Projects
Contribution of antigen-presenting cells, airway epithelial cells and innate immune cells in controlling house dust mite specific T lymphocyte immunity Ghent University
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways that is seen increasingly in westernalized countries. Airway dendritic cells (DC) and epithelial cells play a crucial role in the process of allergic sensitization to house dust mite (HDM), leading to asthma. Moreover, the recruitment of innate cells in the vicinity of DCs helps development of allergic inflammation. So far, HDM-specific T cell responses to HDM have never been studied due ...
Optimize viral replication in primary human airway epithelial (HAE) cells for use in antiviral research to combat respiratory viral infections KU Leuven
This project focuses on exploring the use of HAE cultures to study the treatment of viral respiratory infections. HAE cultures will be used to evaluate novel antiviral strategies to combat Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection and explore the kinetics of replication of different RSV virus strains. This will result in an optimized culture system to be used to characterize viral strains in a relevant ex vivo system and link viral factors ...
Suppression of asthma through education of airway epithelial cells by environmental microbial exposure Ghent University
The prevalence of allergic asthma rised significantly in the last 50 years. Epidemiological studies have shown that this trend might be caused by lifestyle changes in the Western world and by a reduction in the incidence of infectious diseases. Conversely, growing up on a farm or in a house with high endotoxin in the home environment has been shown to offer protection from allergy.
How these factors can influence the development of ...
Elucidation of the role of the PSeudomonas aeruginosa OprD porine in the internationalisation of this bacterium into CFTR airway epithelial cells as the determinative factor for the colonisation of cystic fibrosis patients Ghent University
Unpublished epidemiologic study results indicate that only certain Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, marked by specific alleles of the oprD porine protein encoding gene are able to colonize cystic fibrosis patients. Construction of different OprD mutants and infection with these bacterial strains of different in vitro airway epithelial cell line cultures willenable to elucidate the role of this porin in internationalisation of this bacterium in ...
Role of dendritic cell- and airway epithelial cell- specific overexpression of the endogenous danger signal HMGB1 in allergic asthma Ghent University
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways that is seen increasingly in westernalized countries. Airway dendritic cells (DC) and epithelial cells play a crucial role in the process of allergic sensitization to house dust mite (HDM), leading to asthma. The nature of this crosstalk is complex but involves endogenous danger signals like uric acid or ATP, which are released upon stress or cell death and act as adjuvants to promote ...
Airway inflammation as a result of external triggers inducing epithelial cell damage in non-allergic asthma and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction KU Leuven
Intense physical exercise in athletes, increases the risk to develop exercise-induced bronchocontriction (EIB), most likely due to airway damage caused by increased breathing volume during intense exercise. This risk increases in circumstances that increase epithelial damage, such as extreme cold or chlorine by-products in a swimming pool. Little is known about the risk of intense physical exercise during lung growth in elite high-school ...
A study on the loss of small airways and epithelial cell changes in chronic lung diseases KU Leuven
The main function of the lung is to ensure optimal gas exchange of oxygen uptake and removal of carbon dioxide during breathing. Air entering the nose and mouth is travelling through a well-organized airway tree consisting of branches like in trees. This starts at the trachea (termed generation 0), splitting at the first bifurcation (generation 1) into two branches, each dividing many times along the tree into smaller airways and ending up in ...
Developing a preclinical test platform that incorporates interpatient variability to lower the attrition rate in antimicrobial drug development Ghent University
The high attrition rate in drug development is a major issue for the pharmaceutical industry. Of particular concern is the high failure rate in clinical phase 2 and 3. At this point, failure is disastrous from an economic point of view, leading to an outrageous general cost to bring a compound to the market. Providing predictive in vitro tests in a preclinical stage is generally acknowledged to lower the chances of failure in clinical ...
Cystic fibrosis is not only an ion channel defect - investigation of the role of senescence in chronic inflammation as a novel therapeutic strategy KU Leuven
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a monogenic, multi-systemic disease that mainly affects the airways and is caused by mutations in the CF Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) gene. Currently, treatment relies on symptomatic therapies and CFTR modulators, small molecules rescuing the mutant protein, but infection and inflammation in the lung persist even while on treatment, requiring alternative therapeutic options to address these remaining CF ...