Luigi Pontieri

Luigi Pontieri
Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry · Department of Neurology

Postdoc
Research statistician at the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry

About

68
Publications
12,200
Reads
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407
Citations
Additional affiliations
June 2015 - June 2016
University of Pennsylvania
Position
  • PostDoc Position
January 2015 - March 2015
University of Copenhagen
Position
  • PostDoc Position
October 2010 - September 2014
University of Copenhagen
Position
  • PhD Student
Education
September 2006 - September 2009
University of Florence
Field of study
  • Behavioural Biology
September 2002 - July 2006
University of Bologna
Field of study
  • Biology

Publications

Publications (68)
Article
Full-text available
Ants are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily successful groups of animals and exhibit a remarkable degree of phenotypic diversity. This success is largely attributed to the fact that all ants are eusocial and live in colonies with a reproductive division of labor between morphologically distinct queen and worker castes. Yet, despite ove...
Article
Full-text available
Currently, there are limited therapeutic options for patients with non-active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Therefore, real-world studies have investigated differences between patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, non-active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, and active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. He...
Article
Full-text available
Ant colonies are higher-level organisms consisting of specialized reproductive and non-reproductive individuals that differentiate early in development, similar to germ–soma segregation in bilateral Metazoa. Analogous to diverging cell lines, developmental differentiation of individual ants has often been considered in epigenetic terms but the sets...
Article
Background: Real-world evidence regarding effectiveness and safety of ocrelizumab for treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) are limited. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of ocrelizumab treatment for MS in a real-world setting. Methods: We conducted a nationwide population-based cohort study where we analyzed clinical and MRI data...
Article
Full-text available
Social insect sex and caste ratios are well-studied targets of evolutionary conflicts, but the heritable factors affecting these traits remain unknown. To elucidate these factors, we carried out a short-term artificial selection study on female caste ratio in the ant Monomorium pharaonis. Across three generations of bidirectional selection, we obse...
Article
Full-text available
Background and Objective High‐efficacy (HE) disease‐modifying therapies (DMT) are increasingly used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). Concerns arise when considering the decreasing efficacy and increasing risk of adverse events in aging patients. We aimed to describe disease activity and treatment trajectories in patients with MS who de‐escalated f...
Article
Full-text available
Background In Denmark, specialized multiple sclerosis (MS) clinics offer free-of-charge treatment to people with MS. However, not all people with MS attend regular clinical follow-up. Objective To identify people with MS who do not attend Danish MS clinics and identify barriers to treatment. Methods The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry was link...
Article
Full-text available
Background Effectiveness of disease-modifying treatment (DMT) in people affected by primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) is limited. Whether specific subgroups may benefit more from DMT in a real-world setting remains unclear. Our aim was to investigate the potential effect of DMT on disability worsening among patients with PPMS stratified...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Understanding the long-term safety of disease-modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) in routine clinical practice can be undertaken through registry-based studies. However, variability of data quality across such sources poses the challenge of data fit for regulatory decision-making. CLARION, a non-interventional cohort safety stud...
Preprint
Full-text available
The first developmental table for an ant species, including embryonic, larval, and pupal development. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.22.423970v2
Article
Background Clinicians frequently rely on relapse counts, T2 MRI lesion load (T2L) and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores to guide treatment decisions for individuals diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). This study evaluates how these factors, along with age and sex, influence prognosis during treatment with teriflunomide (TFL). Meth...
Article
Full-text available
Background The Big Multiple Sclerosis Data (BMSD) network ( https://bigmsdata.org ) was initiated in 2014 and includes the national multiple sclerosis (MS) registries of the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, and Sweden as well as the international MSBase registry. BMSD has addressed the ethical, legal, technical, and governance-related challe...
Article
Full-text available
Background Treatment switching is a common challenge and opportunity in real-world clinical practice. Increasing diversity in disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) has generated interest in the identification of reliable and robust predictors of treatment switching across different countries, DMTs, and time periods. Objective The objective of this r...
