About the Authors

Anna Rita Zuena

Contributed equally to this work with: Anna Rita Zuena, Chiara Giuli

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, I Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Chiara Giuli

Contributed equally to this work with: Anna Rita Zuena, Chiara Giuli

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, I Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Aldina Venerosi Pesciolini

Affiliation Section of Neurotoxicology & Neuroendocrinology, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

Antonella Tramutola

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, I Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Maria Antonietta Ajmone-Cat

Affiliation Section of Neurotoxicology & Neuroendocrinology, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

Carlo Cinque

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, I Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Giovanni Sebastiano Alemà

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, I Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Angela Giovine

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, I Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Gianfranco Peluso

Affiliation Institute of Biochemistry of Proteins, CNR, Naples, Italy

Luisa Minghetti

Affiliation Section of Experimental Neurology, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

Raffaella Nicolai

Affiliation Therapeutic Area Life Cycle Management, Corporate R&D Sigma-Tau S.p.A., Pomezia, Rome, Italy

Gemma Calamandrei

gemma.calamandrei@iss.it

Affiliation Section of Neurotoxicology & Neuroendocrinology, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

Paola Casolini

Affiliation Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, I Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Competing Interests

Doctor Raffaella Nicolai is employed at Sigma-tau S.p.A. as Medical Research Senior Advisor; Raffaella Nicolai and Paola Casolini have been designated among inventors in the following European patent application: 11137170.3-2112 “Compound useful for preventing cognitive deficit disorders in a new born from HIV-seropositive pregnant female who is on treatment with azidothymidine”. Part of this study has been financially supported by Sigma Tau-IFR S.p.A., Italy that has synthesized and provided L-acetylcarnitine. Sigma-tau is an Italian pharmaceutical company involved in research on carnitine system which produces and sells carnitine as drugs. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. There are no other competing interests to declare.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GC PC AVP. Performed the experiments: ARZ CG AVP AT MAAC CC AG GP. Analyzed the data: ARZ CG AVP GSA LM RN GC PC. Wrote the paper: GC PC LM RN.