has been associated with several pathological conditions, including cancer, autoimmune, and neurological and psychiatric disorders. Particularly, due to their intrinsic responsiveness to external stimuli, HERVs can modulate the host immune response and in turn HERVs can be activated by the immune effectors. In previous works we demonstrated high expression levels of HERV-H in blood of autistic patients, closely related with the severity of the disease. Moreover, in a preclinical ASD model we proved changes of expression of several ERV families and cytokines from the intrauterine life to the adulthood, and across generations via maternal lineage. Here we analyzed the expression of HEMO and of selected HERVs and cytokines in blood from ASD patients and their parents and corresponding healthy controls, to look for a common molecular trait within family members. ASD patients and their mothers share altered expression of HERV-H and HEMO and of cytokines such as TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-10. The multivariate regression models showed a mother-child association by HEMO activity and demonstrated in children and mothers an association between HERV-H and HEMO expression and, only in mothers, between HEMO, and TNF-α expression. Furthermore, high diagnostic performance for HERV-H and HEMO was found, suggesting their potential application for the identification of ASD children and their mothers. The present data support the involvement of HERVs in ASD and suggest HERVs and cytokines as ASD-associated traits. Since ASD is a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders, a single determinant alone could be not enough to account for the complexity, and HERV/cytokines expression could be considered in a set of biomarkers, easily detectable in blood, and potentially useful for an early diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Chiara Cipriani
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Arianna Benvenuto
- Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, Systems Medicine Department, University Hospital Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Coniglio
- Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, Systems Medicine Department, University Hospital Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Nicola Toschi
- Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Ilaria Bucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Martino Tony Miele
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Paolo Curatolo
- Child Neurology and Psychiatry Unit, Systems Medicine Department, University Hospital Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Paola Sinibaldi-Vallebona
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.,Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
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36
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Marino-Merlo F, Papaianni E, Frezza C, Pedatella S, De Nisco M, Macchi B, Grelli S, Mastino A. NF-κB-Dependent Production of ROS and Restriction of HSV-1 Infection in U937 Monocytic Cells. Viruses 2019; 11:v11050428. [PMID: 31083280 PMCID: PMC6563512 DOI: 10.3390/v11050428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2019] [Accepted: 05/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) can infect a wide range of cell types, including cells of the adaptive and innate immunity but, normally, it completes a fully-permissive replication cycle only in epithelial or neural cells. Complex mechanisms controlling this delicate balance in immune cells and consequent restriction of HSV-1 infection in these cells have not been completely elucidated. We have recently demonstrated that the transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) can act as a main permissiveness regulator of HSV-1 infection in monocytic cells, however, mediators involved in this regulation have not been identified. To better define mechanisms involved in this phenomenon and, particularly, the possible involvement of ROS, wild type U937 cells or U937 cells stably transfected with a dominant-negative (DN) IκB-mutant and selenium-containing compounds, as anti-oxidants, were utilized. The main results can be summarized as follows. HSV-1 infection induces an immediate ROS production in U937 monocytic cells that can efficiently activate NF-κB but not in DN-IκB-mutant cells. Treatment with selenium-containing antioxidants efficiently inhibited HSV-1-induced ROS generation while producing increased levels of HSV-1 replication and a reduction of HSV-1-induced NF-κB activation in U937 monocytic cells. Our results suggest a scenario in which an efficient NF-κB-dependent ROS production in response to infection could contribute in limiting HSV-1 replication in monocytes/macrophages, thus avoiding possible irreparable damage to the innate immune system of the host during HSV-1 infection.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emanuela Papaianni
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy.
| | - Caterina Frezza
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy.
| | - Silvana Pedatella
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples "Federico II", 80126 Naples, Italy.
| | - Mauro De Nisco
- Department of Science, University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy.
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Chemical Science and Technologies, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133 Rome, Italy.
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133 Rome, Italy.
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy.
- The Institute of Translational Pharmacology, CNR, 00133 Rome, Italy.
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37
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Potestà M, Minutolo A, Gismondi A, Canuti L, Kenzo M, Roglia V, Macchi F, Grelli S, Canini A, Colizzi V, Montesano C. Cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of different extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam on lymphoid and monocytoid cells. Exp Ther Med 2019; 18:5-17. [PMID: 31258632 PMCID: PMC6566050 DOI: 10.3892/etm.2019.7544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2018] [Accepted: 01/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Moringa oleifera Lam. (MO) is one of the most well-known and widely distributed species of the Moringaceae family in African communities, and various preparations of M. oleifera are used for the treatment of several diseases. Due to the extensive worldwide use of MO products, and the use of MO aqueous extract in traditional African medicine, the aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-proliferative, cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic activities of different aqueous extracts from leaves and seeds of M. oleifera (MOE), which have been prepared using different protocols, in lymphoid and monocytoid cells. The results of the present study demonstrated the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of the aqueous extracts obtained from M. oleifera leaves and seeds on tumour cells; however, not on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors. The pro-apoptotic effect of MO seed aqueous extract (MOE-S) was correlated with decreased B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) and sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) protein expression, which are involved in apoptosis. Considering the effects of plant secondary metabolites on human cells and the role of plant microRNA in cross-kingdom interactions, the presence of secondary metabolites and microRNA in MOE was characterised. In conclusion, M. oleifera aqueous extracts appeared to be able to differentially regulate proliferation and apoptosis in healthy cells and cancer cells, and this ability could be associated with the microRNA present in the extracts. These results highlighted the possible use of MOE as an adjuvant in traditional cancer therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Potestà
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Angelo Gismondi
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Lorena Canuti
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Maurice Kenzo
- Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Dschang, Dschang B.P. 96, Cameroon
| | - Valentina Roglia
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Federico Macchi
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Canini
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Vittorio Colizzi
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Carla Montesano
- Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', I-00133 Rome, Italy
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38
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Matteucci C, Argaw-Denboba A, Balestrieri E, Giovinazzo A, Miele M, D'Agostini C, Pica F, Grelli S, Paci M, Mastino A, Sinibaldi Vallebona P, Garaci E, Tomino C. Deciphering cellular biological processes to clinical application: a new perspective for Tα1 treatment targeting multiple diseases. Expert Opin Biol Ther 2019; 18:23-31. [PMID: 30063863 DOI: 10.1080/14712598.2018.1474198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Thymosin alpha 1 (Tα1) is a well-recognized immune response modulator in a wide range of disorders, particularly infections and cancer. The bioinformatic analysis of public databases allows drug repositioning, predicting a new potential area of clinical intervention. We aimed to decipher the cellular network induced by Tα1 treatment to confirm present use and identify new potential clinical applications. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We used the transcriptional profile of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells treated in vitro with Tα1 to perform the enrichment network analysis by the Metascape online tools and the disease enrichment analysis by the DAVID online tool. RESULTS Networked cellular responses reflected Tα1 regulated biological processes including immune and metabolic responses, response to compounds and oxidative stress, ion homeostasis, peroxisome biogenesis and drug metabolic process. Beyond cancer and infections, the analysis evidenced the association with disorders such as kidney chronic failure, diabetes, cardiovascular, chronic respiratory, neuropsychiatric, neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases. CONCLUSIONS In addition to the known ability to promote immune response pathways, the network enrichment analysis demonstrated that Tα1 regulates cellular metabolic processes and oxidative stress response. Notable, the analysis highlighted the association with several diseases, suggesting new translational implication of Tα1 treatment in pathological conditions unexpected until now.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Matteucci
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Ayele Argaw-Denboba
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Alessandro Giovinazzo
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Martino Miele
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Cartesio D'Agostini
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Francesca Pica
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Maurizio Paci
- b Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy
| | - Antonio Mastino
- c Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences , University of Messina , Messina , Italy.,d National Research Council , Institute of Translational Pharmacology , Rome , Italy
| | - Paola Sinibaldi Vallebona
- a Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery , University of Rome "Tor Vergata" , Rome , Italy.,d National Research Council , Institute of Translational Pharmacology , Rome , Italy
| | | | - Carlo Tomino
- e Università San Raffaele Pisana , Roma , Italy.,f IRCSS San Raffaele Pisana , Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care , Roma , Italy
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Pentimalli F, Grelli S, Di Daniele N, Melino G, Amelio I. Cell death pathologies: targeting death pathways and the immune system for cancer therapy. Genes Immun 2018; 20:539-554. [PMID: 30563970 PMCID: PMC6451632 DOI: 10.1038/s41435-018-0052-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2018] [Revised: 10/25/2018] [Accepted: 11/13/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Alterations in the molecular mechanisms of cell death are a common feature of cancer. These alterations enable malignant cells to survive intrinsic death signalling leading to accumulation of genetic aberrations and helping them to cope with adverse conditions. Regulated cell death has historically been exclusively associated with classical apoptosis; however, increasing evidence indicates that several alternative mechanisms orchestrate multiple death pathways, such as ferroptosis, entosis, necroptosis and immunogenic cell death, each with distinct underlying molecular mechanisms. Although pharmacological targeting of cell death pathways has been the subject of intensive efforts in recent decades with a dominant focus on targeting apoptosis, the identification of these novel death pathways has opened additional venues for intervention in cancer cells and the immune system. In this mini-review, we cover some recent progress on major recently emerged cell death modalities, emphasizing their potential clinical and therapeutic implications. We also discuss the interplay between cell death and immune response, highlighting the potential of the combination of traditional anticancer therapy and immunocheckpoint blockade. While attempting to stimulate discussion and draw attention to the possible clinical impact of these more recently emerged cell death modalities, we also cover the major progress achieved in translating strategies for manipulation of apoptotic pathways into the clinic, focusing on the attempts to target the anti-apoptotic protein BCL-2 and the tumour suppressor p53.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Pentimalli
- Centro Ricerche Oncologiche Mercogliano (CROM), Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS -Fondazione G. Pascale, Naples, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Biochemistry Laboratory, Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata (IDI-IRCCS), 00100, Rome, Italy
| | - Nicola Di Daniele
- Biochemistry Laboratory, Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata (IDI-IRCCS), 00100, Rome, Italy
| | - Gerry Melino
- Biochemistry Laboratory, Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata (IDI-IRCCS), 00100, Rome, Italy.,Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, University of Cambridge, Hodgkin Building, Lancaster Road, P.O. Box 138, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK
| | - Ivano Amelio
- Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, University of Cambridge, Hodgkin Building, Lancaster Road, P.O. Box 138, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK.
