Tumor immunology and cancer vaccines - Arianna Palladini

Arianna Palladini, PI, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Pavia
Unità Operativa di Oncologia, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia,
Email: arianna.palladini@unipv.it
Phone: +39 3497510077

Lab members

Mariateresa Frascino (PhD student)
Helios Ramon Recalde (MD)
Patrick L.S. Michel (MSc, fellow)
Ilaria Candida Chillico (MSc, fellow)
Negar Nikfar (BSc, MSc internship)
Camilla Maria Luisa Meletti Cavallari (BSc, MSc internship)
Nastaran Haghighatgoo (BSc, MSc internship)
Marco Galimberti (BSc internship)

Alumni

Irene Siracusa (BSc, fellow)
Beatrice Bisanti (MSc)
Mary Pitzalis (MSc)
Martina Di Noia (MSc)
Arianna Livraghi (BSc)
Luna Vailati (BSc)

Cancer vaccines may become a key resource to prevent the tumor onset in patients at high-risk of developing cancer and at the same time may be an alternative for patients that had experience of drug resistance and no medication can be administered any longer. Besides, cancer vaccines are an affordable strategy, especially those based on mRNA and DNA technologies, for tumors bearing uncommon or rare mutations.

Our mission is to define antigens exploitable for the development of vaccines against lung cancer and other tumors. We propose a multidisciplinary circular approach. We start from the patient and the study of the clinical case. We provide a molecular characterization of the tumor and its microenvironment, an analysis of the spontaneous immune reactivity against the tumor. We aim to investigate the protein structure of candidate antigens and their functional role is assessed through in vitro studies. Then, candidate antigens are tested by in silico trials to access the next phase consisting of the in vivo validation.

At the end this process we release promising oncoantigens useful for the development of vaccines able to offer a therapeutic alternative to cancer patients.

Link

Angelicola S, Giunchi F, Ruzzi F, Frascino M, Pitzalis M, Scalambra L, Semprini MS, Pittino OM, Cappello C, Siracusa I, Chillico IC, Di Noia M, Turato C, De Siervi S, Lescai F, Ciavattini T, Lopatriello G, Bertoli L, De Jonge H, Iamele L, Altimari A, Gruppioni E, Ardizzoni A, Rossato M, Gelsomino F, Lollini PL, Palladini A. PD-L1 and IFN-γ modulate Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) cell plasticity associated to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-mediated hyperprogressive disease (HPD). J Transl Med. 2025 Jan 2;23(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s12967-024-06023-8. PMID: 39748404.

Di Federico A, Angelicola S, Frascino M, Siracusa I, Bisanti B, Ruzzi F, Semprini MS, De Jonge H, De Giglio A, Sperandi F, Brocchi S, Melotti B, Giunchi F, Gruppioni E, Altimari A, Lollini PL, Ardizzoni A, Palladini A*, Gelsomino F*. Clinical and Preclinical Activity of EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Harboring BRAF Class 3 Mutations. JCO Precis Oncol. 2024 Dec;8:e2400240. doi: 10.1200/PO.24.00240. Epub 2024 Dec 5. PMID: 39637338; PMCID: PMC11661570.

Ruzzi F, Semprini MS, Scalambra L, Angelicola S, Cappello C, Pittino OM, Nanni P, Palladini A*, Lollini PL*. Functional evaluation of circulating anti-cancer antibodies with a 3D tumor cell growth inhibition assay. Methods Cell Biol. 2024;190:75-86. doi: 10.1016/bs.mcb.2024.08.010. Epub 2024 Sep 24. PMID: 39515883.

Ruzzi F, Cappello C, Semprini MS, Scalambra L, Angelicola S, Pittino OM, Landuzzi L, Palladini A, Nanni P, Lollini PL. Lipid rafts, caveolae, and epidermal growth factor receptor family: friends or foes? Cell Commun Signal. 2024 Oct 11;22(1):489. doi: 10.1186/s12964-024-01876-4. PMID: 39394159; PMCID: PMC11468060.

