About the Authors

Angela Cardaci

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Salvatore Papasergi

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Angelina Midiri

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Giuseppe Mancuso

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Maria Domina

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Veronica Lanza Cariccio

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Francesca Mandanici

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Roberta Galbo

Affiliation Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita M. Malpighi, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Carla Lo Passo

Affiliation Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita M. Malpighi, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Ida Pernice

Affiliation Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita M. Malpighi, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Paolo Donato

Affiliation Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Messina, Italy

Susanna Ricci

Affiliation Dipartimento di Biotecnologia, Università di Siena, Siena, Italy

Carmelo Biondo

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Giuseppe Teti

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Franco Felici

Affiliation Dipartimento S.T.A.T., Università del Molise, Pesche (IS), Italy

Concetta Beninati

cbeninati@unime.it

Affiliation The Elie Metchnikoff Department, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: two authors declare a potential conflict of financial interest as employee (PD) or consultant (GT) of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors have no other competing financial interests.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AC SP GM MD RG C. Biondo GT FF C. Beninati. Performed the experiments: AM VLC FM. Analyzed the data: GM PD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CP IP SR. Wrote the paper: GT C. Beninati.