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40
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Marino-Merlo F, Macchi B, Armenia D, Bellocchi MC, Ceccherini-Silberstein F, Mastino A, Grelli S. Focus on recently developed assays for detection of resistance/sensitivity to reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2018; 102:9925-9936. [PMID: 30269214 DOI: 10.1007/s00253-018-9390-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2018] [Revised: 09/07/2018] [Accepted: 09/09/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The biology of HIV is rather complex due to high rate of replication, frequent recombination, and introduction of mutations. This gives rise to a number of distinct variants referred as quasispecies. In addition, the latency within reservoir allows the periodic reactivation of virus replication. The rapid replication of HIV allows immune response escape and establishment of resistance to therapy that can be acquired through drug selection and/or transmitted among individuals. This prompted, over the years, the development of a range of assays aimed to determine drug resistance and sensitivity, to be used both in clinical practice and in antiviral research. Reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors have an eminent place among the anti-HIV drugs, being constantly present from the beginning until today in the most commonly used antiviral regimens. This mini-review seeks to provide an up-to-date overview of recent efforts in developing even more reliable and simple methods, of both genotypic and phenotypic types, for specifically detecting drug resistance and sensitivity to RT inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Daniele Armenia
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Antonio Mastino
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Via F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, 98166, Messina, Italy. .,The Institute of Translational Pharmacology, CNR, Rome, Italy.
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
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41
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Galante A, Pietroiusti A, Magrini A, Carta S, Franceschelli L, Piccolo P, Pistolese GR, Martelli E, Mastino A, Matteucci C, Grelli S, Favalli C. Leucocyte Rheological Properties Are Altered in Patients with Diffuse Atherosclerosis. Thromb Haemost 2018. [DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1656114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
SummaryTo evaluate whether atherosclerosis may be associated with altered leucocyte rheology, we assessed leucocyte count (by Coulter counter), aggregation (by means of the leukergy test) and expression of adhesion molecules integrin LFA-1 and CD 44 (by means of immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry) in 9 patients with carotid plus lower limb artery atherosclerosis (group A), 14 patients with carotid atherosclerosis only (group B) and 23 controls without atherosclerosis (group C). The level of LFA-1 (calculated as mean fluorescence channels - MFCs) on neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes was significantly higher (p <0.05) in group A and B patients than in controls (group A - mean ± SE : 383.77 ± 9.42 vs 295.45 ± 5.76; 474.22 ± 8.86 vs ± 7.84; 457.66 ± 12.03 vs 396.25 ± 4.37. Group B: 322.42 ± 6.36 vs 295.45 ± 5.76; 421.42 ± 7.21 vs 388.35 ± 7.84; 415.71 ± 7.73 vs 396.25 ± 4.37, respectively); furthermore, the MFC of LFA-1 on neutrophils was significantly different (p <0.05) between group A and B patients. The percentage of aggregated leucocytes was significantly higher (p <0.05) in group A patients (4.46 ± 1.07) than those in groups B (1.75 ± 0.38) and C (1.43 ± 0.25), whereas no significant difference was detected between groups B and C. Leucocyte number and expression of CD44 were not significantly different among the 3 groups. In conclusion, changes in leucocyte rheology are present in patients with atherosclerosis and may contribute to chronic ischaemia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Sandro Carta
- The Medical Semiology and Methodology, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | | | - Eugenio Martelli
- Department of Vascular Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome
| | | | - Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Science, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome
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Marino-Merlo F, Mastino A, Grelli S, Hermine O, Bazarbachi A, Macchi B. Future Perspectives on Drug Targeting in Adult T Cell Leukemia-Lymphoma. Front Microbiol 2018; 9:925. [PMID: 29867836 PMCID: PMC5954109 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2018] [Accepted: 04/20/2018] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiological agent of adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP), and of a number of inflammatory diseases with an estimated 10–20 million infected individuals worldwide. Despite a number of therapeutic approaches, a cure for ATL is still in its infancy. Conventional chemotherapy has short-term efficacy, particularly in the acute subtype. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation offers long-term disease control to around one third of transplanted patients, but few can reach to transplant. This prompted, over the past recent years, the conduction of a number of clinical trials using novel treatments. Meanwhile, new data have been accumulated on biological and molecular bases of HTLV-1 transforming and infecting activity. These data offer new rational for targeted therapies of ATL. Taking into account the double-face of ATL as an hematologic malignancy as well as a viral infectious disease, this Mini-Review seeks to provide an up-to-date overview of recent efforts in the understanding of the mechanisms involved in already used therapeutic regimens showing promising results, and in selecting novel drug targets for ATL.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.,Institute of Translational Pharmacology, The National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Olivier Hermine
- INSERM U1163, CNRS ERL 8654, Department of Hematology, Imagine Institute, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France
| | - Ali Bazarbachi
- Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.,Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
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Agostini M, Niklison-Chirou MV, Annicchiarico-Petruzzelli MM, Grelli S, Di Daniele N, Pestlikis I, Knight RA, Melino G, Rufini A. p73 Regulates Primary Cortical Neuron Metabolism: a Global Metabolic Profile. Mol Neurobiol 2017; 55:3237-3250. [PMID: 28478509 DOI: 10.1007/s12035-017-0517-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2016] [Accepted: 04/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The transcription factor p73 has been demonstrated to play a significant role in survival and differentiation of neuronal stem cells. In this report, by employing comprehensive metabolic profile and mitochondrial bioenergetics analysis, we have explored the metabolic alterations in cortical neurons isolated from p73 N-terminal isoform specific knockout animals. We found that loss of the TAp73 or ΔNp73 triggers selective biochemical changes. In particular, p73 isoforms regulate sphingolipid and phospholipid biochemical pathway signaling. Indeed, sphinganine and sphingosine levels were reduced in p73-depleted cortical neurons, and decreased levels of several membrane phospholipids were also observed. Moreover, in line with the complexity associated with p73 functions, loss of the TAp73 seems to increase glycolysis, whereas on the contrary, loss of ΔNp73 isoform reduces glucose metabolism, indicating an isoform-specific differential effect on glycolysis. These changes in glycolytic flux were not reflected by parallel alterations of mitochondrial respiration, as only a slight increase of mitochondrial maximal respiration was observed in p73-depleted cortical neurons. Overall, our findings reinforce the key role of p73 in regulating cellular metabolism and point out that p73 exerts its functions in neuronal biology at least partially through the regulation of metabolic pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Massimiliano Agostini
- Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, Leicester University, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK.,Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Maria Victoria Niklison-Chirou
- Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, Leicester University, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK.,Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 2AT, UK
| | | | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Nicola Di Daniele
- Department of Systems Medicine, Nephrology and Hypertension Unit, "Tor Vergata" University Hospital, Rome, Italy
| | - Ilias Pestlikis
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, Italy
| | - Richard A Knight
- Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, Leicester University, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK
| | - Gerry Melino
- Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, Leicester University, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK. .,Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", 00133, Rome, Italy.
| | - Alessandro Rufini
- Department of Cancer Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE2 7LX, UK.
