Università della Svizzera italiana

Rational modification of estrogen receptor by combination of computational and experimental analysis

Ferrero, Valentina Elisabetta Viviana ; Pedotti, Mattia ; Chiadò, Alessandro ; Simonelli, Luca ; Calzolai, Luigi ; Varani, Luca ; Lettieri, Teresa

In: Plos one, 2014, vol. 9, no. 7, p. e102658

In this manuscript, we modulate the binding properties of estrogen receptor protein by rationally modifying the amino acid composition of its ligand binding domain. By combining sequence alignment and structural analysis of known estrogen receptor- ligand complexes with computational analysis, we were able to predict estrogen receptor mutants with altered binding properties. These predictions...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Rational engineering of a human anti-dengue antibody through experimentally validated computational docking

Simonelli, Luca ; Pedotti, Mattia ; Beltramello, Martina ; Livoti, Elsa ; Calzolai, Luigi ; Sallusto, Federica ; Lanzavecchia, Antonio ; Varani, Luca

In: Plos one, 2013, vol. 8, no. 2, p. e55561

Antibodies play an increasing pivotal role in both basic research and the biopharmaceutical sector, therefore technology for characterizing and improving their properties through rational engineering is desirable. This is a difficult task thought to require high-resolution x-ray structures, which are not always available. We, instead, use a combination of solution NMR epitope mapping and ...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Computational docking of antibody-antigen complexes, opportunities and pitfalls illustrated by influenza hemagglutinin

Pedotti, Mattia ; Simonelli, Luca ; Livoti, Elsa ; Varani, Luca

In: International journal of molecular sciences, 2011, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 226-251

Antibodies play an increasingly important role in both basic research and the pharmaceutical industry. Since their efficiency depends, in ultimate analysis, on their atomic interactions with an antigen, studying such interactions is important to understand how they function and, in the long run, to design new molecules with desired properties. Computational docking, the process of predicting...

Università della Svizzera italiana

A bispecific immunotweezer prevents soluble PrP oligomers and abolishes prion toxicity

Bardelli, Marco ; Frontzek, Karl ; Simonelli, Luca ; Hornemann, Simone ; Pedotti, Mattia ; Mazzola, Federica ; Carta, Manfredi ; Eckhardt, Valeria ; D’Antuono, Rocco ; Virgilio, Tommaso ; González, Santiago F. ; Aguzzi, Adriano ; Varani, Luca

In: Plos pathogens, 2018, vol. 14, no. 10, p. e1007335

Antibodies to the prion protein, PrP, represent a promising therapeutic approach against prion diseases but the neurotoxicity of certain anti-PrP antibodies has caused concern. Here we describe scPOM-bi, a bispecific antibody designed to function as a molecular prion tweezer. scPOM-bi combines the complementarity-determining regions of the neurotoxic antibody POM1 and the neuroprotective...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Antibody binding modulates conformational exchange in domain III of dengue virus E protein

Moraes, Adolfo H. ; Simonelli, Luca ; Pedotti, Mattia ; Almeida, Fabio C.L. ; Varani, Luca ; Valente, Ana P.

In: Journal of virology, 2016, vol. 90, no. 4, p. 1802-1811

Domain III of dengue virus E protein (DIII) participates in the recognition of cell receptors and in structural rearrangements required for membrane fusion and ultimately viral infection; furthermore, it contains epitopes for neutralizing antibodies and has been considered a potential vaccination agent. In this work, we addressed various structural aspects of DIII and their relevance for both...