Projects
Clinical and genetic epidemiology of Parkinson's disease: focus on disease progression and non-motor symptoms. University of Antwerp
Screening for early feline chronic kidney disease: Unraveling the mystery of nonazotemic disease. Ghent University
Feline chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most common metabolic disorders in cats worldwide. The diagnosis of early or nonazotemic CKD is challenging and screening is strongly recommended. However, studies on cats with nonazotemic CKD are scarce, simple and straightforward criteria to define nonazotemic CKD are lacking and reliable diagnostic tools to detect this population are urgently needed. Nonazotemic CKD is expected to be ...
Causes of micro-inflammation and cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease: role of uremic peptides Ghent University
Retention of uremic solutes as well as renal replacement therapy contribute to micro-inflammation related to the cardial burden in chronic kidney disease. Especially the effect of uremic peptides on leukocytes and specific leukocyte subpopulations will be evaluated in an in vitro set-up. The pathophysiological mechanisms involved, will be elucidated, aiming at a classification of the retention solutes according to their toxicity.
Study of granuloma and giant cell formation in autoinflammatory diseases: focus on NOD2-associated Blau syndrome and Crohn's disease. KU Leuven
Granulomas are organized aggregates of predominantly macrophages which often fuse into multinucleated giant cells. In infectious diseases, granuloma formation is seen as a response of the immune system to segregate and remove persistent pathogens or large particles. Granulomas with multinucleated giant cells are also seen in chronic immune disorders without any bvious infectious trigger, including diverse autoimmune and autoinflammatory ...
Study of granuloma and giant cell formation in autoinfammatory diseases: focus on NOD2-associated Blau syndrome and Crohn's disease KU Leuven
Granulomas are organized aggregates of predominantly macrophages which fuse into multinucleated giant cells. In infectious diseases, granuloma formation is seen as a response of the immune system to remove persistent pathogens. However, granulomas are also seen in immune disorders without any obvious infectious trigger, including autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. In these disorders it is not known why granulomas arise and how giant ...
Platelet activation as a disease modifier in chronic chloestatic liver disease. KU Leuven
Role y-secretase heterogeneity in intracellular AB production, lysosomal toxicity, and pathogenesis: contribution of familial Alzheimer’s disease mutations in presenilins and late onset Alzheimer’s disease risk factors KU Leuven
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by amyloid β (Aβ) plaques and tangles. These hallmarks appear relatively late in disease stirring the debate whether they are a consequence of earlier pathogenic processes. Herein intracellular Aβ accumulation precede their formation, and correlates better with synaptic dysfunction and cognitive decline. Our recent data suggest that the composition of Aβ yielding γ-secretase complexes plays a role in ...
Role of Presenilin2 deficiency and familial Alzheimer's disease mutants in intracellular Abeta accumulation and Alzheimer's disease pathology KU Leuven
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the progressive build-up of amyloid-beta (AB) in plaques. gamma-Secretase processing releases AB from the amyloid precursor protein and comes in different flavours because of the existence of two presenilins and APH1 isoforms. Distinct complexes generate slightly different AB profiles and familial AD linked mutations in PSENs shift the production to longer AB species which aggregate more easily. ...
A multi-modal and longitudinal approach to study the neurobiological underpinnings of disease onset and progression in genetic ALS variants: from presymptomatic to symptomatic disease stages. KU Leuven
The main goal of this project is to better understand how neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation fit in a sequential model of disease progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with a myriad of disease presentations at the clinical, genetic and pathogenic level. Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration play a key role in ALS pathophysiology, but there is no consensus on the regional and ...