Clinical Immunology in Italy, with Special Emphasis to Primary and Acquired Immunodeficiencies: A Commemorative Issue in Honor of Prof. Fernando Aiuti

Dear Colleagues,

We dedicate this Special Issue to the memory of Prof. Fernando Aiuti, whom we lost 3 years ago.

Prof. Fernando Aiuti (1935–2019) was an internationally renowned immunologist, an outstanding and brilliant researcher with a solid post-doc scientific and clinical background in infectious diseases, who provided a relevant contribution to the birth of clinical immunology in Italy in the last decades of twentieth century. In fact, he was called to hold one of the first three chairs of Clinical Immunology in Italy in 1980, as full Professor of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Sapienza, University of Rome, a role he held for over a quarter of century. His scientific fields of interest ranged from basic immunology, where he provided relevant contributions with Hans Wigzell in Sweden at the start of 1970s for the identification of human T lymphocytes in normal and in immunodeficiency states, to clinical immunology, particularly in primary and acquired immunodeficiencies. Collaboration with the most renowned international groups of immunology and clinical immunology in Europe and the USA was a distinctive feature during his whole research career, in a period during which this attitude was common in Italy. He was an expert member of the Commission for Primary Immunodeficiencies of the World Health Organization, and his original contributions to the study of primary immunodeficiencies were in their diagnosis and pathogenesis, through their phenotypical characterization, and in treatment, with the then-pioneering bone-marrow and thymus transplantations. Together with Prof. Luisa Businco, who was full Professor of Pediatrics at Sapienza University of Rome, he funded the first Registry for Primary Immunodeficiencies in Italy, which now continues its relevant activity as the network for Primary Immunodeficiencies in Italy (IPINET). Together with other distinguished European Immunologists, Prof. Aiuti founded the European Group for Immunodeficiencies, which has now grown and developed into the European Society for Immunodeficiencies, which is very active in the field. Since 1981, with the first description of an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the main study interest of Fernando Aiuti was addressed to this new syndrome, in which he and his group provided many interesting scientific contributions in the epidemiology, pathogenesis, prophylaxis, and therapy of this disease. In this period of his scientific career, Prof. Aiuti strongly felt the need to get out of the secrecy of the researcher to make the solidity of scientific information available to the general population and to remove false beliefs that could lead to the discrimination of categories of society, thus taking a public, social role, in addition to the academic one. Prof. Aiuti was enthusiastic, moved by a sincere curiosity and the tireless willingness to look for an answer to the several scientific and clinical questions for the scientific development and in the interest of patients, towards whom he has always maintained a very warm, human and protective attitude. His contagious enthusiasm was a powerful spring for the scientific growth of his group, and with his collaborators he was demanding but faithful in his friendship.

In this commemorative Special Issue, the scope of which is to witness the great development of Clinical Immunology in the last few decades, we welcome scientific contributions in the fields of basic adaptive immunology and clinical immunology, including autoimmune and allergic diseases and tumor immunology, but with a special emphasis on primary and acquired immunodeficiencies.

Prof. Dr. Isabella Quinti
Prof. Dr. Alessandro Aiuti
Dr. Raffaele D’Amelio
Prof. Dr. Paolo Rossi
Guest Editors

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• basic immunology
• clinical immunology
• allergic diseases
• autoimmune diseases
• tumor immunology
• primary immunodeficiency diseases
• acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
• HIV
• bone marrow transplantation
• gene therapy
• humoral immunodeficiencies
• cellular immunodeficiencies
• auto-inflammatory diseases
• IVIg
• SCIg
• monoclonal antibodies
• vaccines