Article
Full-text available
Background and purpose We evaluated whether there was a difference in the occurrence of relapses pre‐ and post‐COVID‐19 vaccination in a nationwide cohort of Danish patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. Methods We conducted a population‐based, nationwide cohort study with a cutoff date of 1 October 2022. We used McNemar tests to assess chang...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Prescribing guidance for disease-modifying treatment (DMT) in multiple sclerosis (MS) is centred on a clinical diagnosis of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). DMT prescription guidelines and monitoring vary across countries. Standardising the approach to diagnosis of disease course, for example, assigning RRMS or secondary progressive MS...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction/objectives Multiple sclerosis (MS) leads to physical and cognitive disability, which in turn impacts the socioeconomic status of the individual. The altered socioeconomic trajectory combined with the critical role of aging in MS progression could potentially lead to pronounced differences between MS patients and the general population....
Article
Full-text available
Background: Natalizumab is a widely used high-efficacy treatment in multiple sclerosis (MS). Real-world evidence regarding long-term effectiveness and safety is warranted. We performed a nationwide study evaluating prescription patterns, effectiveness, and adverse events. Methods: A nationwide cohort study using the Danish MS Registry. Patients...
Article
Full-text available
Background To assign a course of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) (SPMS) may be difficult and the proportion of persons with SPMS varies between reports. An objective method for disease course classification may give a better estimation of the relative proportions of relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS) and SPMS and may identify situations wh...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The clinical transition from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) to secondary progressive MS (SPMS) is often related to a period of diagnostic uncertainty delaying diagnosis. With emerging treatment options for SPMS how to identify RRMS patients at risk of SPMS and when to assign a SPMS diagnosis has become a matter of growin...
Article
Full-text available
Background Cladribine is a nucleoside analogue interfering with synthesis and repair of DNA. Treatment with cladribine leads to a preferential reduction in lymphocytes, resulting in profound depletion of B-cells with a rapid recovery of naïve B-cells, while T-cell show a lesser but long-lasting depletion It is approved for treatment of relapsing mu...
Article
Objective We investigated whether clinical rebound occurred after fingolimod discontinuation in a complete population of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in Denmark. We further identified clinical and demographical factors associated with disease reactivation after fingolimod discontinuation. Methods The population compr...
Article
Background The course of multiple sclerosis (MS) appears to be milder in recent decades. Objective To investigate how time from onset to disability milestones and how demographic and clinical characteristics have changed through subsequent onset cohorts of patients with MS. Methods In the nationwide Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, we have reg...
Preprint
Full-text available
Ant colonies are higher-level organisms consisting of specialized reproductive and non-reproductive individuals that differentiate early in development, similar to germ-soma segregation in bilateral Metazoa. Analogous to diverging cell lines, developmental differentiation of individual ants has often been considered in epigenetic terms, but the set...
Preprint
Full-text available
Ants exhibit remarkable phenotypic diversity and, with over approximately 16,000 species across 6 continents, represent one of the most evolutionarily and ecologically successful groups of animals. All ants are eusocial with a reproductive division of labor between morphologically and/or behaviourally distinct castes within a single species. This h...
Article
Full-text available
In social insects, cuticular hydrocarbons function in nest-mate recognition and also provide a waxy barrier against desiccation, but basic evolutionary features, including the heritability of hydrocarbon profiles and how they are shaped by natural selection are largely unknown. We used a new pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis) laboratory mapping pop...
Preprint
Full-text available
In social insects, cuticular hydrocarbons function in nestmate recognition and also provide a waxy barrier against desiccation, but basic evolutionary genetic features, including the heritability of hydrocarbon profiles and how they are shaped by natural selection are largely unknown. We used a new pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis) laboratory mapp...
Chapter
Full-text available
Article
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Animal gut microbiota affect host physiology and behaviour. In social insects, where colony level integrity is preserved via a nestmate discrimination system based on cuticular hydrocarbon mixtures, microorganismal effects may therefore influence social dynamics. Although nestmate recognition has undergone a thorough exploration during the last fou...