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Matteucci C, Grelli S, Balestrieri E, Minutolo A, Argaw-Denboba A, Macchi B, Sinibaldi-Vallebona P, Perno CF, Mastino A, Garaci E. Thymosin alpha 1 and HIV-1: recent advances and future perspectives. Future Microbiol 2017; 12:141-155. [PMID: 28106477 DOI: 10.2217/fmb-2016-0125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
In spite of the consistent benefits for HIV-1 infected patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy, a complete immune reconstitution is usually not achieved. Actually, antiretroviral therapy may be frequently accompanied by immunological unresponsiveness, persistent inflammatory conditions and inefficient cytotoxic T-cell response. Thymosin alpha 1 is a thymic peptide that demonstrates a peculiar ability to restore immune system homeostasis in different physiological and pathological conditions (i.e., infections, cancer, immunodeficiency, vaccination and aging) acting as multitasking protein depending on the host state of inflammation or immune dysfunction. This review reports the present knowledge on the in vitro and in vivo studies concerning the use of thymosin alpha 1 in HIV-1 infection. Recent findings and future perspectives of therapeutic intervention are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Emanuela Balestrieri
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Antonella Minutolo
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Ayele Argaw-Denboba
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of System Medicine, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Paola Sinibaldi-Vallebona
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy.,Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Via Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Carlo Federico Perno
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Via Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, Rome 00133, Italy.,Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical & Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Via F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy
| | - Enrico Garaci
- Department of Experimental Medicine & Surgery, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Montepellier, 1, Rome 00133, Italy.,IRCSS San Raffaele Pisana, Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization & Health Care, Via di Val Cannuta, 247, Roma 00166, Italy
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Zurnic I, Hütter S, Lehmann U, Stanke N, Reh J, Kern T, Lindel F, Gerresheim G, Hamann M, Müllers E, Lesbats P, Cherepanov P, Serrao E, Engelman A, Lindemann D, Da Silva Santos C, Tartour K, Cimarelli A, Burdick R, Chen J, Sastri J, Hu WS, Pathak V, Keppler OT, Pradeau K, Eiler S, Levy N, Lennon S, Cianferani S, Emiliani S, Ruff M, Parissi V, Rato S, Rausell A, Munoz M, Telenti A, Ciuffi A, Zhyvoloup A, Melamed A, Anderson I, Planas D, Kriston-Vizi J, Ketteler R, Lee CH, Merritt A, Ancuta P, Bangham C, Fassati A, Rodari A, Van Driessche B, Galais M, Delacourt N, Fauquenoy S, Vanhulle C, Kula A, Burny A, Rohr O, Van Lint C, van Montfort T, van der Sluis R, Speijer D, Berkhout B, Meng B, Rutkowski A, Berry N, Dölken L, Lever A, Schuster T, Asbach B, Wagner R, Gross C, Wiesmann V, Kalmer M, Wittenberg T, Gettemans J, Thoma-Kress AK, Li M, Freed EO, Liu SL, Müller J, Münch J, Sewald X, Uchil P, Ladinsky M, Beloor J, Pi R, Herrmann C, Motamedi N, Murooka T, Brehm M, Greiner D, Mempel T, Bjorkman P, Kumar P, Mothes W, Joas S, Parrish E, Gnanadurai CW, Lump E, Stürzel CM, Parrish NF, Sauermann U, Töpfer K, Schultheiss T, Bosinger S, Silvestri G, Apetrei C, Huot N, Müller-Trutwin M, Sauter D, Hahn BH, Stahl-Hennig C, Kirchhoff F, Schumann G, Jung-Klawitter S, Fuchs NV, Upton KR, Muñoz-Lopez M, Shukla R, Wang J, Garcia-Canadas M, Lopez-Ruiz C, Gerhardt DJ, Sebe A, Grabundzija I, Gerdes P, Merkert S, Pulgarin A, Bock A, Held U, Witthuhn A, Haase A, Wolvetang EJ, Martin U, Ivics Z, Izsvák Z, Garcia-Perez J, Faulkner GJ, Hurst T, Katzourakis A, Magiorkinis G, Schott K, Derua R, Seifried J, Reuter A, Schmitz H, Tondera C, Brandariz-Nuñez A, Diaz-Griffero F, Janssens V, König R, Baldauf HM, Stegmann L, Schwarz SM, Trotard M, Martin M, Lenzi G, Burggraf M, Pan X, Fregoso OI, Lim ES, Abraham L, Erikson E, Nguyen L, Ambiel I, Rutsch F, Kim B, Emerman M, Fackler OT, Wittmann S, Behrendt R, Volkmann B, Eissmann K, Gramberg T, Bolduan S, Koppensteiner H, Regensburg S, Brack-Werner R, Draenert R, Schindler M, Ducroux A, Xu S, Ponnurangam A, Franz S, Malassa A, Ewald E, Goffinet C, Fung SY, Chan CP, Yuen CK, Kok KH, Chan CP, Jin DY, Dittmer U, Kmiec D, Iyer S, Stürzel C, Hahn B, Ariumi Y, Yasuda-Inoue M, Kawano K, Tateishi S, Turelli P, Compton A, Roy N, Porrot F, Billet A, Casartelli N, Yount J, Liang C, Schwartz O, Magnus C, Reh L, Moore P, Uhr T, Weber J, Morris L, Trkola A, Grindberg RV, Schlaepfer E, Schreiber G, Simon V, Speck RF, Debyser Z, Vranckx L, Demeulemeester J, Saleh S, Verdin E, Cereseto A, Christ F, Gijsbers R, Wang G, Zhao N, Das AT, Köstler J, Perdiguero B, Esteban M, Jacobs BL, Montefiori DC, LaBranche CC, Yates NL, Tomaras GD, Ferrari G, Foulds KE, Roederer M, Landucci G, Forthal DN, Seaman MS, Hawkins N, Self SG, Phogat S, Tartaglia J, Barnett SW, Burke B, Cristillo AD, Ding S, Heeney JL, Pantaleo G, Stab V, Ensser A, Tippler B, Burton D, Tenbusch M, Überla K, Alter G, Lofano G, Dugast AS, Kulkarni V, Suscovich T, Opazo T, Barraza F, Herrera D, Garces A, Schwenke T, Tapia D, Cancino J, Arriagada G, Haußner C, Damm D, Rohrhofer A, Schmidt B, Eichler J, Midgley R, Wheeldon J, Piguet V, Khopkar P, Rohamare M, Kulkarni S, Godinho-Santos A, Hance A, Goncalves J, Mammano F, Gasser R, Hamoudi M, Pellicciotta M, Zhou Z, Visdeloup C, Colin P, Braibant M, Lagane B, Negroni M, Wamara J, Bannert N, Mesplede T, Osman N, Anstett K, Liang JC, Pham HT, Wainberg M, Shao W, Shan J, Kearney M, Wu X, Maldarelli F, Mellors J, Luke B, Coffin J, Hughes S, Fricke T, Opp S, Shepard C, Ivanov D, Valle-Casuso J, Kanja M, Cappy P, Negroni M, Lener D, Knyazhanskaya E, Anisenko A, Zatsepin T, Gottikh M, Komkov A, Minervina A, Nugmanov G, Nazarov V, Khodosevich K, Mamedov I, Lebedev Y, Colomer-Lluch M, Serra-Moreno R, Sarracino A, Gharu L, Pasternak A, Marcello A, McCartin AM, Kulkarni A, Le Douce V, Gautier V, Baeyens A, Naessens E, Van Nuffel A, Weening K, Reilly AM, Claeys E, Trypsteen W, Vandekerckhove L, Eyckerman S, Gevaert K, Verhasselt B, Mok HP, Norton N, Fun A, Hirst J, Wills M, Miklik D, Senigl F, Hejnar J, Sakuragi JI, Sakuragi S, Yokoyama M, Shioda T, Sato H, Bodem J, Moschall R, Denk S, Erkelenz S, Schenk C, Schaal H, Donhauser N, Socher E, Millen S, Sticht H, Gross C, Mann M, Wei G, Betts MJ, Liu Y, Kehl T, Russell RB, Löchelt M, Hohn O, Mostafa S, Hanke K, Norley S, Chen CY, Shingai M, Borrego P, Taveira N, Strebel K, Hellmund C, Meng B, Friedrich M, Hahn F, Setz C, Rauch P, Fraedrich K, Matthaei A, Henklein P, Traxdorf M, Fossen T, Schubert U, Khwaja A, Galilee M, Alian A, Schwalbe B, Hauser H, Schreiber M, Scherpenisse M, Cho YK, Kim J, Jeong D, Trejbalova K, Benesova M, Kucerova D, Vernerova Z, Amouroux R, Hajkova P, Elleder D, Hron T, Farkasova H, Padhi A, Paces J, Zhu H, Gifford R, Murcia P, Carrozza ML, Niewiadomska AM, Mazzei M, Abi-Said M, Hughes J, Hué S, Gifford R, Obasa A, Jacobs G, Engelbrecht S, Mack K, Starz K, Geyer M, Bibollet-Ruche F, Stürzel C, Leoz M, Plantier JC, Argaw-Denboba A, Balestrieri E, Serafino A, Bucci I, Cipriani C, Spadafora C, Sinibaldi-Vallebona P, Matteucci C, Jayashree SN, Neogi U, Chhangani AK, Rathore SS, Mathur BRJ, Abati A, Koç BT, Oğuzoğlu TÇ, Shimauchi T, Caucheteux S, Turpin J, Finsterbusch K, Tokura Y, Souriant S, Balboa L, Pingris K, Kviatcowsky D, Raynaud-Messina B, Cougoule C, Mercier I, Kuroda M, González-Montaner P, Inwentarz S, Moraña EJ, del Carmen