Publications by authors named "Silvia Tonon"

Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a common inflammatory disorder whose complex immunopathogenesis has yet to be fully elucidated. Endotype-2 CRSwNP is the most common form of disease where eosinophils are the main drivers of inflammation. Traditional treatments for CRSwNP have centered around intranasal or systemic corticosteroids and endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Allergic rhinitis is a common upper airway disease caused by hypersensitivity to various aeroallergens. It causes increased inflammation throughout the body and may be complicated by other otolaryngological pathologies such as chronic hyperplastic eosinophilic sinusitis, nasal polyposis, and serous otitis media. Allergic rhinitis is an IgE-mediated disease and immunotherapy can be a possible approach for patients to limit the use of antihistamines and corticosteroids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Colorectal cancer represents 10% of all new cancer cases each year and accounts for almost 10% of all cancer deaths. According to the WHO, by 2040 there will be a 60% increase in colorectal cancer cases. These data highlight the need to explore new therapeutic strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mast cells (MCs) are tissue-resident, long lived innate immune cells with important effector and immunomodulatory functions. They are equipped with an eclectic variety of receptors that enable them to sense multiple stimuli and to generate specific responses according on the type, strength and duration of the stimulation. Several studies demonstrated that myeloid cells can retain immunological memory of their encounters - a process termed 'trained immunity' or 'innate immune memory'.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Epigenetic studies are becoming increasingly common in the immunology field thanks to the support of cutting edge technology and to their potential of providing a large amount of data at the single cell level. Moreover, epigenetic modifications were shown to play a role in autoimmune/inflammatory disorders, paving the way for the possibility of using the results of epigenetic studies for therapeutic purposes. In recent years, epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation, histone modifications and nucleosome positioning were shown to regulate B cell fate and function during an immune response, but very little has been done in the context of one of the most recently discovered B cell subsets, that is regulatory B cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

IL-10 is the best known and most studied anti-inflammatory cytokine and, in the last 20 years, it has acquired even greater fame as it has been associated with the regulatory phenotype of B cells. Indeed, although great efforts have been made to find a unique marker, to date IL-10 remains the main way to follow both murine and human regulatory B cells, hence the need of precise and reproducible methods to identify and purify IL-10-producing B cells for both functional and molecular downstream assays. In this chapter, we present our protocols to isolate these cells from the murine spleen and peritoneum and from human peripheral blood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

B lymphocytes are among the cell types whose effector functions are modulated by mast cells (MCs). The B/MC crosstalk emerged in several pathological settings, notably the colon of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients is a privileged site in which MCs and IgA cells physically interact. Herein, by inducing conditional depletion of MCs in red MC and basophil (RMB) mice, we show that MCs control B cell distribution in the gut and IgA serum levels.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Among the family of regulatory B cells, the subset able to produce interleukin-10 (IL-10) is the most studied, yet its biology is still a matter of investigation. The DNA methylation profiling of the il-10 gene locus revealed a novel epigenetic signature characterizing murine B cells ready to respond through IL-10 synthesis: a demethylated region located 4.5 kb from the transcription starting site (TSS), that we named early IL10 regulatory region (eIL10rr).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

One of the most fascinating aspects of the immune system is its dynamism, meant as the ability to change and readapt according to the organism needs. Following an insult, we assist to the spontaneous organization of different immune cells which cooperate, locally and at distance, to build up an appropriate response. Throughout tumor progression, adaptations within the systemic tumor environment, or macroenvironment, result in the promotion of tumor growth, tumor invasion and metastasis to distal organs, but also to dramatic changes in the activity and composition of the immune system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Regulatory B cells (Breg cells) differentiate in response to inflammation and subsequently restrain excessive immune responses via the release of interleukin-10 (IL-10). However, the precise inflammatory signals governing their differentiation remain to be elucidated. Here we show that the gut microbiota promotes the differentiation of Breg cells in the spleen as well as in the mesenteric lymph nodes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

IL-10 is an immune suppressive cytokine with pleiotropic effects on B cell biology. IL-10 production has a pivotal role for the regulatory suppressive functions that B cells exert in many physiological and pathological settings. Several exogenous stimuli and endogenous immune mediators can trigger IL-10-producing B cell maturation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF