Via Solaroli 17
Novara, 28100

1. Dissecting the impact of HPV infection on the innate immune response in target cells. Her current research focuses on the interplay between high-risk HPV infection (e.g. HPV16 and HPV18) and the innate immune response in keratinocytes. She has demonstrated that HPV18 persistence in keratinocytes inhibits both type I and III IFN production in response to DNA ligands, and that this effect is due to suppression of the cGAS–STING and RIG-I pathways (Albertini et al., 2018). She has provided new evidence that the E7 oncoprotein plays a central role in dampening host innate immunity through the induction of the H3K9-specific methyltransferase SUV39H1, the human homolog of the Drosophila Su(var)3-9 histone methyltransferase, which triggers histone H3Lys9 trimethylation (H3K9me3), inducing a chromatin conformational transition from an open to a closed state in RIG-I, STING, and cGAS promoters (Lo Cigno et al., 2020). She is currently working on targeting the histone deacetylase SIRT1, known to be strongly upregulated in HPV-infected/transformed cells, as a viable strategy to treat HPV-associated cancers. 

2. Role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts During Virus-induced Skin Carcinogenesis in the Elderly. Her laboratory studies the role of cancer-associated fibroblast during virus-induced skin carcinogenesis. In particular the project aims to isolate and characterize the Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC)-derived CAFs to determine their potential correlation with patients’ clinical outcome.