About the Authors

Antonella De Luca

Affiliations Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy, Italy

Agostinho Carvalho

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Cristina Cunha

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Rossana G. Iannitti

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Lucia Pitzurra

Affiliations Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, Microbiology, S. Maria della Misericordia Medical Center, Perugia, Italy

Gloria Giovannini

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Antonella Mencacci

Affiliations Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, Microbiology, S. Maria della Misericordia Medical Center, Perugia, Italy

Lorenzo Bartolommei

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Silvia Moretti

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Cristina Massi-Benedetti

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Dietmar Fuchs

Affiliation Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

Flavia De Bernardis

Affiliation Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy, Italy

Paolo Puccetti

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Luigina Romani

lromani@unipg.it

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PP LR AC. Performed the experiments: ADL AC CC LP RGI GG AM LB SM CMB. Analyzed the data: ADL PP LR AC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DF FDB. Wrote the paper: PP LR AC.