About the Authors

Marika Massaro

Contributed equally to this work with: Marika Massaro, Rosanna Martinelli

Affiliation National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy

Rosanna Martinelli

Contributed equally to this work with: Marika Massaro, Rosanna Martinelli

Affiliations CEINGE Biotecnologie Avanzate, Naples, Italy, Department of Medicine and Surgery of Salerno University, Salerno, Italy

Valentina Gatta

Affiliation “Gabriele d’Annunzio” University and Center of Excellence on Aging, Chieti, Italy

Egeria Scoditti

Affiliation National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy

Mariangela Pellegrino

Affiliations National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy, Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Technology (Disteba), University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

Maria Annunziata Carluccio

Affiliation National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy

Nadia Calabriso

Affiliation National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Clinical Physiology, Lecce, Italy

Tonia Buonomo

Affiliation CEINGE Biotecnologie Avanzate, Naples, Italy

Liborio Stuppia

Affiliation “Gabriele d’Annunzio” University and Center of Excellence on Aging, Chieti, Italy

Carlo Storelli

Affiliation Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Technology (Disteba), University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

Raffaele De Caterina

rdecater@unich.it

Affiliations “Gabriele d’Annunzio” University and Center of Excellence on Aging, Chieti, Italy, Fondazione Toscana “Gabriele Monasterio”, Pisa, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MM ES RDC. Performed the experiments: MM TB RM ES MP NC MAC. Analyzed the data: MM VG RM LS CS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TB RM LS RDC CS MAC. Wrote the paper: MM ES RDC. Revised the article: RDC. Approved the final manuscript: MM TB RM ES MP NC MAC RDC VG LS CS.