1-Inflammatory myositis and lung fibrosis: our group has generated the largest international registry of patients with anti-synthetase syndrome, and leads an international task force to define classification criteria for this disorder granted by the American College of Rheumatology and the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR). Translational research is focused on the pathogenic role of myositis-specific autoantibodies, such as anti-MDA5, as well as on the ex-vivo and in-vivo studies of inhaled nanoparticles for the treatment of immune-mediated lung fibrosis.
2-Rheumatoid arthritis: a cohort of more than 1,200 patients has been followed since 2005 at our early arthritis clinic, and many outcome studies have been published. At present, residual pain in auto-antibody negative patients is the focus of our research as coordinators of the Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis Study Group of the Italian Society of Rheumatology. Translational researches by immunohistochemistry and single-cell analysis allowed us to obtain fundamental insights on the lymphoid structures in synovial tissue and subchondral bone leading to the chairmanship of the European Synovitis Study Group. At present the heterogeneity of rheumatoid synovium, obtained by mini-invasive biopsy techniques, is being analyzed by RAMAN spectroscopy to achieve information at sub-molecular level.
3-Systemic vasculitis: Our group participates in EULAR steering committees to draft recommendations for the management of ANCA-associated vasculitis and giant cell arteritis, as numerous studies on patient stratification and outcomes of both diseases have been conducted at our Center. Recently, an original ultrasound score has been proposed for the follow-up of patients with giant cell arteritis.
