Physiopathology and therapy of autoimmune diseases
Tipologia: Immunologia
Principal Investigator: Bugatti
- Inflammatory myositis and lung fibrosis: our group has generated the largest international registry of patients with anti-synthetase syndrome, and leads an international task force to define classification criteria for this disorder granted by the American College of Rheumatology and the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR). Translational research is focused on the pathogenic role of myositis-specific autoantibodies, such as anti-MDA5, as well as on the ex-vivo and in-vivo studies of inhaled nanoparticles for the treatment of immune-mediated lung fibrosis.
- Rheumatoid arthritis: a cohort of more than 1,200 patients has been followed since 2005 at our early arthritis clinic, and many outcome studies have been published. At present, residual pain in auto-antibody negative patients is the focus of our research as coordinators of the Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis Study Group of the Italian Society of Rheumatology. Translational researches by immunohistochemistry and single-cell analysis allowed us to obtain fundamental insights on the lymphoid structures in synovial tissue and subchondral bone leading to the chairmanship of the European Synovitis Study Group. At present the heterogeneity of rheumatoid synovium, obtained by mini-invasive biopsy techniques, is being analyzed by RAMAN spectroscopy to achieve information at sub-molecular level.
- Systemic vasculitis: Our group participates in EULAR steering committees to draft recommendations for the management of ANCA-associated vasculitis and giant cell arteritis, as numerous studies on patient stratification and outcomes of both diseases have been conducted at our Center. Recently, an original ultrasound score has been proposed for the follow-up of patients with giant cell arteritis.
- Bugatti S., Caporali R., Manzo A., Vitolo B., Pitzalis C., Montecucco C., Involvement of subchondral bone marrow in rheumatoid arthritis: lymphoid neogenesis and in situ relationship to subchondral bone marrow osteoclast recruitment. Arthritis and Rheumatism, 2005;
- Codullo V., Cova E., Pandolfi L., Breda S., Morosini M., Frangipane V., Malatesta M., Calderan L., Cagnone M., Pacini C., Cavagna L., Recalde H., Distler J.H.W., Giustra M., Prosperi D., Colombo M., Meloni F., Montecucco C., Imatinib-loaded gold nanoparticles inhibit proliferation of fibroblasts and macrophages from systemic sclerosis patients and ameliorate experimental bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis. Journal of Controlled Release, 2019;
- Humby F., Durez P., Buch M.H., Lewis M.J., Rizvi H., Rivellese F., Nerviani A., Giorli G., Mahto A., Montecucco C., Lauwerys B., Ng N., Ho P., Bombardieri M., Romão V.C., Verschueren P., Kelly S., Sainaghi P.P., Gendi N., Dasgupta B., Cauli A., Reynolds P., Cañete J.D., Moots R., Taylor P.C., Edwards C.J., Isaacs J., Sasieni P., Choy E., Pitzalis C., R4RA collaborative group, Rituximab versus tocilizumab in anti-TNF inadequate responder patients with rheumatoid arthritis (R4RA): 16-week outcomes of a stratified, biopsy-driven, multicentre, open-label, phase 4 randomised controlled trial. Lancet, 2021;
- Bugatti S., De Stefano L., D'Onofrio B., Nicrosini A., Mauric E., di Lernia M., Sakellariou G., Favalli E.G., Manzo A., Caporali R., Montecucco C., Inflammatory correlates of the Patient Global Assessment of Disease Activity vary in relation to disease duration and autoantibody status in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, 2022;
- Monti S., Milanesi A., Klersy C., Tomelleri A., Dagna L., Campochiaro C., Farina N., Muratore F., Galli E., Marvisi C., Bond M., Berti A., Bortolotti R., Padoan R., Schiavon F., Felicetti M., Nannini C., Cantini F., Giollo A., Rossini M., Conticini E., Frediani B., Conti F., Priori R., Sebastiani M., Cassone G., Quartuccio L., Treppo E., Bettio S., Hoxha A., Lovisotto M., Emmi G., Mattioli I., Leccese P., Caporali R., Argolini L.M., Foti R., Visalli E., Colaci M., Salvarani C., Montecucco C., Italian Society of Rheumatology Vasculitis Study Group, Age at diagnosis influences the clinical phenotype, treatment strategies and outcomes in patients with giant cell arteritis: results from the observational GCAGE study on a large cohort of 1004 patients. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, 2023.
- Research ultrasound machines
- Florescent activated cell sorter
- Equipment for real-time PCR
- Cell culture safe cabinet, CO2 incubators, inverted microscope
- Microtome and embedding station
- Fluorescence microscope
- IRCCS S.Matteo, Ricerca Corrente: 08060818, 08060822, 08071319, 08072123, 08073121, 08073123;
- Ministero Salute, Ricerca Finalizzata: RF 2021-12374476;
- Ministero Università e Ricerca: PON n. 22-G-14933-1; PNRR- PNC E3-2022-23683267; PRIN 2022 prot. 202224H9JW9;
- EULAR/ACR grant P-20190088730;
- EUSTAR grant prot. n. 14604/2024;
- Fondazione CARIPLO grant F15D17000050005;
- Pfizer competitive program GMG#67133421.
- Centro Ricerche FIRA, Pisa, Italy;
- ICS Maugeri, Pavia, Italy;
- Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen, Germany;
- Queen Mary University of London, UK;
- University of Oxford, UK; University of Aberdeen, UK;
- IIS-Fundacion Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain;
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona, Switzerland;
- University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA, USA.
Dott. Cavagna Matteo
Dott. Manzo Antonio
Prof.ssa Bugatti Serena
Dott. Zanframundo Giovanni
Dott.ssa Rossi Silvia
Dott.ssa Bobbio Pallavicini Francesca
Dott.ssa Bogliolo Laura
Dott.ssa Codullo Veronica
GROUP MEMBERS:
- Università di Pavia: Sara Monti, Ludovico De Stefano, Emanuele Bozzalla Cassone, Alessandra Milanesi
- Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo: Blerina Xoxi, Margherita Barbieri, Terenzj Juvaro
Ultimo aggiornamento: 11/12/2025
