ISSN 0390-6078 Volume 105 OCTOBER 2020 - S2 XVI Congress of the Italian Society of Experimental Hematology Napoli, Italy, October 15-17, 2020 ABSTRACT BOOK www.haematologica.org XVI Congress of the Italian Society of Experimental Hematology Napoli, Italy, October 15-17, 2020 COMITATO SCIENTIFICO Pellegrino Musto, Presidente Antonio Curti, Vice Presidente Mario Luppi, Past President Francesco Albano Niccolò Bolli Antonella Caivano Roberta La Starza Luca Malcovati Luca Maurillo Stefano Sacchi SEGRETERIA SIES Via De' Poeti, 1/7 - 40124 Bologna Tel. 051 6390906 - Fax 051 4210174 e-mail: [email protected] www.siesonline.it SEGRETERIA ORGANIZZATIVA Studio ER Congressi Via De' Poeti, 1/7 - 40124 Bologna Tel. 051 4210559 - Fax 051 4210174 e-mail: [email protected] www.ercongressi.it ABSTRACT BOOK supplement 2 - October 2020 Table of Contents XVI Congress of the Italian Society of Experimental Hematology Napoli, Italy, October 15-17, 2020 Main Program . 1 Best Abstracts . 20 Oral Communications Session 1. C001-C008 Acute Leukemia 1 . 23 Session 2. C009-C016 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia 1 . 28 Session 3. C017-C024 Multiple Myeloma 1 . 32 Session 4. C025-C032 Benign Hematology . 36 Session 5. C033-C040 Multiple Myeloma 2 . 42 Session 6. C041-C048 Acute Leukemia 2 . 45 Session 7. C049-C056 Molecular Hematology . 50 Session 8. C057-C064 Lymphomas. 54 Session 9. C065-C072 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia 2 . 57 Session 10. C073-C080 Myelodisplastic Syndromes and Acute Leukemia . 62 Session 11. C081-C088 Myeloproliferative Disorders and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia . 66 Session 12. C089-C096 Stem Cell Transplantation. 71 Posters Session 1. P001 Stem cells and growth factors . 76 Session 2. P002-P004 Molecular Hematology . 76 Session 3. P005-P016 Myeloproliferative Disorders and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia . 78 Session 4. P017-P018 Myelodysplastic Syndromes . 83 Session 5. P019-P043 Acute Leukemia. 84 Session 6. P044-P050 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Chronic Lymphoproliferative Disorders . 97 Session 7. P051-P057 Lymphomas . 100 Session 8. P058-P063 Monoclonal Gammopathies and Multiple Myeloma. 104 Session 9. P064-P069 Stem Cell Transplantation . 107 Session 10. P070 Immunotherapy and Cell Therapy. 109 Haematologica 2020; vol. 105; supplement 2 - October 2020 http://www.haematologica.org/ XVI Congress of the Italian Society of Experimental Hematology Napoli, Italy, October 15-17, 2020 MAIN PROGRAM HYPOTESIS-DRIVEN DISSECTION OF MOLECULAR COMPO- NENTS OF INNATE IMMUNITY AND INFLAMMATION: FROM CANCER TO COVID-19 A. Gomes,1 B. Bottazzi,1 M. Locati,1,2 C. Garlanda,1,3 A. Mantovani1,3,4 1Humanitas Clinical and Research Center – IRCCS, Rozzano (Mi) - Italy; 2Department of Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano; 3Humanitas University, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Pieve Emanuele – Milan, Italy; 4The William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, United Kingdom Inflammation is a manifestation of innate immunity and has emerged as a metanarrative of modern medicine (Mantovani et al., Immunity, 2019; Furman et al., Nature Medicine, 2019), a component of diverse disease ranging from cancer to COVID-19 (Mantovani et al., Nature 2008; Mantovani e Netea, New England Journal of Medicine, 2020 in press). Dissection of the diversity and complexity of regulatory pathways Figure 1. Selected genes (in red) involved in innate immunity inflammation of innate immunity has taken advantage of hypothesis driven and non- discovered and functionally characterized by the authors. Unbiased fishing hypothesis driven approaches. was coupled with hypothesis-driven experimental approaches. IL-1 is the prototypic member of a complex family of cytokines and receptors which play a central role in innate immunity and in the activa- tion and regulation of adaptive immune responses (Mantovani et al. References Immunity, 2019). Based on structure, we originally hypothesized that Mantovani A, Dinarello CA, Molgora M, Garlanda C. Interleukin-1 and Related IL-1R2 should behave as a decoy receptor, a tenet confirmed by extensive Cytokines in the Regulation of Inflammation and Immunity. Immunity. experimental data. In the same line, we cloned IL-1R8 and focused on it 2019;50(4):778-795. doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2019.03.012 Furman D, Campisi J, Verdin E, et al. Chronic inflammation in the etiology of dis- based on the hypothesis that it would behave as a negative regulator. IL- ease across the life span. Nat Med. 2019;25(12):1822-1832. 