About the Authors

Raffaela Barbano

Contributed equally to this work with: Raffaela Barbano, Orazio Palumbo

Affiliation Laboratory of Oncology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Orazio Palumbo

Contributed equally to this work with: Raffaela Barbano, Orazio Palumbo

Affiliation Laboratory of Genetics, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Barbara Pasculli

Affiliation Department of Biosciences, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy

Marco Galasso

Affiliation LTTA, Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine, Human Anatomy Branch, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Stefano Volinia

Affiliation LTTA, Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine, Human Anatomy Branch, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Vincenzo D'Angelo

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Nadia Icolaro

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Michelina Coco

Affiliation Laboratory of Oncology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Lucia Dimitri

Affiliation Department of Pathology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Paolo Graziano

Affiliation Department of Pathology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Massimiliano Copetti

Affiliation Unit of Biostatistics, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Vanna Maria Valori

Affiliation Department of Oncology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Evaristo Maiello

Affiliation Department of Oncology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Massimo Carella

Affiliation Laboratory of Genetics, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Vito Michele Fazio

Affiliations Laboratory of Oncology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy, CIR Laboratory for Molecular Medicine and Biotechnology, University Campus Biomedico, Rome, Italy

Paola Parrella

pparrella@operapadrepio.it

Affiliation Laboratory of Oncology, “IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PP M. Carella VMF. Performed the experiments: RB OP BP M. Coco. Analyzed the data: RB BP OP MG SV M. Copetti M. Carella. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: VD NI LD MG SV M. Copetti LD PG VMV EM. Wrote the paper: PP RB OP BP SV PG EM M. Carella VMF.