Editorial: Inhibitors of CDK family: New perspective and rationale for drug combination in preclinical models of solid tumors. Cavazzoni A, Palladini A.Front Oncol. 2023 Mar 28;13:1180650. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1180650. eCollection 2023.PMID: 37056348 Free PMC article. 

ADK-VR2, a cell line derived from a treatment-naïve patient with SDC4-ROS1 fusion-positive primarily crizotinib-resistant NSCLC: a novel preclinical model for new drug development of ROS1-rearranged NSCLC. Ruzzi F, Angelicola S, Landuzzi L, Nironi E, Semprini MS, Scalambra L, Altimari A, Gruppioni E, Fiorentino M, Giunchi F, Ferracin M, Astolfi A, Indio V, Ardizzoni A, Gelsomino F, Nanni P, Lollini PL, Palladini A.Transl Lung Cancer Res. 2022 Nov;11(11):2216-2229. doi: 10.21037/tlcr-22-163.PMID: 36519016 Free PMC article.

 Immune checkpoint inhibitors in lung tumors with rare histologies and other thoracic malignancies. Andrini E, Federico AD, Sisi M, Rosellini M, Palladini A, Lamberti G, Giglio A, Gelsomino F.Immunotherapy. 2022 Nov;14(16):1329-1340. doi: 10.2217/imt-2022-0060. Epub 2022 Nov 16.PMID: 36382476 Review.

Ruzzi, F.; Palladini, A.; Clemmensen, S.; Strøbæk, A.; Buijs, N.; Domeyer, T.; Dorosz, J.; Soroka, V.; Grzadziela, D.; Rasmussen, C.J.; Nielsen, I.B.; Soegaard, M.; Semprini, M.S.; Scalambra, L.; Angelicola, S.; Landuzzi, L.; Lollini, P.-L.; Thorn, M. Prevention and Therapy of Metastatic HER-2⁺ Mammary Carcinoma with a Human Candidate HER-2 Virus-like Particle Vaccine. Biomedicines 2022, 10, 2654. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10102654

Di Federico, A.; De Giglio, A.; Gelsomino, F.; De Biase, D.; Giunchi, F.; Palladini, A.; Sperandi, F.; Melotti, B.; Ardizzoni, A. Genomic Landscape, Clinical Features and Outcomes of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Harboring BRAF Alterations of Distinct Functional Classes. Cancers 2022, 14, 3472. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14143472

Di Federico A, Filetti M, Palladini A, Giusti R, Piras M, De Giglio A, Ardizzoni A, Gelsomino F. (2022) EGFR-RAD51 gene fusion NSCLC responsiveness to different generation EGFR TKIs: two cases and review of the literature. Translational Lung Cancer Research.

Giusti V, Ruzzi F, Landuzzi L, Ianzano ML, Laranga R, Nironi E, Scalambra L, Nicoletti G, De Giovanni C, Olivero M, Arigoni M, Calogero R, Nanni P, Palladini A*, Lollini PL*. (2021) Evolution of HER2-positive mammary carcinoma: HER2 loss reveals claudin-low traits in cancer progression. Oncogenesis.

Angelicola S, Ruzzi F, Landuzzi L, Scalambra L, Gelsomino F, Ardizzoni A, Nanni P, Lollini P-L, Palladini A. (2021) IFN-γ and CD38 as possible factors in hyperprogressive disease development. Cancers.

Palladini A, Thrane S, Janitzek CM, Pihl J, Clemmensen SB, de Jongh WA, Clausen TM, Nicoletti G, Landuzzi L, Penichet ML, Balboni T, Ianzano ML, Giusti V, Theander TG, Nielsen MA, Salanti A, Lollini PL, Nanni P, Sander AF. (2018) Virus-like particle display of HER2 induces potent anti-cancer responses, Oncoimmunology.

Palladini A, Landuzzi L, Lollini PL, Nanni P (2018). Cancer immunoprevention: from mice to early clinical trials. BMC Immunol.