Publicaties

BACKGROUND: Foodborne diseases are important worldwide, resulting in considerable morbidity and mortality. To our knowledge, we present the first global and regional estimates of the disease burden of the most important foodborne bacterial, protozoal, and viral diseases. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We synthesized data on the number of foodborne illnesses, sequelae, deaths, and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), for all diseases with sufficient ...

The proposed project aims at the structure-based design of novel selective inhibitors for the treatment of specific vector-borne diseases mainly parasitic (schistosomiasis, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease) and viral hemorrhagic fevers. It will be a challenging task to find those compounds that have maximal efficacy against the intruder, but minimal toxicity for the host as the differences between few parasitic target ...

STAT2 is a transcription factor activated by type I and III IFNs. We report 23 patients with loss-of-function variants causing autosomal recessive (AR) complete STAT2 deficiency. Both cells transfected with mutant STAT2 alleles and the patients' cells displayed impaired expression of IFN-stimulated genes and impaired control of in vitro viral infections. Clinical manifestations from early childhood onward included severe adverse reaction to live ...

Herpesviruses are ubiquitous pathogens that establish lifelong, latent infections in their host. Spontaneous reactivation of herpesviruses is often asymptomatic or clinically manageable in healthy individuals, but reactivation events in immunocompromised or immunosuppressed individuals can lead to severe morbidity and mortality. Moreover, herpesvirus infections have been associated with multiple proliferative cardiovascular and post-transplant ...

Inherited kidney diseases are among the leading causes of chronic kidney disease, reducing the quality of life and resulting in substantial socioeconomic impact. The advent of early genetic testing and the growing understanding of the molecular basis and pathophysiology of these disorders have opened avenues for novel treatment strategies. Viral vector-based gene therapies have evolved from experimental treatments for rare diseases to potent ...

Genomic and epidemiological monitoring have become an integral part of our response to emerging and ongoing epidemics of viral infectious diseases. Advances in high-throughput sequencing, including portable genomic sequencing at reduced costs and turnaround time, are paralleled by continuing developments in methodology to infer evolutionary histories (dynamics/patterns) and to identify factors driving viral spread in space and time. The ...

This review focuses on the mechanisms of immune tolerance and antimicrobial defense in the male genital tract of the pig. Sperm cells are foreign to the immune system and, therefore, they must be protected from the immune system. The blood-testis-barrier is mediated by a physical barrier between adjacent Sertoli cells, several cell types within the testis, and interactions between immunomodulatory molecules. The blood-epididymal-barrier is ...