About the Authors

Giovanna Zanoni

Contributed equally to this work with: Giovanna Zanoni, Riccardo Navone, Claudio Lunardi

Affiliation Section of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Riccardo Navone

Contributed equally to this work with: Giovanna Zanoni, Riccardo Navone, Claudio Lunardi

Affiliation Section of Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Claudio Lunardi

Contributed equally to this work with: Giovanna Zanoni, Riccardo Navone, Claudio Lunardi

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: claudio.lunardi@univr.it

Affiliation Section of Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Giuseppe Tridente

Affiliation Section of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Caterina Bason

Affiliation Section of Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Simona Sivori

Affiliation Section of Histology, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genova, Genova, Italy

Ruggero Beri

Affiliation Section of Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Marzia Dolcino

Affiliation Immunology Unit, Institute G. Gaslini, Genova, Italy

Enrico Valletta

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy

Roberto Corrocher

Affiliation Section of Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Antonio Puccetti

Affiliations Section of Histology, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genova, Genova, Italy , Immunology Unit, Institute G. Gaslini, Genova, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

GZ, CL, and AP conceived the idea and were the principal investigators of the Verona and Genova teams, respectively. RN screened the peptide library and performed the majority of the experiments. CB was responsible for purification of the antibodies. RB performed some of the ELISA tests. MD synthesized the peptides used throughout the study. SS performed the FACS analysis. EV was responsible for the pediatric patients selection. GT and RC advised on the preparation of the report. CL and AP wrote the article with input from GZ.