0-TESTO COMPLETO.pdf - Fondazione Santa Lucia

Sezione III: Attività per progetti
Biological samples, both from MS patients and other neurological disorders
will be collected and made available to all participants of the network.
U.O.11 will recruit and select MS patients and will collect biological samples
(blood and CSF). Polychromatic flow cytometry will then be employed to
precisely characterize the cellular subpopulations in the blood and CSF
obtained from patients and healthy controls, with a special attention on cellular
subsets involved in the anti-viral immune response (up to month 18).
Immune responses directed against EBV will be tested (characterization of
antigen-specific T cells, measurement of suppressor activity of T reg cells).
The innate immune response will also be studied, working closely with
U.O.12, and NK cell activity against B-EBV cells will be investigated. Any biomarker
identified in this first phase will then be validated on a new cohort of
patients, and its use in monitoring disease course will be evaluated (up to
month 24).
U.O.12 The innate immune response against EBV will be investigated.
Plasmacytoid DCs from MS patients will be characterized and their “ IFN-signature
” will be compared to that of healthy individuals (month 18). pDC
response to EBV will then be studied, and correlations will be made between
EBV-stimulated pDC and freshly isolated pDC from patients in the different
forms of the disease (up to month 24). Starting at month 7, this unit will also
perform studies on the oxidative status of the serum and CSF, measuring F-2
isoprostane levels (up to month 18).
U.O.13 This unit will perform gene expression profiling using the Illumina
technological platform on blood RNAs (up to month 18). Differentially
expressed genes will be then validated by PCR-based techniques, flow cytometry,
Elisa (up to month 24).
U.O.14 This unit will study autopsy CSF samples and paired CSF and
serum samples. Oligoclonal total IgG and EBV-specific bands will be determined
with isoelectric focusing and capillary immunoblotting; CXCL13, lymphotoxin-a,
Bcl-2, soluble CD8, soluble CD4, perforin, human Granzyme B,
and protein tau with ELISA; Nogo with Western blot (up to month 24).
U.O.15 This unit will determine: 1) a complete profile of the intrathecal
humoral immune response, IgM index included; 2) EBV specific CSF IgM; 3)
EBV seropositivity; 4) EBV DNA and antibodies against early lytic cycle viral
proteins in the CSF; 5) the number of Cortical Inflammatory Lesions by Double
Inversion Recovery (DIR) (up to month 18). The use of intrathecally synthesized
IgM and/or EBV specific IgM as biomarkers of the disease course
will also be investigated (up to month 24).
Si allega il programma della Unità Operativa 11 che fa capo alla
Fondazione Santa Lucia.
644 2009