From the ∗Department of Translational Medicine, University of Eastern Piedmont, Novara

†Unit of Infectious Diseases, Saint Andrea Hospital, Vercelli, Italy.

Correspondence to: Lucio Boglione, MD, PhD, Department of Translational Medicine (DiMET), University of Eastern Piedmont, Via Solaroli 17 - 28100 Novara. E-mail: [email protected].

The authors have no funding or conflicts of interest to disclose.

The study was approved by local ethics committee (4/8/2020).

The data analyzed in the present study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

The study protocol was approved by the local ethics committee: “Comitato Etico Interaziendale ASL VC” (4/8/2020; protocol number: 0026301). This study that involves human participants is in compliance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.