Sasiain M, Neyrolles O, Maridonneau-Parini I, Lugo-Villarino G, Vérollet C, Herrmann A, Thomas D, Bouzas NF, Lahaye X, Bhargava A, Satoh T, Gentili M, Cerboni S, Silvin A, Conrad C, Ahmed-Belkacem H, Rodriguez EC, Guichou JF, Bosquet N, Piel M, Le Grand R, King M, Pawlotsky JM, Manel N, Hofmann H, Vanwalscappel B, Bloch N, Landau N, Indik S, Hagen B, Valle-Casuso JC, Allouch A, David A, Barré-Sinoussi F, Benkirane M, Pancino G, Saez-Cirion A, Lee WY, Sloan R, Schulte B, Opp S, Blomberg J, Vargiu L, Rodriguez-Tomé P, Tramontano E, Sperber G, Kumari N, Ammosova T, Diaz S, Oneal P, Nekhai S, Fahrny A, Gers-Huber G, Audigé A, Jayaprakash A, Sachidanandam R, Hernandez M, Dillon-White M, Souriant S, Pingris K, Raynaud-Messina B, Cougoule C, Mercier I, Neyrolles O, Maridonneau-Parini I, Lugo-Villarino G, Maze E, Ham C, Almond N, Towers G, Belshaw R, de Sousa-Pereira P, Abrantes J, Pizzato M, Esteves PJ, Kahle T, Schmitt S, Merkel L, Reuter N, Stamminger T, Rosa ID, Bishop K, Spinazzola A, Groom H, Vieyres G, Müsken M, Zillinger T, Hornung V, Barchet W, Häussler S, Pietschmann T, Javed A, Leuchte N, Salinas G, Opitz L, Sopper S, Mummert C, Hofmann C, Hückelhoven AG, Bergmann S, Müller-Schmucker SM, Harrer EG, Dörrie J, Schaft N, Harrer T, Cardinaux L, Zahno ML, Vogt HR, Zanoni R, Bertoni G, Muenchhoff M, Goulder P, Keppler O, Rebensburg S, Helfer M, Zhang Y, Chen H, Bernier A, Gosselin A, Routy JP, Wöhrl B, Schneider A, Corona A, Spöring I, Jordan M, Buchholz B, Maccioni E, Di Santo R, Schweimer K, Schölz C, Weinert B, Wagner S, Beli P, Miyake Y, Qi J, Jensen L, Streicher W, McCarthy A, Westwood N, Lain S, Cox J, Matthias P, Mann M, Bradner J, Choudhary C, Stern M, Valletta E, Frezza C, Marino-Merlo F, Grelli S, Serafino AL, Mastino A, Macchi B, Kaulfuß M, Windmann S, Bayer W, Mikasi S, Jacobs G, Heß R, Bonsmann MSG, Kirschning C, Lepenies B, Kolenbrander A, Temchura V, Iijima K, Kobayashi J, Ishizaka Y. Proceedings of the Frontiers of Retrovirology Conference 2016. Retrovirology 2016. [PMCID: PMC5046194 DOI: 10.1186/s12977-016-0294-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Oral presentations Session 1: Entry & uncoating O1 Host cell polo-like kinases (PLKs) promote early prototype foamy virus (PFV) replication Irena Zurnic, Sylvia Hütter, Ute Lehmann, Nicole Stanke, Juliane Reh, Tobias Kern, Fabian Lindel, Gesche Gerresheim, Martin Hamann, Erik Müllers, Paul Lesbats, Peter Cherepanov, Erik Serrao, Alan Engelman, Dirk Lindemann O2 A novel entry/uncoating assay reveals the presence of at least two species of viral capsids during synchronized HIV-1 infection Claire Da Silva Santos, Kevin Tartour, Andrea Cimarelli O3 Dynamics of nuclear envelope association and nuclear import of HIV-1 complexes Rya Burdick, Jianbo Chen, Jaya Sastri, Wei-Shau Hu, Vinay Pathak O4 Human papillomavirus protein E4 potently enhances the susceptibility to HIV infection Oliver T. Keppler Session 2: Reverse transcription & integration O5 Structure and function of HIV-1 integrase post translational modifications Karine Pradeau, Sylvia Eiler, Nicolas Levy, Sarah Lennon, Sarah Cianferani, Stéphane Emiliani, Marc Ruff O6 Regulation of retroviral integration by RNA polymerase II associated factors and chromatin structure Vincent Parissi Session 3: Transcription and latency O7 A novel single-cell analysis pipeline to identify specific biomarkers of HIV permissiveness Sylvie Rato, Antonio Rausell, Miguel Munoz, Amalio Telenti, Angela Ciuffi O8 A capsid-dependent integration program linking T cell activation to HIV-1 gene expression Alexander Zhyvoloup, Anat Melamed, Ian Anderson, Delphine Planas, Janos Kriston-Vizi, Robin Ketteler, Chen-Hsuin Lee, Andy Merritt, Petronela Ancuta, Charles Bangham, Ariberto Fassati O9 Characterisation of new RNA polymerase III and RNA polymerase II transcriptional promoters in the Bovine Leukemia Virus genome Anthony Rodari, Benoit Van Driessche, Mathilde Galais, Nadége Delacourt, Sylvain Fauquenoy, Caroline Vanhulle, Anna Kula, Arsène Burny, Olivier Rohr, Carine Van Lint O10 Tissue-specific dendritic cells differentially modulate latent HIV-1 reservoirs Thijs van Montfort, Renee van der Sluis, Dave Speijer, Ben Berkhout Session 4: RNA trafficking & packaging O11 A novel cis-acting element affecting HIV replication Bo Meng, Andrzej Rutkowski, Neil Berry, Lars Dölken, Andrew Lever O12 Tolerance of HIV’s late gene expression towards stepwise codon adaptation Thomas Schuster, Benedikt Asbach, Ralf Wagner Session 5: Assembly & release O13 Importance of the tax-inducible actin-bundling protein fascin for transmission of human T cell leukemia virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) Christine Gross, Veit Wiesmann, Martina Kalmer, Thomas Wittenberg, Jan Gettemans, Andrea K. Thoma-Kress O14 Lentiviral nef proteins antagonize TIM-mediated inhibition of viral release Minghua Li, Eric O. Freed, Shan-Lu Liu Session 6: Pathogenesis & evolution O15 SEVI and semen prolong the half-life of HIV-1 Janis Müller, Jan Münch O16 CD169+ macrophages mediate retrovirus trans-infection of permissive lymphocytes to establish infection in vivo Xaver Sewald, Pradeep Uchil, Mark Ladinsky, Jagadish Beloor, Ruoxi Pi, Christin Herrmann, Nasim Motamedi, Thomas Murooka, Michael Brehm, Dale Greiner, Thorsten Mempel, Pamela Bjorkman, Priti Kumar, Walther Mothes O17 Efficient replication of a vpu containing SIVagm construct in African Green Monkeys requires an HIV-1 nef gene Simone Joas, Erica Parrish, Clement Wesley Gnanadurai, Edina Lump, Christina M. Stürzel, Nicholas F. Parrish, Ulrike Sauermann, Katharina Töpfer, Tina Schultheiss, Steven Bosinger, Guido Silvestri, Cristian Apetrei, Nicholas Huot, Michaela Müller-Trutwin, Daniel Sauter, Beatrice H. Hahn, Christiane Stahl-Hennig, Frank Kirchhoff O18 Reprogramming initiates mobilization of endogenous mutagenic LINE-1, Alu and SVA retrotransposons in human induced pluripotent stem cells with consequences for host gene expression Gerald Schumann, Sabine Jung-Klawitter, Nina V. Fuchs, Kyle R. Upton, Martin Muñoz-Lopez, Ruchi Shukla, Jichang Wang, Marta Garcia-Canadas, Cesar Lopez-Ruiz, Daniel J. Gerhardt, Attila Sebe, Ivana Grabundzija, Patricia Gerdes, Sylvia Merkert, Andres Pulgarin, Anja Bock, Ulrike Held, Anett Witthuhn, Alexandra Haase, Ernst J. Wolvetang, Ulrich Martin, Zoltán Ivics, Zsuzsanna Izsvák, J. Garcia-Perez, Geoffrey J. Faulkner O19 NF-κB activation induces expression of human endogenous retrovirus and particle production Tara Hurst, Aris Katzourakis, Gkikas Magiorkinis Session 7a and b: Innate sensing & intrinsic immunity O20 Identification of the phosphatase acting on T592 in SAMHD1 during M/G1 transition Kerstin Schott, Rita Derua, Janna Seifried, Andreas Reuter, Heike Schmitz, Christiane Tondera, Alberto Brandariz-Nuñez, Felipe Diaz-Griffero, Veerle Janssens, Renate König O21 Vpx overcomes a SAMHD1-independent block to HIV reverse transcription that is specific to resting CD4 T cells Hanna-Mari Baldauf, Lena Stegmann, Sarah-Marie Schwarz, Maud Trotard, Margarethe Martin, Gina Lenzi, Manja Burggraf, Xiaoyu Pan, Oliver I. Fregoso, Efrem S. Lim, Libin Abraham, Elina Erikson, Laura Nguyen, Ina Ambiel, Frank Rutsch, Renate König, Baek Kim, Michael Emerman, Oliver T. Fackler, Oliver T. Keppler O22 The role of SAMHD1 in antiviral restriction and immune sensing in the mouse Sabine Wittmann, Rayk Behrendt, Bianca Volkmann, Kristin Eissmann, Thomas Gramberg O23 T cells expressing reduced restriction factors are preferentially infected in therapy naïve HIV-1 patients Sebastian Bolduan, Herwig Koppensteiner, Stefanie Regensburg, Ruth Brack-Werner, Rika Draenert, Michael Schindler O24 cGAS-mediated innate immunity spreads through HIV-1 env-induced membrane fusion sites from infected to uninfected primary HIV-1 target cells Aurélie Ducroux, Shuting Xu, Aparna Ponnurangam, Sergej