Università della Svizzera italiana

The antibody response to Plasmodium falciparum : cues for vaccine design and the discovery of receptor-based antibodies

Tan, Joshua ; Piccoli, Luca ; Lanzavecchia, Antonio

In: Annual Review of Immunology

P. falciparum remains a serious public health problem and a continuous challenge for the immune system due to the complexity and diversity of the pathogen. Recent advances from several laboratories in the characterization of the antibody response to the parasite have led to the identification of critical targets for protection and revealed a new mechanism of diversification based on the...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Identification and structure of a multidonor class of head-directed influenza-neutralizing antibodies reveal the mechanism for its recurrent elicitation

Sao-Fong Cheung, Crystal ; Fruehwirth, Alexander ; Paparoditis, Philipp Carl Georg ; Shen, Chen-Hsiang ; Foglierini, Mathilde ; Joyce, M. Gordon ; Leung, Kwanyee ; Piccoli, Luca ; Rawi, Reda ; Silacci-Fregni, Chiara ; Tsybovsky, Yaroslav ; Verardi, Raffaello ; Wang, Lingshu ; Wang, Shuishu ; Yang, Eun Sung ; Zhang, Baoshan ; Zhang, Yi ; Chuang, Gwo-Yu ; Corti, Davide ; Mascola, John R. ; Shapiro, Lawrence ; Kwong, Peter D. ; Lanzavecchia, Antonio ; Zhou, Tongqing

In: Cell reports, 2020, vol. 32, no. 9, p. 12 p

Multidonor antibodies are of interest for vaccine design because they can in principle be elicited in the general population by a common set of immunogens. For influenza, multidonor antibodies have been observed against the hemagglutinin (HA) stem, but not the immunodominant HA head. Here, we identify and characterize a multidonor antibody class (LPAF-a class) targeting the HA head. This class...

Università della Svizzera italiana

A LAIR-1 insertion creates broadly reactive antibodies against malaria variant antigens

Tan, Joshua ; Pieper, Kathrin ; Piccoli, Luca ; Abdi, Abdirahman ; Tully, Claire Maria ; Foglierini Perez, Mathilde ; Geiger, Roger ; Jarrossay, David ; Maina Ndungu, Francis ; Wambua, Juliana ; Bejon, Philip ; Silacci Fregni, Chiara : Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland ; Fernandez-Rodriguez, Blanca ; Barbieri, Sonia ; Bianchi, Siro ; Marsh, Kevin ; Thathy, Vandana ; Corti, Davide ; Sallusto, Federica ; Bull, Peter ; Lanzavecchia, Antonio

In: Nature, 2016, vol. 529, p. 25 p

Plasmodium falciparum antigens expressed on the surface of infected erythrocytes are important targets of naturally acquired immunity against malaria, but their high number and variability provide the pathogen with a powerful means of escape from host antibodies1,2,3,4. Although broadly reactive antibodies against these antigens could be useful as therapeutics and in vaccine design, their...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Neutralization and clearance of GM-CSF by autoantibodies in pulmonary alveolar proteinosis

Piccoli, Luca ; Campo, Ilaria ; Fregni, Chiara Silacci ; Fernandez Rodriguez, Blanca Maria ; Minola, Andrea ; Sallusto, Federica ; Luisetti, Maurizio ; Corti, Davide ; Lanzavecchia, Antonio

In: Nature communications, 2015, vol. 6, p. 7375

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a severe autoimmune disease caused by autoantibodies that neutralize GM-CSF resulting in impaired function of alveolar macrophages. In this study, we characterize 21 GM-CSF autoantibodies from PAP patients and find that somatic mutations critically determine their specificity for the self-antigen. Individual antibodies only partially neutralize GM-CSF...