1R8 was then found to be a negative regulator of signaling downstream doi:10.1038/s41591-019-0675-0 Mantovani A, Allavena P, Sica A, Balkwill F. Cancer-related inflammation. Nature. of members of the IL-1 and Toll like receptor (TLR) family and a com- 2008;454(7203):436-444. doi:10.1038/nature07205 ponent of the receptor complex recognized by the anti-inflammatory Mantovani A, Netea M immunosuppression cytokine IL-37. Trained Innate Immunity: epigenetics and Covid-19 New Engl J Med, 2020, in press. As a result of a fishing expedition we originally cloned PTX3 as a Garlanda C, Bottazzi B, Magrini E, Inforzato A, Mantovani A. PTX3, a Humoral gene induced by IL-1 (Garlanda et al., Physiol Rev, 2020). This distant Pattern Recognition Molecule, in Innate Immunity, Tissue Repair, and Can- relative of C reactive protein (CRP) was then found to represent an essen- cer. Physiol Rev. 2018;98(2):623-639. doi:10.1152/physrev.00016.2017 Macropahge expression and prognostic significance of the long pentraxin PTX3 tial component of the humoral of innate immunity playing a role in in COVID-19 antimicrobial resistance and in the regulation of inflammation. The latter Enrico Brunetta, Marco Folci, Barbara Bottazzi, Maria De Santis, Alessandro Prot- includes selected solid tumors and hematological malignancies (Garlanda ti, Sarah Mapelli, Roberto Leone, Ilaria My, Monica Bacci, Veronica Zanon, Gi anmarco Spata, Andrea Gianatti, Marina Sironi, Claudio Angelini, Cecilia Gar- et al., Physiol Rev, 2020). We also cloned in silico PTX4, but its function landa, Michele Ciccarelli, Maurizio Cecconi, Alberto Mantovani remains to be defined. Interestingly, PTX3 was recently found to be high- medRxiv 2020.06.26.20139923; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.26.20139923 ly expressed in monocytes and lung macrophages at population and sin- Locati m, Curtale G, Mantovani A. Diversity, Mechanisms and Significance of Macrophage Plasticity. Ann Rev Pathol 2020; 15:123-47 gle cell level in COVID-19 and to represent a candidate novel biomarker Mantovani A, Marchesi F, Malesci A, Laghi L, Allavena P. Tumour-associated of disease severity (Brunetta et al., medRxiv, 2020). Stemming from our macrophages as treatment targets in oncology. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. interest in macrophage diversity and polarization (Locati, Curtale, Man- 2017;14(7):399-416. doi:10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.217 Jaillon S, Ponzetta A, Di Mitri D, Santoni A, Bonecchi R, Mantovani A. Neutrophil tovani, Ann Rev Pathol 2020; Mantovani et al., Nature Rev. Clin. Onc. diversity and plasticity in tumour progression and therapy. Nat Rev Cancer. 2017; Jaillon et al., Nature Rev Cancer 2020). We identified the tetraspan 2020;20(9):485-503. doi:10.1038/s41568-020-0281-y MS4A4A, a gene of unknown function, as a gene associated with M2- Mattiola I, Tomay F, De Pizzol M, et al. The macrophage tetraspan MS4A4A enhances dectin-1-dependent NK cell-mediated resistance to metastasis. Nat like macrophage polarization (Mattiola et al., Nat Immunol. 2019). We Immunol. 2019;20(8):1012-1022. doi:10.1038/s41590-019-0417-y found that MS4A4A partner with Dectin-1 and is essential for full syk signalling downstream of this pattern recognition receptors. The exam- ples discussed above, selected from our previous and ongoing research efforts, highlight the complexity of innate immunity and its regulation. The dissection of the daunting complexity and diversity of cellular and human innate immunity requires the use of unbiased non-hypothesis- driven approaches complemented by hypothesis-driven, biased experi- mental and clinical testing. haematologica | 2020; 105(s2) | S1 Main Program “OMICS” APPROACHES AND BIG DATA ANALYSES ered a cornerstone of Italian hematology. In the following years he quick- 2 G.S. Vassiliou ly became one of the leader in this field of medicine. Ferrata soon felt Cambridge, UK the need for an Italian scientific journal that would become a means of disseminating research in the hematology field in Europe. The project Throughout human history big advances have followed “disrup- was developed in Naples in 1920 during a meeting in the “Gambrinus” 3 tive” changes in technology or society. The examples go as far back as café, between Ferrata and Carlo Moreschi (1876-1921). The latter had the first agricultural revolution of more than 10,000 years ago, which been a pupil of Camillo Golgi (1943-1926) and, subsequently, worked changed human civilisation irrevocably. Biology and Medicine are in Paul Ehrlich’s laboratory in Frankfurt. In 1907 and in 1908, he devel- currently going through their most dramatic period of progress in liv- oped the antiglobulin test, rediscovered many years later by Robin ing memory, driven by advances in omics and high-content data analy- Coombs (and known nowadays as “Coombs test”). Ferrata and Moreschi ses. These approaches are not only useful in improving our under- therefore launched the Haematologica under the best auspices of the standing and ability to classify, but also represents powerful engines of Neapolitan sun. Initially published in Naples by the typography “N. discovery. Furthermore, these technologies operate on different mathe- Jovene & Co.”, in 1924 the editorial office of the journal followed Ferrata matical scales to romantic human endeavour and promise to effect who had obtained the chair of medical clinic at the University of Pavia. exponential progress that will transform Medicine as we know it. The first article in the new journal was signed by Camillo Golgi, the Brace yourselves! most prestigious name of Italian medicine, also known for his hemato- logical studies on malarial infection.