Luciana D’Apice
luciana.dapice@cnr.it | +39 0816132584
Rossella Sartorius
rossella.sartorius@cnr.it | +39 0816132716

URL (group home page)
Institute
Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Via Pietro Castellino 111 , 80131 Napoli
Tel. 0816132273
http://www.ibbc.cnr.it

Luciana D’Apice  

Rossella Sartorius 

• Development of new antigen delivery systems.
  Using the phage display platform as a vehicle able to induce antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells we perform analysis of the in vitro and in vivo immune response to delivered antigens, in wild type and transgenic mouse models. Administration of recombinant bacteriophage displaying tumor-associated antigens is able to generate protective immune response inhibiting tumor growth in animal models.
  fd vectors, engeneered by us for targeting dendritic cells confer adjuvanticity and activate both innate and adaptive immune responses. 
• TCR transmembrane modifications.
  Cellular therapy using T cells transduced with TCR genes specific for relevant pathogens is an appealing therapeutic strategy. We have described  transmembrane modifications of alpha and beta TCR chains that improve TCR functions that can be useful for translational application in adoptive T cell therapy.
•  Production of innovative immune assays based on surrogate viruses
  The measurement of neutralizing antibodies could have key implications in determining individual or herd immunity against pathogen infection, vaccine effectiveness, and the duration of the humoral protective response. Is based on microneutralization assays and pathogen manipulation, posing biosafety concerns. To overcome these issues, we propose neutralization assays based on surrogate viruses that can be manipulated under BSL-2 conditions and carry reporter genes for high-content screening. Moreover, we produce engineered target cell lines for better virus-target interaction.

• Sartorius R, D’Apice L, Barba P, Cipria D, Grauso L, Cutignano A, De Berardinis P. Vectorized Delivery of Alpha-GalactosylCeramide and Tumor Antigen on Filamentous Bacteriophage fd Induces Protective Immunity by Enhancing Tumor-Specific T Cell Response. Front Immunol. 2018 Jun 28;9:1496. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01496. PMID: 30002659; PMCID: PMC6031736.
• Manco R, D’Apice L, Trovato M, Lione L, Salvatori E, Pinto E, Compagnone M, Aurisicchio L, De Berardinis P, Sartorius R. Co-Delivery of the Human NY-ESO-1 Tumor-Associated Antigen and Alpha-GalactosylCeramide by Filamentous Bacteriophages Strongly Enhances the Expansion of Tumor Specific CD8+ T Cells. Viruses. 2023 Mar 2;15(3):672. doi: 10.3390/v15030672. PMID: 36992381; PMCID: PMC10059692
• D’Apice L, Trovato M, Gramigna G, Colavita F, Francalancia M, Matusali G, Meschi S, Lapa D, Bettini A, Mizzoni K, Aurisicchio L, Di Caro A, Castilletti C, De Berardinis P. Comparative analysis of the neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan-Hu-1 strain and variants of concern: Performance evaluation of a pseudovirus-based neutralization assay. Front Immunol. 2022 Sep 26;13:981693. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.981693. PMID: 36225911; PMCID: PMC9549111.
• D’Apice L, Cuccaro F, Varriale S, Cipria D, Sartorius R, Circosta P, Cignetti A, Salerno M, Coscia MR, Oreste U, Marzullo VM, Martini G, Acuto O, De Berardinis P. An Ig Transmembrane Domain Motif Improves the Function of TCRs Transduced in Human T Cells: Implications for Immunotherapy. J Immunother. 2019 May;42(4):97-109. doi:10.1097/CJI.0000000000000259. PMID: 30865026.
• Sartorius R, Trovato M, Manco R, D’Apice L, De Berardinis P. Exploiting viral sensing mediated by Toll-like receptors to design innovative vaccines. NPJ Vaccines. 2021 Oct 28;6(1):127. doi: 10.1038/s41541-021-00391-8. PMID: 34711839; PMCID: PMC8553822

Phage display, FACS analysis, T cell transduction, surrogate viruses, in vivo tumor regression analysis, neutralizing assays