Research Group: Anna Bardoni, Roberta Salvini, Simona Viglio, Paolo Iadarola

With the advent of proteomics, the screening of proteins as potential biomarkers of diseases has achieved important progresses. Detection and identification of proteins in different organs/tissues, with the aim of understanding whether they represent an attractive tool for monitoring alterations in these districts, is currently an area of increasing interest.
Clinical proteomics involves the application of proteomic technologies on clinical specimens such as biological fluids. In this context the current work of our laboratory is focused on the identification in biological fluids (sputum, exhaled breath condensate, broncoalveolar lavage fluid), lymphoblastoid cells and cellular extracts) of biomarkers of disorders of different origin.
In particular the following three lines of investigation are carried out:
(i) Study of proteomics/metabolomics of lung diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, α1-antitrypsin deficiency, bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, sarcoidosis)
(ii) Proteomic analysis of lymphoblastoid cells from patients affected by a rare neurodegenerative disorder (Nasu-Hakola disease).
(iii) Proteomic analysis of salivary glands and ovaries from the tick Ixodes ricinus
The identification of metabolites/proteins that could be biomarkers of lung and neurodegenerative disorders would help to monitor the progression of the disease severity. In addition, and potentially most intriguingly, these markers should be able to assess or predict changes of the disorder under investigation during interventional trials.

Recent Publications:

• Ciaramelli C, Fumagalli M, Viglio S, Bardoni AM, Piloni D, Meloni F, Iadarola P, Airoldi C. (1)H NMR To Evaluate the Metabolome of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid (BALf) in Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome (BOS): Toward the Development of a New Approach for Biomarker Identification. J Proteome Res. 2017; 16: 1669-1682.
• Airoldi C, Ciaramelli C, Fumagalli M, Bussei R, Mazzoni V, Viglio S, Iadarola P, Stolk J. (1)H NMR To Explore the Metabolome of Exhaled Breath Condensate in α(1)-Antitrypsin Deficient Patients: A Pilot Study. J Proteome Res. 2016; 15: 4569-4578.
• Giuliano S, Agresta AM, De Palma A, Viglio S, Mauri P, Fumagalli M, Iadarola P, Montalbetti L, Salvini R, Bardoni A. Proteomic analysis of lymphoblastoidcells from Nasu-Hakola patients: a step forward in our understanding of this neurodegenerative disorder. PLoS One. 2014; 9: e110073.