Franz, Angelina Malassa, Ellen Ewald, Christine Goffinet O25 Perturbation of innate RNA and DNA sensing by human T cell leukemia virus type 1 oncoproteins Sin-Yee Fung, Ching-Ping Chan, Chun-Kit Yuen, Kin-Hang Kok, Chin-Ping Chan, Dong-Yan Jin O26 Induction and anti-viral activity of Interferon α subtypes in HIV-1 infection Ulf Dittmer O27 Vpu-mediated counteraction of tetherin is a major determinant of HIV-1 interferon resistance Dorota Kmiec, Shilpa Iyer, Christina Stürzel, Daniel Sauter, Beatrice Hahn, Frank Kirchhoff O28 DNA repair protein Rad18 restricts HIV-1 and LINE-1 life cycle Yasuo Ariumi, Mariko Yasuda-Inoue, Koudai Kawano, Satoshi Tateishi, Priscilla Turelli O29 Natural mutations in IFITM3 allow escape from post-translational regulation and toggle antiviral specificity Alex Compton, Nicolas Roy, Françoise Porrot, Anne Billet, Nicoletta Casartelli, Jacob Yount, Chen Liang, Oliver Schwartz Session 8: Adaptive immunity & immune evasion O30 Observing evolution in HIV-1 infection: phylogenetics and mutant selection windows to infer the influence of the autologous antibody response on the viral quasispecies Carsten Magnus, Lucia Reh, Penny Moore, Therese Uhr, Jacqueline Weber, Lynn Morris, Alexandra Trkola O31 Dose and subtype specific analyses of the anti-HIV effects of IFN-alpha family members Rashel V. Grindberg, Erika Schlaepfer, Gideon Schreiber, Viviana Simon, Roberto F. Speck Session 9: Novel antiviral strategies O32 LEDGIN-mediated inhibition of the integrase-LEDGF/p75 interaction reduces reactivation of residual latent HIV Zeger Debyser, Lenard Vranckx, Jonas Demeulemeester, Suha Saleh, Eric Verdin, Anna Cereseto, Frauke Christ, Rik Gijsbers O33 NKG2D-mediated clearance of reactivated viral reservoirs by natural killer cells O34 Inhibition of HIV reactivation in brain cells by AAV-mediated delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 O35 CRISPR-Cas9 as antiviral: potent HIV-1 inhibition, but rapid virus escape and the subsequent design of escape-proof antiviral strategies Ben Berkhout, Gang Wang, Na Zhao, Atze T. Das Session 10: Recent advances in HIV vaccine development O36 Priming with a potent HIV-1 DNA vaccine frames the quality of T cell and antibody responses prior to a poxvirus and protein boost Benedikt Asbach, Josef Köstler, Beatriz Perdiguero, Mariano Esteban, Bertram L. Jacobs, David C. Montefiori, Celia C. LaBranche, Nicole L. Yates, Georgia D. Tomaras, Guido Ferrari, Kathryn E. Foulds, Mario Roederer, Gary Landucci, Donald N. Forthal, Michael S. Seaman, Natalie Hawkins, Steven G. Self, Sanjay Phogat, James Tartaglia, Susan W. Barnett, Brian Burke, Anthony D. Cristillo, Song Ding, Jonathan L. Heeney, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Ralf Wagner O37 Passive immunisation with a neutralising antibody against HIV-1 Env prevents infection of the first cells in a mucosal challenge rhesus monkey model Christiane Stahl-Hennig, Viktoria Stab, Armin Ensser, Ulrike Sauermann, Bettina Tippler, Dennis Burton, Matthias Tenbusch, Klaus Überla O38 HIV antibody Fc-glycoforms drive B cell affinity maturation Galit Alter, Giuseppe Lofano, Anne-Sophie Dugast, Viraj Kulkarni, Todd Suscovich Poster presentations Topic 1: Entry & uncoating P1 Dynein light chain is required for murine leukemia virus infection Tatiana Opazo, Felipe Barraza, Diego Herrera, Andrea Garces, Tomas Schwenke, Diego Tapia, Jorge Cancino, Gloria Arriagada P2 Peptide paratope mimics of the broadly neutralising HIV-1 antibody b12 Christina Haußner, Dominik Damm, Anette Rohrhofer, Barbara Schmidt, Jutta Eichler P3 Investigating cellular pathways involved in the transmission of HIV-1 between dendritic cells and T cells using RNAi screening techniques Rebecca Midgley, James Wheeldon, Vincent Piguet P4 Co-receptor tropism in HIV-1, HIV-2 monotypic and dual infections Priyanka Khopkar, Megha Rohamare, Smita Kulkarni P5 Characterisation of the role of CIB1 and CIB2 as HIV-1 helper factors Ana Godinho-Santos, Allan Hance, Joao Goncalves, Fabrizio Mammano P6 Buffering deleterious polymorphisms in the highly constrained C2 region of HIV-1 envelope by the flexible V3 domain Romain Gasser, Meriem Hamoudi, Martina Pellicciotta, Zhicheng Zhou, Clara Visdeloup, Philippe Colin, Martine Braibant, Bernard Lagane, Matteo Negroni P7 Entry inhibition of HERV-K(HML-2) by an Env-IgG fusion protein Jula Wamara, Norbert Bannert Topic 2: Reverse transcription & integration P8 The R263K/H51Y resistance substitutions in HIV integrase decreases levels of integrated HIV DNA over time Thibault Mesplede, Nathan Osman, Kaitlin Anstett, Jiaming Calvin Liang, Hanh Thi Pham, Mark Wainberg P9 The Retrovirus Integration Database (RID) Wei Shao, Jigui Shan, Mary Kearney, Xiaolin Wu, Frank Maldarelli, John Mellors, Brian Luke, John Coffin, Stephen Hughes P10 The small molecule 3G11 inhibits HIV-1 reverse transcription Thomas Fricke, Silvana Opp, Caitlin Shepard, Dmitri Ivanov, Baek Kim, Jose Valle-Casuso, Felipe Diaz-Griffero P11 Dual and opposite regulation of HIV-1 integration by hRAD51: impact on therapeutical approaches using homologous DNA repair modulators Vincent Parissi P12 A flexible motif essential for integration by HIV-1 integrase Marine Kanja, Pierre Cappy, Matteo Negroni, Daniela Lener P13 Interaction between HIV-1 integrase and the host protein Ku70: identification of the binding site and study of the influence on integrase-proteasome interplay Ekaterina Knyazhanskaya, Andrey Anisenko, Timofey Zatsepin, Marina Gottikh P14 Normalisation based method for deep sequencing of somatic retroelement integrations in human genome Alexander Komkov, Anastasia Minervina, Gaiaz Nugmanov, Vadim Nazarov, Konstantin Khodosevich, Ilgar Mamedov, Yuri Lebedev Topic 3: Transcription and latency P15 BCA2/RABRING7 restricts HIV-1 transcription by preventing the nuclear translocation of NF-κB Marta Colomer-Lluch, Ruth Serra-Moreno P16 MATR3 post-transcriptional regulation of HIV-1 transcription during latency Ambra Sarracino, Anna Kula, Lavina Gharu, Alexander Pasternak, Carine Van Lint, Alessandro Marcello P17 HIV-1 tat intersects the SUMO pathway to regulate HIV-1 promoter activity Ann Marie McCartin, Anurag Kulkarni, Valentin Le Douce, Virginie Gautier P18 Conservation in HIV-1 Vpr guides tertiary gRNA folding and alternative splicing Ann Baeyens, Evelien Naessens, Anouk Van Nuffel, Karin Weening, Anne-Marie Reilly, Eva Claeys, Wim Trypsteen, Linos Vandekerckhove, Sven Eyckerman, Kris Gevaert, Bruno Verhasselt P19 The majority of reactivatable latent HIV are genetically distinct Hoi Ping Mok, Nicholas Norton, Axel Fun, Jack Hirst, Mark Wills, Andrew Lever P20 Do mutations in the tat exonic splice enhancer contribute to HIV-1 latency? Nicholas Norton, Hoi Ping Mok, Jack Hirst, Andrew Lever P21 Culture-to-Ct: A fast and direct RT-qPCR HIV gene reactivation screening method using primary T cell culture Valentin Le Douce, Ann Marie McCartin, Virginie Gautier P22 A novel approach to define populations of early silenced proviruses Dalibor Miklik, Filip Senigl, Jiri Hejnar Topic 4: RNA trafficking & packaging P23 Functional analysis of the structure and conformation of HIV-1 genome RNA DIS Jun-ichi Sakuragi, Sayuri Sakuragi, Masaru Yokoyama, Tatsuo Shioda, Hironori Sato P24 Regulation of foamy viral env splicing controls gag and pol expression Jochen Bodem, Rebecca Moschall, Sarah Denk, Steffen Erkelenz, Christian Schenk, Heiner Schaal Topic 5: Assembly & release P25 Transfer of HTLV-1 p8 to target T cells depends on VASP: a novel interaction partner of p8 Norbert Donhauser, Ellen Socher, Sebastian Millen, Heinrich Sticht, Andrea K. Thoma-Kress P26 COL4A1 and COL4A2 are novel HTLV-1 tax targets with a putative role in virus transmission Christine Gross, Sebastian Millen, Melanie Mann, Klaus Überla, Andrea K. Thoma-Kress P27 The C terminus of foamy virus gag protein is