Preprint
Full-text available
Animal gut microbiota affect host physiology and behaviour. In eusocial Hymenoptera, where colony-level integrity is preserved via a nestmate discrimination system based on cuticular hydrocarbon mixtures, microorganismal effects may influence social dynamics. Although nestmate recognition has undergone a thorough exploration during the last four de...
Article
Full-text available
Background Reproductive division of labor in eusocial insects is a striking example of a shared genetic background giving rise to alternative phenotypes, namely queen and worker castes. Queen and worker phenotypes play major roles in the evolution of eusocial insects. Their behavior, morphology and physiology underpin many ecologically relevant col...
Article
Full-text available
Pulizie bestiali ETOLOGIA Dai cadaveri alle feci, le strategie seguite da diverse specie animali quando devono affrontare i rifiuti, che siano propri o di altri di Silvia Bencivelli e Luigi Pontieri Spazzini provetti. Esemplari di Atta cephalotes, una specie di formica che all'interno del nido costruisce camere speciali dove porta i rifiuti delle p...
Article
Full-text available
The ability of social insects to discriminate nestmates (NMs) from non-nestmates (nNMs) is mainly achieved through chemical communication. To ultimately understand this recognition and its decision rules, identification of the recognition cues is essential. Although recognition cues are most likely cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), identifying the exa...
Article
Full-text available
During colony relocation, the selection of a new nest involves exploration and assessment of potential sites followed by colony movement on the basis of a collective decision making process. Hygiene and pathogen load of the potential nest sites are factors worker scouts might evaluate, given the high risk of epidemics in group-living animals. Choos...
Thesis
Full-text available
The majority of eusocial insect species live in small, kin structured colonies that are mutually aggressive and rarely interact. By contrast, a restricted group of ant species show a peculiar social organization called unicoloniality, where colonies can grow to vast networks of geographically separated but mutually tolerant nests, also referred to...
Conference Paper
The ability of social insects to discriminate nestmates from non-nestmates is mainly achieved through chemical communication. To ultimately understand this recognition and its decision rules, identification of the recognition cues is very useful, if not essential. Although cuticular hydrocarbons are the prime suspect, identifying the exact recognit...
Conference Paper
The evolution of advanced eusocial insect colonies is based on kin-selected benefits from helping close relatives. Consequently, most ant, bee, wasp, and termite colonies are well-defined families competing against other such families. However, some ants seem to have secondarily abandoned the inclusive fitness laws of evolution to form large networ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The nesting site of social insect colonies determines local resource availability as well as exposure to competitors, predators, and pathogens. During colony relocation, nest site selection involves exploration and assessment of potential sites followed by colony movement on the basis of a collective decision making process. Nest hygiene and pathog...
Conference Paper
Disease dynamics in social groups are affected by selection both at the individual and group level. This is particularly true in social insects, where highly related individuals frequently interact within densely populated colonies in a confined nest environment, therefore increasing the pathogen transmission and the risk of infection. In response...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Colonies of the highly invasive pharaoh ant Monomorium pharaonis have low genetic diversity and are extremely genetically divergent, even within tropical populations where colonies are spatially close and free to move (Schmidt et al. 2010). This suggests that local mixing even of related colonies is very limited, and that budding often leads to new...
Article
Full-text available
Insect social life is governed by chemicals. A great number of studies have demonstrated that the blend of hydrocarbons present on the cuticle (CHCs) plays a pivotal role in intra- and inter-specific communication. It is not surprising, therefore, that social parasites, specialized in exploiting the costly parental care provided by host workers, ex...
Article
Full-text available
A colony of social insects is like a fortress where access is allowed only to colony members. The epicuticular mixture of hydrocarbons has been widely reported to be involved in nestmate recognition in insects. However, recent studies have shown that polar compounds (mainly peptides) are also present, mixed with hydrocarbons, on the cuticle of vari...

Questions

Question (1)
Question
Dear all,
I'm comparing observed and expected allele frequencies at specific loci using an exact multinomial test (I can't use the chi-square goodness of fit test because I have expected frequencies < 5, sometimes close to zero, and very small sample size). I was looking for an equivalent of the cramer phi for exact multinomial test (I can't find any by googling). If you are aware of a package in R that can do it (or a script), would be even better. Thanks

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