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After his university education and early clinical training in Italy, Professor Pitzalis came to England in 1985 as a Research Fellow to the Department of Rheumatology at Guy’s Hospital. Here he carried out full time laboratory research for 4 years that lead to a PhD at the University of London. He then went back to full time clinical training in General Medicine in the UK, gaining the MRCP in 1992. He returned to the Department of Rheumatology at Guy’s in 1993 as the Arthritis Research Campaign Lecturer/Senior Registrar. In 1996, he was awarded a Senior Lectureship/Career Development Award from the Wellcome Trust. In 2000 he was conferred the Chair of Experimental Rheumatology at King’s College London School of Medicine. In 2007 Professor Pitzalis was recruited to the William Harvey Research Institute to direct the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology.
He has published over 100 full papers, a large number in journals with an impact factor @ 5 or above. He has been awarded over £3.5 million in peer reviewed grants in the last 3 years including funding from the Wellcome Trust, MRC, Arthritis Research Campaign, Nuffield Foundation, European Union (FP6) as well as other smaller medical charities.
His clinical interests are mainly in immune/inflammatory rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis. His major research interests focus in the field of adhesion biology and in the pathogenetic mechanisms of damage and repair of joint tissues.
Current research interests
Professor Pitzalis’ principal interests revolve around the role of adhesion phenomena in the pathogenesis of immune mediated inflammation and how these processes can be modulated therapeutically both by conventional drugs e.g. glucocorticoids and new biologic agents. In addition, he has developed a novel platform technology: “the human/SCID mouse transplantation model” that has been successfully used for dissecting molecular mechanisms of inflammation and for targeting human synovial microvascular endothelium by in vivo phage display selection. More recently, with the recruitment of Dr F. Dell’Accio to the Department, the Centre has extended its interests into the arena of mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs) and signalling mechanisms in joint tissue damage and repair. The main research areas can be summarized as follows:
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Tissue specific homing in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation
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Chemokines in cell migration and neo-lymphogenesis
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Identification of novel of tissue specific ligands using phage display technology to target human tissues transplanted onto SCID mice.
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Functional studies of novel adhesion molecules using the human/SCID mouse transplantation model.
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Regulation of cell adhesion by glucocorticosteroids and new biologic agents
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Mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs) and signalling mechanisms in joint tissue damage and repair.
Pathobiology of Early Arthritis Cohort
The Pathobiology of Early Arthritis Cohort (PEAC) has been established through the contribution of a consortium of independent, national centres of excellence. The specific aims of this project are to create an extensively phenotyped cohort of patients with early inflammatory arthritis with linked, detailed pathobiological data.
See: http://www.peac-mrc.mds.qmul.ac.uk
Key publications
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Ciccia F, Bombardieri M, Principato A, Giardina A, Tripodo C, Porcasi R, Peralta S, Franco V, Giardina E, Craxi A, Pitzalis C, Triolo G. Overexpression of interleukin-23, but not interleukin-17, as an immunologic signature of subclinical intestinal inflammation in ankylosing spondylitis. Arthritis Rheum. 2009 Apr;60(4):955-65.
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Humby F, Bombardieri M, Manzo A, Kelly S, Blades MC, Kirkham B, Spencer J, Pitzalis C. Ectopic lymphoid structures support ongoing production of class-switched autoantibodies in rheumatoid synovium. PLoS Med. 2009 Jan 13;6(1):e1.
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Manzo A, Vitolo B, Humby F, Caporali R, Jarrossay D, Dell'accio F, Ciardelli L, Uguccioni M, Montecucco C, Pitzalis C. Mature antigen-experienced T helper cells synthesize and secrete the B cell chemoattractant CXCL13 in the inflammatory environment of the rheumatoid joint. Arthritis Rheum. 2008 Nov;58(11):3377-87.
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Francesca Barone, Michele Bombardieri, Manuela Maria Rosado, Peter Roger Morgan, Sthephen J. Challacombe, Salvatore De Vita, Rita Carsetti, Jo Spencer, Guido Valesini and Costantino Pitzalis. CXCL13, CCL21 and CXCL12 expression in salivary glands of patients with Sjogren’s Syndrome and MALT lymphoma: association with reactive and malignant areas of lymphoid organization. J Immunol. 2008 Apr 1;180(7):5130-40
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Kelly S, Taylor P, Pitzalis C. Ultrasound imaging in spondyloathropathies: from imaging to diagnostic intervention. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2008 Jul;20(4):408-15.
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Bombardieri M, Barone F, Humby F, Kelly S, McGurk M, Morgan P, Valesini V, Challacombe S, Spencer J and Pitzalis C. Activation-induced cytidine deaminase expression in germinal centers and large interfollicular B cells supports functionality of ectopic lymphoid neogenesis in reactive and neoplastic salivary glands of Sjogren’s syndrome. J Immunol. 2007 Oct 1;179(7): 4929-4939).
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Manzo A, Bugatti S, Caporali R, Prevo R, Jackson D.G, Uguccioni M, Buckley C.D, Montecucco C, Pitzalis C. CCL21 expression pattern of human secondary lymphoid organ stroma is conserved in inflammatory lesions with lymphoid neogenesis. Am J Pathol. 2007 Nov;171(5):1549-62
Pitzalis C, Garrood T. From ubiquitous antigens to joint-specific inflammation: could local vascular permeability be the missing link? Trends Immunol. 2006 Jul;27(7):299-302.
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