required for particle formation, and virus budding: starting assembly at the C terminus? Guochao Wei, Matthew J. Betts, Yang Liu, Timo Kehl, Robert B. Russell, Martin Löchelt P28 Generation of an antigen-capture ELISA and analysis of Rec and Staufen-1 effects on HERV-K(HML-2) virus particle production Oliver Hohn, Saeed Mostafa, Kirsten Hanke, Stephen Norley, Norbert Bannert P29 Antagonism of BST-2/tetherin is a conserved function of primary HIV-2 Env glycoproteins Chia-Yen Chen, Masashi Shingai, Pedro Borrego, Nuno Taveira, Klaus Strebel P30 Mutations in the packaging signal region of the HIV-1 genome cause a late domain mutant phenotype Chris Hellmund, Bo Meng, Andrew Lever P31 p6 regulates membrane association of HIV-1 gag Melanie Friedrich, Friedrich Hahn, Christian Setz, Pia Rauch, Kirsten Fraedrich, Alina Matthaei, Petra Henklein, Maximilian Traxdorf, Torgils Fossen, Ulrich Schubert Topic 6: Pathogenesis & evolution P32 Molecular and structural basis of protein evolution during viral adaptation Aya Khwaja, Meytal Galilee, Akram Alian P33 HIV-1 enhancement and neutralisation by soluble gp120 and its role for the selection of the R5-tropic “best fit” Birco Schwalbe, Heiko Hauser, Michael Schreiber P34 An insertion of seven amino acids in the Env cytoplasmic tail of Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 2 (HIV-2) selected during disease progression enhances viral replication François Dufrasne, Mara Lucchetti, Patrick Goubau, Jean Ruelle P35 Cell-associated HIV-1 unspliced to multiply spliced RNA ratio at 12 weeks ART correlates with markers of immune activation and apoptosis and predicts the CD4 T-cell count at 96 weeks ART Mirte Scherpenisse, Ben Berkhout, Alexander Pasternak P36 Faster progression in non-B subtype HIV-1-infected patients than Korean subclade of subtype B is accompanied by higher variation and no induction of gross deletion in non-B nef gene by Korean red ginseng treatment Young-Keol Cho, Jungeun Kim, Daeun Jeong P37 Aberrant expression of ERVWE1 endogenous retrovirus and overexpression of TET dioxygenases are characteristic features of seminoma Katerina Trejbalova, Martina Benesova, Dana Kucerova, Zdenka Vernerova, Rachel Amouroux, Petra Hajkova, Jiri Hejnar P38 Life history of the oldest lentivirus: characterisation of ELVgv integrations and the TRIM5 selection pattern in dermoptera Daniel Elleder, Tomas Hron, Helena Farkasova, Abinash Padhi, Jan Paces P39 Characterisation of a highly divergent endogenous retrovirus in the equine germ line Henan Zhu, Robert Gifford, Pablo Murcia P40 The emergence of pandemic retroviral infection in small ruminants Maria Luisa Carrozza, Anna-Maria Niewiadomska, Maurizio Mazzei, Mounir Abi-Said, Joseph Hughes, Stéphane Hué, Robert Gifford P41 Near full-length genome (NFLG) Characterisation of HIV-1 subtype B identified in South Africa Adetayo Obasa, Graeme Jacobs, Susan Engelbrecht P42 Acquisition of Vpu-mediated tetherin antagonism by an HIV-1 group O strain Katharina Mack, Kathrin Starz, Daniel Sauter, Matthias Geyer, Frederic Bibollet-Ruche, Christina Stürzel, Marie Leoz, Jean Christophe Plantier, Beatrice H. Hahn, Frank Kirchhoff P43 The human endogenous retrovirus type K is involved in cancer stem cell markers expression and in human melanoma malignancy Ayele Argaw-Denboba, Emanuela Balestrieri, Annalucia Serafino, Ilaria Bucci, Chiara Cipriani, Corrado Spadafora, Paolo Sinibaldi-Vallebona, Claudia Matteucci P44 Natural infection of Indian non-human primates by unique lentiviruses S. Nandi Jayashree, Ujjwal Neogi, Anil K. Chhangani, Shravan Sing Rathore, Bajrang R. J. Mathur P45 Free cervical cancer screening among HIV-positive women receiving antiretroviral treatment in Nigeria Adeyemi Abati P46 Molecular evolutionary status of feline immunodeficiency virus in Turkey B. Taylan Koç, Tuba Çiğdem Oğuzoğlu Topic 7: Innate sensing & intrinsic immunity P47 Cell-to-cell contact with HTLV-1-infected T cells reduces dendritic cell immune functions and contributes to infection in trans. Takatoshi Shimauchi, Stephan Caucheteux, Jocelyn Turpin, Katja Finsterbusch, Charles Bangham, Yoshiki Tokura, Vincent Piguet P48 Deciphering the mechanisms of HIV-1 exacerbation induced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in monocytes/macrophages Shanti Souriant, Luciana Balboa, Karine Pingris, Denise Kviatcowsky, Brigitte Raynaud-Messina, Céline Cougoule, Ingrid Mercier, Marcelo Kuroda, Pablo González-Montaner, Sandra Inwentarz, Eduardo Jose Moraña, Maria del Carmen Sasiain, Olivier Neyrolles, Isabelle Maridonneau-Parini, Geanncarlo Lugo-Villarino, Christel Vérollet P49 The SAMHD1-mediated inhibition of LINE-1 retroelements is regulated by phosphorylation Alexandra Herrmann, Sabine Wittmann, Caitlin Shepard, Dominique Thomas, Nerea Ferreirós Bouzas, Baek Kim, Thomas Gramberg P50 Activities of nuclear envelope protein SUN2 in HIV infection Xavier Lahaye, Anvita Bhargava, Takeshi Satoh, Matteo Gentili, Silvia Cerboni, Aymeric Silvin, Cécile Conrad, Hakim Ahmed-Belkacem, Elisa C. Rodriguez, Jean-François Guichou, Nathalie Bosquet, Matthieu Piel, Roger Le Grand, Megan King, Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, Nicolas Manel P51 Activation of TLR7/8 with a small molecule agonist induces a novel restriction to HIV-1 infection of monocytes Henning Hofmann, Benedicte Vanwalscappel, Nicolin Bloch, Nathaniel Landau P52 Steady state between the DNA polymerase and Rnase H domain activities of reverse transcriptases determines the sensitivity of retroviruses to inhibition by APOBEC3 proteins Stanislav Indik, Benedikt Hagen P53 HIV restriction in mature dendritic cells is related to p21 induction and p21-mediated control of the dNTP pool and SAMHD1 activity. José Carlos Valle-Casuso, Awatef Allouch, Annie David, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Michaela Müller-Trutwin, Monsef Benkirane, Gianfranco Pancino, Asier Saez-Cirion P54 IFITM protens restrict HIV-1 protein synthesis Wing-Yiu Lee, Chen Liang, Richard Sloan P55 Characterisation and functional analysis of the novel restriction factor Serinc5 Bianca Schulte, Silvana Opp, Felipe Diaz-Griffero P56 piRNA sequences are common in Human Endogenous Retroviral Sequences (HERVs): An antiretroviral restriction mechanism? Jonas Blomberg, Luana Vargiu, Patricia Rodriguez-Tomé, Enzo Tramontano, Göran Sperber P57 Ferroportin restricts HIV-1 infection in sickle cell disease Namita Kumari, Tatiana Ammosova, Sharmeen Diaz, Patricia Oneal, Sergei Nekhai P58 APOBEC3G modulates the response to antiretroviral drugs in humanized mice Audrey Fahrny, Gustavo Gers-Huber, Annette Audigé, Roberto F. Speck, Anitha Jayaprakash, Ravi Sachidanandam, Matt Hernandez, Marsha Dillon-White, Viviana Simon P59 High-throughput epigenetic analysis of evolutionarily young endogenous retrovirus presents in the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) genome Tomas Hron, Helena Farkasova, Daniel Elleder P60 Characterisation of the expression of novel endogenous retroviruses and immune interactions in a macaque model Neil Berry, Emmanuel Maze, Claire Ham, Neil Almond, Greg Towers, Robert Belshaw P61 HIV-1 restriction by orthologs of SERINC3 and SERINC5 Patrícia de Sousa-Pereira, Joana Abrantes, Massimo Pizzato, Pedro J. Esteves, Oliver T. Fackler, Oliver T. Keppler, Hanna-Mari Baldauf P62 TRIM19/PML restricts HIV infection in a cell type-dependent manner Bianca Volkmann, Tanja Kahle, Kristin Eissmann, Alexandra Herrmann, Sven Schmitt, Sabine Wittmann, Laura Merkel, Nina Reuter, Thomas Stamminger, Thomas Gramberg P63 Recent invasion of the mule deer genome by a retrovirus Helena Farkasova, Tomas Hron, Daniel Elleder P64 Does the antiviral protein SAMHD1 influence mitochondrial function? Ilaria Dalla Rosa, Kate Bishop, Antonella Spinazzola, Harriet Groom P65 cGAMP transfers intercellularly via HIV-1 Env-mediated cell–cell fusion sites and triggers an innate immune response in primary target cells Shuting Xu, Aurélie Ducroux, Aparna Ponnurangam, Sergej Franz, Gabrielle Vieyres, Mathias Müsken, Thomas Zillinger, Angelina Malassa, Ellen Ewald, Veit Hornung, Winfried Barchet, Susanne Häussler, Thomas Pietschmann, Christine Goffinet P66 Pre-infection transcript levels of FAM26F in PBMCS inform about overall plasma viral load in acute and postacute phase after SIV-infection Ulrike Sauermann, Aneela Javed, Nicole Leuchte, Gabriela Salinas, Lennart Opitz, Christiane Stahl-Hennig, Sieghart Sopper P67 Sequence-function analysis of three T cell receptors targeting the HIV-1 p17 epitope SLYNTVATL Christiane Mummert, Christian Hofmann, Angela G. Hückelhoven, Silke Bergmann, Sandra M. Müller-Schmucker, Ellen G. Harrer, Jan Dörrie, Niels Schaft, Thomas Harrer P68 An immunodominant region of the envelope glycoprotein of small ruminant lentiviruses may function as decoy antigen Laure Cardinaux, M.