Projects
Staphylokinase and staphylocoagulase in infective endocarditis: experimental study in mouse models. KU Leuven
Modulation of bacterial adherence in infective endocarditis: impact of different conduit tissues used in right ventricular outflow tract valve replacement and bacterial surface molecules under shear stress. KU Leuven
Infective endocarditis (IE) is defined as an infection of the endocardial surface of the heart, which may include one or more heart valves, and is lethal if not aggressively treated. IE can have numerous causes, but is a major clinical problem in patients after transcatheter or surgical valve replacement. Treatment of IE is challenged by the high propensity of bacteria, in particular Staphylococcus aureus, to induce inflammatory and ...
Targeting Immunothrombosis in Staphylococcus Aureus Infections and Endocarditis KU Leuven
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is amongst the deadliest infectious pathogens. Its increasing antibiotic resistance has urged the WHO to proclaim it as a top research priority. In contrast to other infections, infective endocarditis (IE) remains highly fatal despite advances in clinical care. With an increasing incidence and an unacceptably high mortality (up to 40%), there is an urgent need to understand how the vegetation, the central ...
Restoring the balance in coagulation to improve the outcome of Staphylococcus aureus infection KU Leuven
The epidemic of antibiotic resistance is currently posing a serious threat to our health system. It is estimated that by 2050 over 300 million people will die prematurely as a cause of resistant bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is the leader of antimicrobial resistance and the most deadly infectious agent in the developed world. This pathogen is a frequent colonizer of the skin in healthy individuals, but when our immune system ...
Bacterial pathogens modulate thrombin activity to overcome innate defence mechanisms. KU Leuven
Infection of the heart valves or infective endocarditis yearly affects between 2 and 12 per 100,000 individuals, killing close to 50.000 people each year. Remarkably, despite recent progress in medical technology, the mortality of this devastating disease has remained unchanged over the last decades. Depending on the causative pathogen, between 15 and 45% of endocarditis patients do not survive endocarditis. Moreover, not only has there been ...
Investigating the impact of neutrophil extracellular traps and peptidylarginine deiminase 4 in Gram-positive sepsis KU Leuven
Sepsis is a significant health care problem, with mortality rates remaining at 30% despite years of research and implementation of new intervention therapies. The pathologies of sepsis result not only from an infection, but also from the hyperinflammatory host response. Most research, particularly in animal models, is currently on polymicrobial sepsis or Gram-negative bacterial products, which does not necessarily match the clinical cases of ...