Prof. Antonio Bertoletti

Prof. Antonio Bertoletti's current research focuses on the development of new immunological based therapies (TCR-redirected T cells, HLA-peptide specific antibodies) for the treatment of HBV and Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and the characterization of human intra-sinusoidal hepatic immune system.

Prof. Antonio Bertoletti is trained as a specialist in Infectious Diseases and have always been interested in the immunological control of persistent viral infections, particularly Hepatitis B (HBV).

During his research career, first in USA (The Scripps Research Institute) and then in Italy (University of Parma), Prof Bertoletti was the first to characterize hepatitis B virus (HBV)–specific human CD8 T cells in HBV infected patients (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1991 88: 10445), and to define the effect of HBV mutations in HBV-specific CTL function (Nature 1994 369: 407-J. Exp. Med. 1994 180: 933)

He moved to London (University College of London) in 1997, where he pioneered the use of HLA-tetramers in HBV infected subjects and used them to characterize the role of HBV-specific T cells in viral control and disease pathogenesis (J. Exp. Med. 2000, 191: 1269 ,J. Exp. Med, 2002 195: 1089; J. Virol, 2004, 78;5707)

In 2006 Prof.Bertoletti moved to Singapore, motivated by the opportunity to build on the understanding of HBV infection, a worldwide serious health problem that is over-represented in Asia and he became the Director of Infection and Immunity Program at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (A*STAR) until 2013, after which he joined as a Professor in the Emerging Infectious Disease Programme at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in the same year.

In Prof. Bertoletti's laboratory they characterized the impact of Asian HLA- class I profile and HBV genotypes on on HBV immunopathogenesis (J. Virol. 2008 82: 10986, Gastroenterology 2012, 43 :637; J Clin Invest. 2013 123(9):3766). His current research focuses on the development of new immunological based therapies (TCR-redirected T cells, HLA-peptide specific antibodies) for the treatment of HBV and Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and the characterization of human intra-sinusoidal hepatic immune system.

 

Education

Board certified in Infectious Diseases, University of Parma (1991)
MD in Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma (1987)

Specialties

Infection and Immunity

Research area

HBV Immunopathogenesis and T cell immunotherapy

Selected publications

Cheng Y, Zhu YO, Becht E, Aw P, Chen J, Poidinger M, de Sessions PF, Hibberd ML, Bertoletti A, Lim SG, Newell EW. Multifactorial heterogeneity of virus-specific T cells and association with the progression of human chronic hepatitis B infection. Sci Immunol. 2019 Feb 8;4(32). pii: eaau6905. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.aau6905.

Tan AT, Yang N, Krishnamoorthy TL, Oei V, Chua A, Xinyuan Z, Si TH, Chia A, Le Bert N, Low D, Tan HK, Kumar R, Irani FG, Zong HZ, Zhang Q, Guccione E, Lu-En W, Koh S, Hwang W, Chow WC, Bertoletti A, Use of Expression Profiles of HBV DNA Integrated Into Genomes of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells to Select T Cells for Immunotherapy, Gastroenterology (2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2019.01.251.

Bertoletti A, Kennedy PTF. HBV antiviral immunity: not all CD8 T cells are born equal, Gut. 2019 Jan 30. pii: gutjnl-2018-317959. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2018-317959.

Khakpoor A, Ni Y, Chen A, Ho ZZ, Oei V, Yang N, Giri R, Chow JX, Tan AT, Kennedy PT, Maini M, Urban S, Bertoletti A. Spatiotemporal Differences in Presentation of CD8 T Cell Epitopes during Hepatitis B Virus Infection. J Virol. 2019 Feb 5;93(4). pii: e01457-18. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01457-18

Otano I, Escors D, Schurich A, Singh H, Robertson F, Davidson BR, Fusai G, Vargas FA, Tan ZMD, Aw JYJ, Hansi N, Kennedy PTF, Xue SA, Stauss HJ, Bertoletti A, Pavesi A, Maini MK. Molecular Recalibration of PD-1+ Antigen-Specific T Cells from Blood and Liver. Mol Ther. 2018 Nov 7;26(11):2553-2566. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.08.013.

Salimzadeh L, Le Bert N, Dutertre CA, Gill US, Newell EW, Frey C, Hung M, Novikov N, Fletcher S, Kennedy PT, Bertoletti A. PD-1 blockade partially recovers dysfunctional virus-specific B cells in chronic hepatitis B infection. J Clin Invest. 2018 Aug 7. pii: 121957. doi: 10.1172/JCI121957.

For more publications, please visit:
https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/directory/detail/antonio-bertoletti

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