-L. Zahno, H.-R. Vogt, R. Zanoni, G. Bertoni P69 Impact of immune activation, immune exhaustion, broadly neutralising antibodies and viral reservoirs on disease progression in HIV-infected children Maximilian Muenchhoff, Philip Goulder, Oliver Keppler Topic 9: Novel antiviral strategies P70 Identification of natural compounds as new antiviral products by bioassay-guided fractionation Alexandra Herrmann, Stephanie Rebensburg, Markus Helfer, Michael Schindler, Ruth Brack-Werner P71 The PPARG antagonism disconnects the HIV replication and effector functions in Th17 cells Yuwei Zhang, Huicheng Chen, Delphine Planas, Annie Bernier, Annie Gosselin, Jean-Pierre Routy, Petronela Ancuta P72 Characterisation of a multiresistant subtype AG reverse transcriptase: AZT resistance, sensitivity to RNase H inhibitors and inhibitor binding Birgitta Wöhrl, Anna Schneider, Angela Corona, Imke Spöring, Mareike Jordan, Bernd Buchholz, Elias Maccioni, Roberto Di Santo, Jochen Bodem, Enzo Tramontano, Kristian Schweimer P73 Insigths into the acetylation pattern of HDAC inhibitors and their potential role in HIV therapy Christian Schölz, Brian Weinert, Sebastian Wagner, Petra Beli, Yasuyuki Miyake, Jun Qi, Lars Jensen, Werner Streicher, Anna McCarthy, Nicholas Westwood, Sonia Lain, Jürgen Cox, Patrick Matthias, Matthias Mann, James Bradner, Chunaram Choudhary P74 HPV-derived and seminal amyloid peptides enhance HIV-1 infection and impair the efficacy of broadly neutralising antibodies and antiretroviral drugs Marcel Stern, Oliver T. Keppler P75 D(−)lentiginosine inhibits both proliferation and virus expression in cells infected by HTLV-1 in vitro Elena Valletta, Caterina Frezza, Claudia Matteucci, Francesca Marino-Merlo, Sandro Grelli, Anna Lucia Serafino, Antonio Mastino, Beatrice Macchi P76 HIV-1 resistance analyses of the Cape Winelands districts, South Africa Sello Mikasi, Graeme Jacobs, Susan Engelbrecht Topic 10: Recent advances in HIV vaccine development P77 Induction of complex retrovirus antigen-specific immune responses by adenovirus-based vectors depends on the order of vector administration Meike Kaulfuß, Sonja Windmann, Wibke Bayer P78 Direct impact of structural properties of HIV-1 Env on the regulation of the humoral immune response Rebecca Heß, Michael Storcksdieck gen. Bonsmann, Viktoria Stab, Carsten Kirschning, Bernd Lepenies, Matthias Tenbusch, Klaus Überla P79 Lentiviral virus-like particles mediate gerenration of T-follicular helper cells in vitro Anne Kolenbrander, Klaus Überla, Vladimir Temchura P80 Recruitment of HIV-1 Vpr to DNA damage sites and protection of proviral DNA from nuclease activity Kenta Iijima, Junya Kobayashi, Yukihito Ishizaka
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Marino-Merlo F, Papaianni E, Medici MA, Macchi B, Grelli S, Mosca C, Borner C, Mastino A. HSV-1-induced activation of NF-κB protects U937 monocytic cells against both virus replication and apoptosis. Cell Death Dis 2016; 7:e2354. [PMID: 27584793 PMCID: PMC5059854 DOI: 10.1038/cddis.2016.250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2016] [Revised: 06/22/2016] [Accepted: 07/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The transcription factor nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) is a crucial player of the antiviral innate response. Intriguingly, however, NF-κB activation is assumed to favour herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection rather than restrict it. Apoptosis, a form of innate response to viruses, is completely inhibited by HSV in fully permissive cells, but not in cells incapable to fully sustain HSV replication, such as immunocompetent cells. To resolve the intricate interplay among NF-κB signalling, apoptosis and permissiveness to HSV-1 in monocytic cells, we utilized U937 monocytic cells in which NF-κB activation was inhibited by expressing a dominant-negative IκBα. Surprisingly, viral production was increased in monocytic cells in which NF-κB was inhibited. Moreover, inhibition of NF-κB led to increased apoptosis following HSV-1 infection, associated with lysosomal membrane permeabilization. High expression of late viral proteins and induction of apoptosis occurred in distinct cells. Transcriptional analysis of known innate response genes by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR excluded a contribution of the assayed genes to the observed phenomena. Thus, in monocytic cells NF-κB activation simultaneously serves as an innate process to restrict viral replication as well as a mechanism to limit the damage of an excessive apoptotic response to HSV-1 infection. This finding may clarify mechanisms controlling HSV-1 infection in monocytic cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Marino-Merlo
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina 98166, Italy
| | - Emanuela Papaianni
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina 98166, Italy
| | - Maria Antonietta Medici
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina 98166, Italy
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome 00133, Italy
| | - Claudia Mosca
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina 98166, Italy
| | - Christoph Borner
- Institute of Molecular Medicine and Cell Research, Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Stefan Meier Strasse 17, Freiburg D-79104, Germany.,Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM), Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Albertstrasse 19a, Freiburg D-79104, Germany.,BIOSS, Centre for Biological Signaling Studies, Signalhaus, Schänzlestrasse 18, Freiburg D-79104, Germany
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina 98166, Italy.,The Institute of Translational Pharmacology, CNR, Rome 00133, Italy
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Macchi B, Grelli S, Favalli C, De Carli M, Garaci, Mastino A. Characteristics of Interleukin 2 and Interleukin 4 Dependent T Cell Lines Infected with HTLV-1 in Vitro. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol 2016. [DOI: 10.1177/039463209701000304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a lymphotropic retrovirus. Cells infected with HTLV-1 in vitro, when maintained in interleukin-2 (IL-2) can be immortalized, remaining for a long time strictly dependent on IL-2 addition. In this study we have compared the effect of interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-2 on HTLV-1 infection of cord blood or normal adult mononuclear cells. The results showed that either cultures of cord blood or normal adult T cells are susceptible to HTLV-1 infection in presence of IL-4 as well as IL-2. Moreover HTLV-1 infected cells in the presence of IL-4 survived only for a limited length of time in culture, while those grown in IL-2 showed the characteristics of immortalized cell lines. Moreover the profile of cytokine production showed a different pattern in HTLV-1 infected cell lines maintained in IL-4 or IL-2. This suggests that the lymphokines differently modulate retrovirus infection in vitro.
