Publications

Brucella are facultative intracellular bacteria that chronically infect humans and animals causing brucellosis. Brucella are able to invade and replicate in a broad range of cell lines in vitro, however the cells supporting bacterial growth in vivo are largely unknown. In order to identify these, we used a Brucella melitensis strain stably expressing mCherry fluorescent protein to determine the phenotype of infected cells in spleen and liver, ...

The alveolar region of the lung is an important target for drug and gene delivery approaches. Treatment with drugs is often necessary under pathophysiological conditions, in which there is acute inflammation of the target organ. Therefore, in vitro models of the alveolar-capillary barrier, which mimic inflammatory conditions in the alveolar region, would be useful to analyse and predict effects of novel drugs on healthy or inflamed tissues. The ...

Hypoxia is a common feature of the tumor microenvironment and a major cause of clinical radioresistance. During the last decades, several strategies to improve tumor oxygenation were developed such as breathing high oxygen content gas tinder hyperbaric conditions (3 atmosphere) and improving tumor perfusion by nicotinamide.. in combination with carbogen breathing and accelerated radiotherapy to counteract tumor repopulation (ARCON). Other ...

Background: OVX836 is a recombinant protein vaccine targeting the highly conserved influenza nucleoprotein (NP), which could confer broad-spectrum protection against this disease. Methods: This was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, dose-escalating, single center first-in-human study, conducted in 36 healthy adults aged 18-49 years. Twelve subjects per cohort (9 vaccine and 3 placebo) received two OVX836 intramuscular ...

Purpose/Objective: Immune ageing or immunosenescence, contributes to the increased morbidity and mortality seen in the elderly. Premature immunosenescence is shown to occur in patients with multiple sclerosis(MS). The main characteristic of immunosenescence is the expansion of CD4+ CD28- T cells in the peripheral blood. We showed that these cells accumulate in brain lesions of MS patients CD24+ CD28- T cells have a cytotoxic profile, shown by ...

Type 1 diabetes is characterized by local inflammation (insulitis) in the pancreatic islets causing β-cell loss. The mitochondrial p athway of apoptosis is regulated by the balance and interaction between Bcl-2 members. Here we clarify the molecular mechanism of β-cell death triggered by the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ. The combination of TNF-α + IFN-γ induced DP5, PUMA, and Bim expression in ...

Background Optimization of the current dendritic cell (DC) culture protocol in order to promote the therapeutic efficacy of DC-based immunotherapy is warranted. Alternative differentiation of monocyte-derived DCs using granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin (IL)-15 has been propagated as an attractive strategy in that regard. The applicability of these so-called IL-15 DCs has not yet been firmly established. We ...

Background. Superantigens and eicosanoids are important amplifiers and regulators of inflammation in airway diseases. We therefore studied the possible influence of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B ( SEB) on the cyclooxygenase ( COX) pathway and basic functions of airway structural cells. Methods. Fibroblasts were isolated from nasal inferior turbinate tissue and cultured in the presence of different concentrations of SEB. Preincubation with ...