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

HMGB1 promotes recruitment of inflammatory cells to damaged tissues by forming a complex with CXCL12 and signaling via CXCR4

Schiraldi, Milena ; Raucci, Angela ; Martínez Muñoz, Laura ; Livoti, Elsa ; Celona, Barbara ; Venereau, Emilie ; Apuzzo, Tiziana ; De Marchis, Francesco ; Pedotti, Mattia ; Bachi, Angela ; Thelen, Marcus ; Varani, Luca ; Mellado, Mario ; Proudfoot, Amanda ; Bianchi, Marco Emilio ; Uguccioni, Mariagrazia

In: The journal of experimental medicine, 2012, vol. 209, no. 3, p. 551-563

After tissue damage, inflammatory cells infiltrate the tissue and release proinflammatory cytokines. HMGB1 (high mobility group box 1), a nuclear protein released by necrotic and severely stressed cells, promotes cytokine release via its interaction with the TLR4 (Toll-like receptor 4) receptor and cell migration via an unknown mechanism. We show that HMGB1- induced recruitment of inflammatory...