About the Authors

Erika Pietrolongo

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy

Andrea Giordano

Affiliation Unit of Neuroepidemiology, Foundation IRCCS Neurological Institute C. Besta, Milan, Italy

Monica Kleinefeld

Affiliation Unit of Neuroepidemiology, Foundation IRCCS Neurological Institute C. Besta, Milan, Italy

Paolo Confalonieri

Affiliation Unit of Neuromuscular Diseases, Foundation IRCCS Neurological Institute C. Besta, Milan, Italy

Alessandra Lugaresi

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy

Carla Tortorella

Affiliation Departments of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

Maura Pugliatti

Affiliation Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

Davide Radice

Affiliation Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy

Claudia Goss

Affiliation Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Christoph Heesen

Affiliation Institute for Neuroimmunology and Clinical MS Research (inims), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Alessandra Solari

solari@istituto-besta.it

Affiliation Unit of Neuroepidemiology, Foundation IRCCS Neurological Institute C. Besta, Milan, Italy

Competing Interests

PC has received speaker honoraria from Biogen Idec, and travel grants from Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Novartis and Sanofi Aventis. AL was a board member for Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, and Merck Serono; she has received travel grants and honoraria from Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis and Teva. CT has received speaker honoraria from Bayer Shering, Biogen Idec, Novartis, and Sanofi-Aventis. CH has received financial support from Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono and Teva. AS was a board member for Biogen Idec and Novartis, and has received speaker honoraria from Genzyme and Merck Serono. All other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AG CG CH AS. Performed the experiments: EP MK PC AL CT MP. Analyzed the data: EP AG DR AS. Wrote the paper: EP AG MK PC AL CT MP DR CG CH AS.