About the Authors

Ylenia Ingrasciotta

Contributed equally to this work with: Ylenia Ingrasciotta, Janet Sultana, Francesco Giorgianni, Andrea Fontana, Domenico Santoro, Gianluca Trifirò

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

Janet Sultana

Contributed equally to this work with: Ylenia Ingrasciotta, Janet Sultana, Francesco Giorgianni, Andrea Fontana, Domenico Santoro, Gianluca Trifirò

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

Francesco Giorgianni

Contributed equally to this work with: Ylenia Ingrasciotta, Janet Sultana, Francesco Giorgianni, Andrea Fontana, Domenico Santoro, Gianluca Trifirò

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

Andrea Fontana

Contributed equally to this work with: Ylenia Ingrasciotta, Janet Sultana, Francesco Giorgianni, Andrea Fontana, Domenico Santoro, Gianluca Trifirò

Affiliation Unit of Biostatistics, IRCCS "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza", San Giovanni Rotondo (FG), Italy

Antonio Santangelo

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

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

Daniele Ugo Tari

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Caserta Local Health Service, Caserta, Italy

Domenico Santoro

Contributed equally to this work with: Ylenia Ingrasciotta, Janet Sultana, Francesco Giorgianni, Andrea Fontana, Domenico Santoro, Gianluca Trifirò

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

Vincenzo Arcoraci

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

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

Margherita Perrotta

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Caserta Local Health Service, Caserta, Italy

Luisa Ibanez

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Fundació Institut Català de Farmacologia, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology, Institut Català de la Salut, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Gianluca Trifirò

Contributed equally to this work with: Ylenia Ingrasciotta, Janet Sultana, Francesco Giorgianni, Andrea Fontana, Domenico Santoro, Gianluca Trifirò

trifirog@unime.it

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

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GT DS. Performed the experiments: GT YI FG AF. Analyzed the data: FG YI AF GT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GT VA. Wrote the paper: YI JS FG AF DS VA DUT LI MP AS GT.