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Fantoni T, Bissoli M, Stefani C, Voi M, Dabija A, Casula R, Minafra DL, da Fonseca Palmeira J, Argañaraz ER, Mayora-Neto M, Temperton NJ, Zipeto D, Ruggiero A. Pseudotyped Viruses As a Molecular Tool to Monitor Humoral Immune Responses Against SARS-CoV-2 Via Neutralization Assay. J Vis Exp 2023. [PMID: 38078607 DOI: 10.3791/65658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Pseudotyped viruses (PVs) are molecular tools that can be used to study host-virus interactions and to test the neutralizing ability of serum samples, in addition to their better-known use in gene therapy for the delivery of a gene of interest. PVs are replication defective because the viral genome is divided into different plasmids that are not incorporated into the PVs. This safe and versatile system allows the use of PVs in biosafety level 2 laboratories. Here, we present a general methodology to produce lentiviral PVs based on three plasmids as mentioned here: (1) the backbone plasmid carrying the reporter gene needed to monitor the infection; (2) the packaging plasmid carrying the genes for all the structural proteins needed to generate the PVs; (3) the envelope surface glycoprotein expression plasmid that determines virus tropism and mediates viral entry into the host cell. In this work, SARS-CoV-2 Spike is the envelope glycoprotein used for the production of non-replicative SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped lentiviruses. Briefly, packaging cells (HEK293T) were co-transfected with the three different plasmids using standard methods. After 48 h, the supernatant containing the PVs was harvested, filtered, and stored at -80 °C. The infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 PVs was tested by studying the expression of the reporter gene (luciferase) in a target cell line 48 h after infection. The higher the value for relative luminescence units (RLUs), the higher the infection/transduction rate. Furthermore, the infectious PVs were added to the serially diluted serum samples to study the neutralization process of pseudoviruses' entry into target cells, measured as the reduction in RLU intensity: lower values corresponding to high neutralizing activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobia Fantoni
- Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona
| | - Michele Bissoli
- Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona
| | - Chiara Stefani
- Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona
| | - Mauro Voi
- Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona
| | - Alexandrina Dabija
- Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona
| | - Rebecca Casula
- Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona
| | | | | | | | - Martin Mayora-Neto
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway
| | - Nigel J Temperton
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway
| | - Donato Zipeto
- Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona
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Cantoni D, Siracusano G, Mayora-Neto M, Pastori C, Fantoni T, Lytras S, Di Genova C, Hughes J, Lopalco L, Temperton N. Analysis of Antibody Neutralisation Activity against SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Seasonal Human Coronaviruses NL63, HKU1, and 229E Induced by Three Different COVID-19 Vaccine Platforms. Vaccines (Basel) 2022; 11:58. [PMID: 36679903 PMCID: PMC9864028 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11010058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Coronaviruses infections, culminating in the recent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic beginning in 2019, have highlighted the importance of effective vaccines to induce an antibody response with cross-neutralizing activity. COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly developed to reduce the burden of SARS-CoV-2 infections and disease severity. Cross-protection from seasonal human coronaviruses (hCoVs) infections has been hypothesized but is still controversial. Here, we investigated the neutralizing activity against ancestral SARS-CoV-2 and the variants of concern (VOCs) in individuals vaccinated with two doses of either BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, or AZD1222, with or without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Antibody neutralizing activity to SARS-CoV-2 and the VOCs was higher in BNT162b2-vaccinated subjects who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and conferred broad-spectrum protection. The Omicron BA.1 variant was the most resistant among the VOCs. COVID-19 vaccination did not confer protection against hCoV-HKU1. Conversely, antibodies induced by mRNA-1273 vaccination displayed a boosting in their neutralizing activity against hCoV-NL63, whereas AZD1222 vaccination increased antibody neutralization against hCoV-229E, suggesting potential differences in antigenicity and immunogenicity of the different spike constructs used between various vaccination platforms. These data would suggest that there may be shared epitopes between the HCoVs and SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Cantoni
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway, Chatham ME4 4TB, UK
| | - Gabriel Siracusano
- Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Disease, Immunobiology of HIV Group, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Martin Mayora-Neto
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway, Chatham ME4 4TB, UK
| | - Claudia Pastori
- Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Disease, Immunobiology of HIV Group, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Tobia Fantoni
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, 37129 Verona, Italy
| | - Spyros Lytras
- MRC-Centre for Virus Research, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 BQQ, UK
| | - Cecilia Di Genova
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway, Chatham ME4 4TB, UK
| | - Joseph Hughes
- MRC-Centre for Virus Research, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 BQQ, UK
| | | | - Lucia Lopalco
- Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Disease, Immunobiology of HIV Group, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Nigel Temperton
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway, Chatham ME4 4TB, UK
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Tarchi L, Fantoni T, Pisano T, Damiani S, La Torraca Vittori P, Marini S, Nazzicari N, Castellini G, Politi P, Ricca V. i-ECO: a novel method for the analysis and visualization of fMRI results in Psychiatry. Eur Psychiatry 2022. [PMCID: PMC9567001 DOI: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction
The high technical barrier to entry in the field of neuroimaging can hinder early insight from promising results and the development of evidence-based clinical practice.
Objectives
The working group focused on published literature in order to develop a new methodology in the analysis, visualization, and representation of fMRI data in the psychiatric setting.
