Diletta Di Mitri

The tumor microenvironment Unit is focused on the investigation of the mechanisms exploited by the tumor to escape from the immune response and to re-educate the immune infiltrate in its favor. We combine multi-parametric flow cytometry and advanced RNA sequencing approaches to dissect at the single cell level the mechanisms underlying the evasion of cancer from the immune recognition. We take advantage of transgenic mouse models developing cancer at different progression stages, in order to explore in vivo the interaction between the tumor and its immune microenvironment, to evaluate the impact of the immune subsets in metastasis formation and to test new therapeutic approaches aimed at limiting cancer progression. The group is also investigating the correlation between the immune landscape of prostate cancer patients and the resistance to therapies. Final scope is to offer new and efficient therapeutic strategies to treat advanced cancers.

1. Jaillon S, Ponzetta A, Di Mitri D, Santoni A, Bonecchi R, Mantovani A. Neutrophil diversity and plasticity in tumour progression and therapy Nat Rev Cancer. 2020 Jul 21. doi: 10.1038/s41568-020-0281-y. Online ahead of print. PMID: 326946241.
2. Di Mitri D, Mirenda M, Vasilevska J, Calcinotto A, Delaleu N, Revandkar A, Gil V, Boysen G, Losa M, Mosole S, Pasquini E, D’Antuono R, Masetti M, Zagato E, Chiorino G, Ostano P, Rinaldi A, Gnetti L, Graupera M, Martins Figueiredo Fonseca AR, Pereira Mestre R, Waugh D, Barry S, De Bono J, Alimonti A. Re-education of Tumor-Associated Macrophages by CXCR2 Blockade Drives Senescence and Tumor Inhibition in Advanced Prostate Cancer. Cell Rep. 2019 Aug 20;28(8):2156-2168.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.07.068.
3. Arianna Calcinotto, Clarissa Spataro, Diletta Di Mitri, Elena Zagato, Veronica Gil, Mateus Crespo, Semini Sumanasuriya, Gaston De Bernardis, Marco Losa, Emiliano Pasquini, Adam Sharp, David Dolling, Alberto Briganti, Antonio Esposito, Simon Barry, Johann De Bono & Andrea Alimonti. Nature, accepted. IL23 secreted by myeloid-derived suppressor cells confers castration resistance in prostate cancer. Nature. 2018 Jul;559(7714):363-369. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0266-0. Epub 2018 Jun 27. PMID: 29950727
4. Di Mitri D, Sambucci M, Loiarro M, De Bardi M, Volpe E, Cencioni MT, Gasperini C, Centonze D, Sette C, Akbar AN, Borsellino G, Battistini L. The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade modulates T helper type 17 differentiation and functionality in multiple sclerosis. Immunology. 2015 Oct;146(2):251-63. doi: 10.1111/imm.12497. Epub 2015 Jul 6. PubMed PMID: 26095162; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4582966.
5. Di Mitri D, Toso A, Chen JJ, Sarti M, Pinton S, Jost TR, D’Antuono R, Montani E, Garcia-Escudero R, Guccini I, Da Silva-Alvarez S, Collado M, Eisenberger M, Zhang Z, Catapano C, Grassi F, Alimonti A. Tumour-infiltrating Gr-1+ myeloid cells antagonize senescence in cancer. Nature. 2014 Nov 6;515(7525):134-7. doi: 10.1038/nature13638. Epub 2014 Aug 24. PubMed PMID: 25156255.