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Social Mobile Approaches to Reducing Weight (SMART) 2.0 Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Shadia J Mansour-Assi, Natalie M Golaszewski, Victoria Lawhun Costello, David Richard Wing, Hailey Persinger, Aaron Coleman, Leslie Lytle, Britta A Larsen, Sonia Jain, Nadir Weibel, et al.

BACKGROUND: Excess weight gain in young adulthood is associated with future weight gain and increased risk of chronic disease. Although multimodal, technology-based weight-loss interventions have the potential to promote weight loss among young adults, many interventions have limited personalization, and few have been deployed and evaluated for longer than a year. We aim to assess the effects of a highly personalized, 2-year intervention that ...

A case of vitamin B12 deficiency neurological syndrome in a young adult due to late-onset cobalamin C (CblC) deficiency: a diagnostic challenge. KU Leuven

Wouter Meersseman, David Cassiman, Pieter Vermeersch
Vitamin B12 deficiency can present with neurologic and psychiatric symptoms without macrocytic anaemia. We describe a case of late-onset cobalamin C deficiency which typically presents with normal serum vitamin B12 concentrations, posing an additional diagnostic challenge. A 23-year-old woman with decreased muscle strength and hallucinations was diagnosed with 'catatonic depression' and admitted to a residential mental health facility. She was ...

Biodistribution and environmental safety of a live-attenuated YF17D-vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate. KU Leuven

Li-Hsin Li, Laurens Liesenborghs, Sander Jansen, Hendrik Jan Thibaut, Johan Neyts, Leen Delang, Kai Dallmeier
New platforms are needed for the design of novel prophylactic vaccines and advanced immune therapies. Live-attenuated yellow fever vaccine YF17D serves as a vector for several licensed vaccines and platform for novel candidates. On the basis of YF17D, we developed an exceptionally potent COVID-19 vaccine candidate called YF-S0. However, use of such live RNA viruses raises safety concerns, such as adverse events linked to original YF17D (yellow ...

Gaining Insight into the Role of the Solvent during Spray Drying of Amorphous Solid Dispersions by Studying Evaporation Kinetics. KU Leuven

Sien Dedroog, Guy Van den Mooter
Spray drying is one of the most commonly used manufacturing techniques for amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs). During spray drying, very fast solvent evaporation is enabled by the generation of small droplets and exposure of these droplets to a heated drying gas. This fast solvent evaporation leads to an increased viscosity that enables kinetic trapping of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in a polymer matrix, which is favorable for the ...

Global spatial dynamics and vaccine-induced fitness changes of Bordetella pertussis KU Leuven

Sam Hong, Philippe Lemey
As with other pathogens, competitive interactions between Bordetella pertussis strains drive infection risk. Vaccines are thought to perturb strain diversity through shifts in immune pressures; however, this has rarely been measured because of inadequate data and analytical tools. We used 3344 sequences from 23 countries to show that, on average, there are 28.1 transmission chains circulating within a subnational region, with the number of ...

DNA testing for sickle cell anemia in Africa: Implementation choices for the Democratic Republic of Congo KU Leuven

Koenraad Devriendt, Gert Matthijs
BACKGROUND: Hemoglobin-based tests form the reference diagnostic test for SCA. In limited resource countries, these tests face limitations including cost, low sensitivity due to recurrent transfusions in endemic malaria region, and interference from fetal hemoglobin in neonatal diagnostic. This study aimed at adapting DNA-based SCA tests to limited resource countries and evaluating the economic benefit. METHODS: 338 participants were recruited ...

COVID-19 through adverse outcome pathways: building networks to better understand the disease: report of the 3rd CIAO AOP design workshop Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Laure-Alix Clerbaux, Núria Amigó, Maria João Amorim, Anna Bal-Price, Sofia Batista Leite, Anna Beronius, Gillina F.G. Bezemer, Ann-Charlotte Bostroem, Annamaria Carusi, Sandra Coecke, et al.

On April 28-29, 2021, 50 scientists from different fields of expertise met for the 3rd online CIAO workshop. The CIAO project “Modelling the Pathogenesis of COVID-19 using the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework” aims at building a holistic assembly of the available scientific knowledge on COVID-19 using the AOP framework. An individual AOP depicts the disease progression from the initial contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus through ...

The Impact of Location and Device Coupling on the Performance of the Osia System Actuator KU Leuven

Guy Fierens, Tristan Putzeys, Astrid van Wieringen, Nicolas Verhaert
Active transcutaneous bone conduction (BC) devices offer the benefit of improved power output compared to passive transcutaneous devices and remove the risk of skin infections that are more common in traditional percutaneous BC devices. Despite these advantages, more research is needed on implant location, device coupling, and their influence on device performance. This study is aimed at quantifying the extent to which certain parameters affect ...