Dr. Sebastiano Gattoni-Celli

Education
M.D., University of Naples Medical School

Contact
Email: gattonis@musc.edu
Office Phone: (843) 876-5103

Research
In the last couple of years, we have completed two FDA-approved phase I clinical studies using semi-allogeneic vaccines for the immunotherapy of patients with metastatic melanoma or adenocarcinomas (colorectal or pancreatic cancers) who had failed other standard treatments. The results of these clinical studies indicate that this novel treatment can lead to the generation of a cell-mediated immune response against the patients’ autologous tumor. Currently, under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute, we are conducting pre-clinical studies to determine the potential efficacy of semi-allogeneic hybrids for immunotherapy of AIDS. Thus far, these studies have been extremely promising and indicate that peripheral white blood cells (derived from HIV-infected patients) exposed to semi-allogeneic vaccines in vitro can develop cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses specific to HIV-derived gag and env antigens. The completion of these feasibility studies would allow us to propose phase I/II clinical studies on AIDS patients.