Methods
Three valid and established measures were chosen, in order to achieve dimensionality reduction, stability and explainability of results, namely Regional-Homogeneity; fractional Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations; Eigenvector-Centrality. Each measure was color coded and individual images per subject compiled, averaging results by functional networks as described the FIND lab of the University of Stanford. 272 individual scans were processed (130 neurotypicals, 50 patients with Schizophrenia, 49 with Bipolar Disorder, 43 with ADHD).
Results
The discriminative power between clinical groups of the novel method was significant both by human eye, and later confirmation by statistical tests, and by computer vision algorithms (Convolutional Neural Networks). The precision-recall Area Under the Curve, dividing by 80/20 proportion between train and test sets, was >84.5% for each group. The group of patients with Bipolar Disorder showed a partial overlap with the group of patients suffering from Schizophrenia – by a dominance of Eigenvector-Centrality and Regional-Homogeneity, as well as a lower prevalence of fractional Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations, for both in comparison to controls.
Conclusions
The present study offers preliminary evidence for the adoption of i-ECO (integrated-Explainability through Color Coding) in fMRI analyses during rest in the Psychiatric field.
Disclosure
No significant relationships.
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Ruggiero A, Piubelli C, Calciano L, Accordini S, Valenti MT, Carbonare LD, Siracusano G, Temperton N, Tiberti N, Longoni SS, Pizzato M, Accordini S, Fantoni T, Lopalco L, Beretta A, Bisoffi Z, Zipeto D. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination elicits unconventional IgM specific responses in naïve and previously COVID-19-infected individuals. EBioMedicine 2022; 77:103888. [PMID: 35196644 PMCID: PMC8858081 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [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: 11/03/2021] [Revised: 01/27/2022] [Accepted: 02/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Currently, evaluation of the IgG antibodies specific for the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein following vaccination is used worldwide to estimate vaccine response. Limited data are available on vaccine-elicited IgM antibodies and their potential implication in immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Methods We performed a longitudinal study to quantify anti-S SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM (IgG-S and IgM-S) in health care worker (HCW) recipients of the BNT162b2 vaccine. Samples were collected before administration (T0), at the second dose (T1) and three weeks after T1 (T2). The cohort included 1584 immunologically naïve to SARS-CoV-2 (IN) and 289 with history of previous infection (PI). Findings IN showed three patterns of responses: (a) IgG positive/IgM negative (36.1%), (b) coordinated IgM-S/IgG-S responses appearing at T1 (37.4%) and (c) IgM appearing after IgG (26.3%). Coordinated IgM-S/IgG-S responses were associated with higher IgG titres. In IgM-S positive PI, 64.5% were IgM-S positive before vaccination, whereas 32% and 3.5% developed IgM-S after the first and second vaccine dose, respectively. IgM-S positive sera had higher pseudovirus neutralization titres compared to the IgM-S negative. Interpretation Coordinated expression of IgG-S and IgM-S after vaccination was associated with a significantly more efficient response in both antibody levels and virus-neutralizing activity. The unconventional IgG-S positive/IgM-S negative responses may suggest a recruitment of cross coronaviruses immunity by vaccination, warranting further investigation. Funding Italian Ministry of Health under “Fondi Ricerca Corrente”- L1P5 and “Progetto Ricerca Finalizzata COVID-2020-12371675”; FUR 2020 Department of Excellence 2018-2022, MIUR, Italy; The Brain Research Foundation Verona.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandra Ruggiero
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
| | - Chiara Piubelli
- Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar (VR), Italy
| | - Lucia Calciano
- Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
| | - Simone Accordini
- Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
| | | | | | - Gabriel Siracusano
- Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
| | - Nigel Temperton
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, Universities of Kent and Greenwich, UK
| | - Natalia Tiberti
- Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar (VR), Italy
| | - Silvia Stefania Longoni
- Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar (VR), Italy
| | - Massimo Pizzato
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Povo (TN), Italy
| | - Silvia Accordini
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Povo (TN), Italy
| | | | - Tobia Fantoni
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
| | - Lucia Lopalco
- Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Zeno Bisoffi
- Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar (VR), Italy; Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
| | - Donato Zipeto
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
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Ferrazzano L, Martelli G, Fantoni T, Daka A, Corbisiero D, Viola A, Ricci A, Cabri W, Tolomelli A. Fast Heck-Cassar-Sonogashira (HCS) Reactions in Green Solvents. Org Lett 2020; 22:3969-3973. [PMID: 32342693 PMCID: PMC8007125 DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.0c01269] [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] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
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The replacement of
toxic solvents with greener alternatives in
Heck–Cassar–Sonogashira (HCS) cross-couplings was investigated.
The fine-tuning of the HCS protocol allowed to achieve complete conversions
and high speed under mild conditions. N-Hydroxyethylpyrrolidone
(HEP) gave the best results. Moreover, the methodology was successfully
applied to the synthesis of an intermediate of the anticancer drug
Erlotinib, demonstrating the versatility of the new green protocol.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Ferrazzano
- Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - G Martelli
- Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - T Fantoni
- Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - A Daka
- Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - D Corbisiero
- Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - A Viola
- Fresenius Kabi iPSUM Srl, I&D, Via San Leonardo 23, 45010 Villadose (RO), Italy
| | - A Ricci
- Fresenius Kabi iPSUM Srl, I&D, Via San Leonardo 23, 45010 Villadose (RO), Italy
| | - W Cabri
- Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy.,Fresenius Kabi iPSUM Srl, I&D, Via San Leonardo 23, 45010 Villadose (RO), Italy
| | - A Tolomelli
- Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
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