A5013074495- T-cell and Retrovirus Studies
- Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology
- Galectins and Cancer Biology
- Vector-Borne Animal Diseases
- Immune Cell Function and Interaction
- COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- RNA regulation and disease
- Viral Infections and Immunology Research
- interferon and immune responses
- Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology
- Cytokine Signaling Pathways and Interactions
- Gut microbiota and health
- COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Respiratory viral infections research
- Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes
- Extracellular vesicles in disease
- Asthma and respiratory diseases
- Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Interstitial Lung Diseases and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
- SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing
- Neonatal Health and Biochemistry
- T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Research
Rega Institute for Medical Research
2014-2025
KU Leuven
2012-2024
Understanding the pathology of COVID-19 is a global research priority. Early evidence suggests that respiratory microbiome may be playing role in disease progression, yet current studies report contradictory results. Here, we examine potential confounders by analyzing upper (n = 58) and lower 35) tract well-phenotyped patients controls combining sequencing, viral load determination, immunoprofiling. We find time intensive care unit type oxygen support, as well associated treatments such...
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination has resulted in excellent protection against fatal disease, including older adults. However, risk factors for post-vaccination COVID-19 are largely unknown. We comprehensively studied three large nursing home outbreaks (20-35% cases among residents) by combining severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) aerosol monitoring, whole-genome phylogenetic analysis and immunovirological profiling of nasal mucosa digital nCounter...
Abstract IFN-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15) deficiency in humans leads to severe IFNopathies and mycobacterial disease, the latter being previously attributed its extracellular cytokine-like activity. In this study, we demonstrate a novel role for secreted ISG15 as an IL-10 inducer, unique primary human monocytes. A balanced ISG15-induced monocyte/IL-10 versus lymphoid/IFN-γ expression, correlating with p38 MAPK PI3K signaling, was found using targeted vitro ex vivo systems analysis of...
Abstract Background Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV-1) is the causative agent of incapacitating, neuroinflammatory disease HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). Currently, there are no disease-modifying therapies with long-term clinical benefits or validated biomarkers for follow-up in HAM/TSP. Although CD80 and CD86 costimulatory molecules play prominent roles immune regulation reflect status multiple sclerosis (MS), data HAM/TSP lacking. Methods Using...
HTLV-1 is an enigmatic retrovirus triggering a debilitating neuroinflammatory disease, HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM), with unknown pathogenesis. Both infection and HAM predominantly affect women non-white neglected populations. lacking disease-modifying treatment, as current treatment mostly symptomatic inspired by either HIV-1 or multiple sclerosis therapeutic strategies. We used systems biology analyses of novel publicly available data comprising (epi)genomics, transcriptomics,...
Abstract Background HTLV-1-Associated Myelopathy/Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is an incapacitating neuroinflammatory disorder for which no disease-modifying therapy available, but corticosteroids provide some clinical benefit. Although HAM/TSP pathogenesis not fully elucidated, older age, female sex and higher proviral load are established risk factors. We investigated systemic cytokines a novel chronic inflammatory marker, GlycA, as possible biomarkers of immunopathogenesis...
Background Clear therapeutic guidelines for HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) are missing due to the lack of randomized double-blind controlled clinical trials. Moderate yet similar benefit has been demonstrated IFN-α and high-dose ascorbic acid (AA) monotherapy in a large open trial. However, there is vivo vitro studies exploring comparing effects AA treatment context HAM/TSP. Therefore, we performed first comparative analysis ex molecular cellular...
Abstract With an estimated 65 million individuals suffering from Long COVID, validated therapeutic strategies as well non-invasive biomarkers are direly needed to guide clinical management. We used blood digital transcriptomics in search of viral persistence and COVID diagnostic a real-world, general practice-based setting with long follow-up. demonstrate systemic SARS-CoV-2 for more than 2 years after acute COVID-19 infection. A 2-gene biomarker, including FYN antisense RNA, correctly...
Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is a unique retrovirus associated with both leukemogenesis and specific neuroinflammatory condition known as HTLV-1-Associated Myelopathy (HAM). Currently, most proposed HAM biomarkers require invasive CSF sampling, which not suitable for large cohorts or repeated prospective screening. To identify non-invasive incident in Brazilian cohort of PLwHTLV-1 (n=615 6,673 person-years clinical follow-up), we selected all plasma samples available at the...
Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is an aggressive, chemotherapy-resistant CD4+CD25+ caused by HTLV-1 infection, which usually develops in a minority of patients several decades after infection. IFN + AZT combination therapy has shown clinical benefit ATL, although its mechanism action remains unclear. We have previously that IFN-responsive FAS promoter polymorphism STAT1 binding site (rs1800682) associated to ATL susceptibility and survival. Recently, CD4 T stem cell memory (TSCM) Fashi cells...
Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-1 was the first human retrovirus to be associated cancer, namely Adult Leukemia (ATL), but its pathogenesis remains enigmatic, since only a minority of infected individuals develops either ATL or neuroinflammatory disorder HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). A functional FAS -670 polymorphism in an interferon (IFN)-regulated STAT1-binding site has been both and HAM/TSP susceptibility. Fashi T stem cell memory (Tscm)...
HTLV-1-Associated Myelopathy (HAM/TSP) is a progressive neuroinflammatory disorder for which no disease-modifying treatment exists. Modest clinical benefit from type I interferons (IFN-) in HAM/TSP contrasts with its recently identified IFN-inducible gene signature. In addition, IFN- vivo decreases proviral load and immune activation HAM/TSP, whereas IFN- therapy tax mRNA lymphoproliferation. We hypothesize this "IFN paradox" might be explained by both cell type- gene-specific effects...
Retinoic acid‐related drugs have shown promising pre‐clinical activity in Adult T‐cell Leukemia/Lymphoma, but RORC signaling has not been explored. Therefore, we investigated transcriptome‐wide interactions of the pathway HTLV‐1 and ATL, using our own publicly available gene expression data for ATL other leukemias. Gene from patients were analyzed WGCNA to determine modules their correlation clinical molecular data. Both PBMCs CD4 + T‐Cells exhibited decreased four different cohorts. A small...
We investigate the emergence, mutation profile, and dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.214.2, first identified in Belgium January 2021. This variant, featuring a 3-amino acid insertion spike protein similar to Omicron was speculated enhance transmissibility or immune evasion. Initially detected international travelers, it substantially transmitted Central Africa, Belgium, Switzerland, France, peaking April Our travel-aware phylogeographic analysis, incorporating travel history,...
Abstract Understanding the pathology of COVID-19 is a global research priority. Early evidence suggests that respiratory microbiome may be playing role in disease progression, yet current studies report contradictory results. Here, we examine potential confounders by analyzing upper (n=58) and lower (n=35) tract well-phenotyped patients controls combining sequencing, viral load determination, immunoprofiling. We found time intensive care unit type oxygen support, both which are associated to...
<title>Abstract</title> COVID-19 vaccination has resulted in excellent protection against fatal disease, including the elderly. However, risk factors for post-vaccination are largely unknown. We comprehensively studied three large nursing home outbreaks (20-35% cases) by combining SARS-CoV-2 aerosol monitoring, whole-genome phylogenetic analysis, and immunovirological profiling digital nCounter transcriptomics. Phylogenetic investigations indicated each outbreak stemmed from a single...
Tattermusch et al (2012) identified an IFN-inducible gene signature in whole blood of HAM/TSP patients, with a strong myeloid component, while abortive HTLV-1 infection induces monocyte apoptosis (Sze al. 2013). We previously demonstrated that B cell CD80 expression correlates to disease severity (Menezes 2014), whereas CD86 is selectively up-regulated by IFN-beta both and multiple sclerosis (MS). In this study, we propose type-and gene-specific, rather than generalized IFN response HAM/TSP....
<title>Abstract</title> We investigate the emergence, mutation profile, and dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.214.2, first identified in Belgium January 2021. This variant, featuring a 3-amino acid insertion spike protein similar to Omicron was speculated enhance transmissibility or immune evasion. Initially detected international travelers, it substantially transmitted Central Africa, Belgium, Switzerland, France, peaking April Our travel-aware phylogeographic analysis, incorporating...
Fas/FasL-mediated apoptosis is crucial for a functional immune response, with deficient Fas/FasL expression being linked to several autoimmune diseases. In addition, FAS-670 polymorphism in an interferon (IFN)-regulated STAT1-binding site has been associated both ATL (Farre et al., 2008) and HAM/TSP (Vallinotto 2012) susceptibility. Recently, Fas also identified as part of IFN-regulated gene signature (Tattermusch 2012). Therefore, we examined function lymphocyte activation, apoptosis,...