Publications by authors named "Andrea Gobbini"

Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome (INS) is a common childhood glomerular disease requiring intense immunosuppressive drug treatments. Prediction of treatment response and the occurrence of relapses remains challenging. Biofluid-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) may serve as novel liquid biopsies for INS classification and monitoring.

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  • Arthropod-borne viruses like dengue virus (DENV) are a major global health issue, infecting around 400 million people annually and causing outbreaks even in non-endemic regions.
  • The study aimed to improve serological diagnosis and identify new drugs by mapping immunogenic protein regions of DENV through high-density peptide arrays and computational methods.
  • Twenty-four specific peptides were found that could distinguish DENV from other flaviviruses, with two peptides potentially serving as a serum biomarker for DENV infection, which may aid in developing diagnostic and preventative strategies.
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Multiple vaccines have been approved to control COVID-19 pandemic, with Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2) being widely used. We conducted a longitudinal analysis of the immune response elicited after three doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine in individuals who have previously experienced SARS-CoV-2 infection and in unexperienced ones. We conducted immunological analyses and single-cell transcriptomics of circulating T and B lymphocytes, combined to CITE-seq or LIBRA-seq, and VDJ-seq.

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  • Identifying specific T cell clones in a diverse group is crucial for understanding their characteristics and roles.
  • The protocol outlined involves stimulating human CD4 T cells from blood with a protein antigen, then using fluorescence-activated cell sorting to isolate antigen-specific T cells.
  • It details amplifying T cell receptor (TCR) cDNA with 5'-RACE and detecting it via qPCR, with further information available in Notarbartolo et al. (2021).
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-associated death. In the tumor site, the interplay between effector immune cells and cancer cells determines the balance between tumor elimination or outgrowth. We discovered that the protein TMEM123 is over-expressed in tumour-infiltrating CD4 and CD8 T lymphocytes and it contributes to their effector phenotype.

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A molecular mimicry between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and human proteins supports the possibility that autoimmunity takes place during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) contributing to tissue damage. For example, anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL) have been reported in COVID-19 as a result of such mimicry and thought to contribute to the immunothrombosis characteristic of the disease. Consistently, active immunization with the virus spike protein may elicit the production of cross-reactive autoantibodies, including aPL.

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COVID-19 has proven to be particularly serious and life-threatening for patients presenting with pre-existing pathologies. Patients affected by rheumatic musculoskeletal disease (RMD) are likely to have impaired immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their compromised immune system and the prolonged use of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), which include conventional synthetic (cs) DMARDs or biologic and targeted synthetic (b/ts) DMARDs. To provide an integrated analysis of the immune response following SARS-CoV-2 infection in RMD patients treated with different classes of DMARDs we carried out an immunological analysis of the antibody responses toward SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and RBD proteins and an extensive immunophenotypic analysis of the major immune cell populations.

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Objectives: Given the high occurrence of asymptomatic subsets, the true prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in rheumatic patients is still underestimated. This study aims to evaluate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) patients receiving immunomodulatory drugs.

Methods: All consecutive patients with rheumatoid arthritis or spondyloarthritis receiving disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) evaluated between 4th May and 16th June 2020 were included.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by beta-coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has rapidly spread across the globe starting from February 2020. It is well established that during viral infection, extracellular vesicles become delivery/presenting vectors of viral material. However, studies regarding extracellular vesicle function in COVID-19 pathology are still scanty.

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To understand how a protective immune response against SARS-CoV-2 develops over time, we integrated phenotypic, transcriptional and repertoire analyses on PBMCs from mild and severe COVID-19 patients during and after infection, and compared them to healthy donors (HD). A type I IFN-response signature marked all the immune populations from severe patients during the infection. Humoral immunity was dominated by IgG production primarily against the RBD and N proteins, with neutralizing antibody titers increasing post infection and with disease severity.

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  • NF-Y transcription factor consists of three subunits (NF-YA, NF-YB, NF-YC) that dimerize and trimerize to recognize specific DNA sequences, particularly the CCAAT box in plant genomes.
  • In plants, multiple genes encode each NF-Y subunit, leading to a variety of combinations that interact with other proteins and bind to various genomic motifs, essential for development and reproduction.
  • Recent structural studies on Arabidopsis and rice NF-Y complexes reveal important insights into the molecular specifics of NF-Y interactions and their flexible DNA-binding properties, helping to explain the diversity and expansion of NF-Y genes in plants.*
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