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Affiliation(s)
- B. Macchi
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Science, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- I.R.C.C.S. S. Lucia, Rome, Italy
| | - S. Grelli
- Institute of Experimental Medicine, C.N.R., Rome, Italy
| | - C. Favalli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Science, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
- I.R.C.C.S. S. Lucia, Rome, Italy
| | - M. De Carli
- Institute of Internal Medicine and Immunoallergology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Garaci
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Science, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - A. Mastino
- Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
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Grelli S, Matteucci C, Cioli D, El Sayed L, Adam N, Ghoneim H, De Smaele E, Favalli C, Garaci E, Mastino A. Immunological Events during the Early Phase of Infection with Schistosoma Mansoni in Mice. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol 2016. [DOI: 10.1177/039463209701000306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Naturally occurring infection in humans or experimental infection in mice by Schistosoma mansoni lead to a Th1 towards Th2 switch of cytokine response in the chronic late phase of the disease. It has been proposed that an initial Th1 response is successively down-regulated and followed by an egg-antigen driven Th2 response. Here we report the results of a kinetic study on the capacity of spleen cells from experimentally infected Balb/c mice to produce Th1 or Th2 cytokines, following mitogen stimulation, during the phase which precedes the granulomatous response associated to egg-deposition. The main results were identified as an early increase in IL-4 and IL-10 Th2 cytokine production, particularly pronounced for IL-10, only a slight and delayed decrease in IL-2 production and an invariable or actually enhanced capacity to produce IFN-γ. The emergence of Th2 response was associated with only slight and delayed modifications in spleen lymphocyte subsets, mainly represented by a decrease in CD3+ T cells and an increase in B cells. The initial unbalance of the Th1/Th2 response precedes thus the egg-deposition and the chronic phase of the infection, being evident 3 weeks after the challenge with the parasite. This observation could represent a novel finding useful in understanding the complex mechanisms involved in the immunopathogenesis of schistosomiasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- S. Grelli
- Institute of Experimental Medicine, C.N.R., Rome, Italy
| | - C. Matteucci
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
| | - D. Cioli
- Institute of Cell Biology, C.N.R., Rome, Italy
| | - L.H. El Sayed
- Medical Research Institute, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
| | - N. Adam
- Medical Research Institute, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
| | - H. Ghoneim
- Medical Research Institute, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
| | - E. De Smaele
- Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, IRCCS Paediatric Hospital Bambin Gesù, Rome, Italy
| | - C. Favalli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
- IRCCS Clinica S. Lucia, Rome, Italy
| | - E. Garaci
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
| | - A. Mastino
- Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
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Abstract
The discovery and the first studies on thymic hormones (TH) are historically linked with their role on the developmental events of T lymphocytes that occur within the thymus. However, paradoxically, during the most recent years, much more information about the effects of TH on mature effector cells, in relation with those indicating their real functions during the T-cell differentation, have been, in fact, available. Here we report an update discussion concerning the possible role of the cooperation between TH and cytokines in T-cell development. Moreover we illustrate the results obtained by us and other authors, demonstrating a strict connection between the action of thymosins, a family of peptides first isolated and purified from calf thymus (1), and that of cytokines.
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Affiliation(s)
- A. Mastino
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome, “Tor Vergata”, 00173 Rome, Italy; Institute of Experimental Medicine, C.N.R., Rome, Italy
| | - C. Favalli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome, “Tor Vergata”, 00173 Rome, Italy; Institute of Experimental Medicine, C.N.R., Rome, Italy
| | - S. Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome, “Tor Vergata”, 00173 Rome, Italy; Institute of Experimental Medicine, C.N.R., Rome, Italy
| | - E. Garaci
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome, “Tor Vergata”, 00173 Rome, Italy; Institute of Experimental Medicine, C.N.R., Rome, Italy
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50
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Frezza C, Grelli S, Federico M, Marino-Merlo F, Mastino A, Macchi B. Testing anti-HIV activity of antiretroviral agents in vitro using flow cytometry analysis of CEM-GFP cells infected with transfection-derived HIV-1 NL4-3. J Med Virol 2015; 88:979-86. [PMID: 26519867 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.24418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
An assay, specifically optimized to evaluate the anti-HIV activity of antiretrovirals by flow cytometry analysis, is described. As widely used anti-HIV agents, zidovudine (AZT), abacavir (ABC), 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (DDI), lamivudine (3TC), nevirapine (NVP), and efavirenz (EFV), and as drugs of recent approval raltegravir (RAL), etravirine (ETR), and rilpivirine (RPV), were utilized as reference drugs. HIV-1 NL4-3 virus was prepared by transfection of HEK293T cells with purified plasmid DNA and quantified by p24 antigen-capture assay. For infection, CEM-GFP cells were exposed to vehicle or to several concentrations of the drugs for 2 hr at 37 °C before HIV-1 NL4-3 was added to each sample. The adsorption was prolonged for 3 hr at 37 °C. After 72 hr of incubation, HIV-induced GFP expression in infected CEM-GFP cells was assessed by flow cytometry analysis and expressed as % positive cells. For comparison, p24 production in supernatants was assessed by a commercial ELISA kit. On the basis of IC50 values, the anti-HIV activity, as assayed by this method, was EFV > 3TC > AZT > NVP > DDI > ABC and ETR > RPV > RAL. The comparison between the IC50 values calculated through flow cytometry and p24 production revealed overlapping results, showing that the optimized protocol of CEM-GFP infection with HIV NL4-3 is a suitable method to perform quantitative, rapid and low-expensive screening tests to evaluate the in vitro effect of new candidate anti-HIV drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caterina Frezza
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Sandro Grelli
- Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
| | - Maurizio Federico
- Division of Pathogenesis of Retroviruses, National AIDS Center, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesca Marino-Merlo
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Antonio Mastino
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.,Institute of Translational Pharmacology, CNR, Rome, Italy
| | - Beatrice Macchi
- Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
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