Alan
GRUPIONI LOURENCO

SCIENTIFIC PROJECT

"Deciphering the Type I Interferon Response Across Multiple Body Compartments in Patients with Sjogren s Syndrome"

Type I interferons (IFN-I) are key mediators of innate immune defense. They are activated by a wide range of viruses and can serve as a universal marker for viral infections. Additionally, the IFN-I response plays an important role in autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren’s Disease (SjD), with studies identifying overexpression of IFN-I-induced genes in the peripheral blood and salivary glands of SjD patients.
The diagnosis of SjD is complex and requires an evaluation of medical history, laboratory tests, and salivary gland biopsy. To date, no laboratory marker has been established as the gold standard for diagnosing or classifying this disease. Elevated IFN-I levels, observed in various autoimmune disorders, suggest that this cytokine could serve as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis or monitoring of SjD.

This project aims to investigate the IFN-I response in different compartments of SjD patients, seeking to identify associations between cytokine levels and clinical and laboratory parameters. Examining IFN-I levels across various body compartments will enhance the understanding of the disease’s symptomatic characteristics and support its differential diagnosis.

BIOGRAPHY

Alan Grupioni Lourenço graduated in Dentistry from the Ribeirão Preto School of Dentistry (USP) in 2001. He went on to complete a Master's degree (2007) and a PhD (2011) in Medical Sciences at the same institution. He also holds a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Jacques-Lisfranc Faculty of Medicine at Jean Monnet-Saint-Etienne University (2011). Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Paediatrics at the Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine (USP) in 2015, he completed a specialisation in oral pathology at the São Leopoldo Mandic School of Dentistry in 2018. His research focuses on infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, as well as diagnostic and disease activity biomarkers in infectious and immune disorders. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Basic and Oral Biology at the Ribeirão Preto School of Dentistry (USP), where he teaches general and oral pathology.