Ricerc@Sapienza

The human leukocyte antigen HLA-B27 is a strong risk factor for Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), an immune-mediated disorder affecting axial skeleton and sacroiliac joints. Additionally, evidence exists sustaining a strong protective role for HLA-B27 in viral infections. These two aspects could stem from common molecular mechanisms. Recently, we have found that the HLA-B*2705 presents an EBV epitope (pEBNA3A-RPPIFIRRL), lacking the canonical B27 binding motif but known as immunodominant in the HLA-B7 context of presentation.

Often chosen as the privileged setting for plays, poems, and novels, Italy has been one of the core English literary imageries from the Middle Ages to the late Victorian era and beyond. However, more than an actual geographical space, the presence of Italian locations within the corpus of British literature can be configured as a distinctive discursive practice disclosing a variety of literary possibilities or, as what Roland Barthes would say, a situation d’écriture: a writing situation capable of conveying an inexhaustible basin of themes and conventions.