Publications related to Familial segregation of group B streptococcal infection in a consanguineous kindred

A common NFKB1 variant detected through antibody analysis in UK Biobank predicts risk of infection and allergy

Jacques Fellay, Flavia Aurelia Shoko Hodel

Infectious agents contribute significantly to the global burden of diseases through both acute infection and their chronic sequelae. We leveraged the UK Biobank to identify genetic loci that influence humoral immune response to multiple infections. From 45 ...

2024

The conceptual foundations of innate immunity: Taking stock 30 years later

Bruno Lemaitre

While largely neglected over decades during which adaptive immunity captured most of the attention, innate immune mechanisms have now become central to our understanding of immunology. Innate immunity provides the first barrier to infection in vertebrates, ...

2024

Accessible and highly observable gastrointestinal organoid model systems for studying host-pathogen interactions

Moritz Hofer

Traditional cell cultures have long been fundamental to biological research, offering an alternative to animal models burdened by ethical constraints and procedural intricacies, often lacking relevance to human physiology and disease. Moreover, their inabi ...

EPFL2024

Microfluidic systems for infectious disease diagnostics

Thomas Lehnert, Martinus Gijs

Microorganisms, encompassing both uni- and multicellular entities, exhibit remarkable diversity as omnipresent life forms in nature. They play a pivotal role by supplying essential components for sustaining biological processes across diverse ecosystems, i ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Machine learning method for the classification of the state of living organisms' oscillations

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

The World Health Organization highlights the urgent need to address the global threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Efficient and rapid detection of bacterial response to antibiotics and their virulence state is crucial for the effective treatmen ...

Frontiers Media Sa2024

Exploring the role of cGAS-STING-mediated inflammation in age-associated neurodegeneration and antitumor immunity

Natasha Ella Samson

Inflammation stands as a dynamic and intricate biological process, promoting vital defence mechanisms against harmful stimuli, including infections and injuries, to drive pathogen clearance and healing. On one hand, these responses can manifest acutely and ...

EPFL2024

CSF-contacting neurons respond to Streptococcus pneumoniae and promote host survival during central nervous system infection

Laura Desban, Ludovic Pierre Gustave Keiser

The pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) can invade the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and cause meningitis with devastating consequences. Whether and how sensory cells in the central nervous system (CNS) become activated during bacteri ...

CELL PRESS2023

Poloxamers Have Vaccine-Adjuvant Properties by Increasing Dissemination of Particulate Antigen at Distant Lymph Nodes

Myriam Isabelle Lamrayah

Vaccine technology is still facing challenges regarding some infectious diseases, which can be addressed by innovative drug delivery systems. In particular, nanoparticle-based vaccines combined with new types of adjuvants are actively explored as a platfor ...

MDPI2023

Host-Pathogen Interactions Through the Genomic Lens

Zhi Ming Xu

Hosts and pathogens are involved in a long-standing evolutionary arms race characterized by successive rounds of evolution. Specifically, while hosts evolve resistance against infections, pathogens adapt to re-establish virulence. Since the signatures of t ...

EPFL2023

Functional characterization of Drosophila melanogaster immune effectors

Alexia Laurie Carboni

Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the "fruit fly", is a genetically tractable model organism widely used to study biological processes, notably the innate immune system. The advent of novel genome editing technologies, such as the CRISPR-Cas9 syst ...

EPFL2023

Rare predicted loss-of-function variants of type I IFN immunity genes are associated with life-threatening COVID-19

Jacques Fellay, Qian Zhang, Peng Zhang, Yu Zhang

BackgroundWe previously reported that impaired type I IFN activity, due to inborn errors of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity or to autoantibodies against type I IFN, account for 15-20% of cases of life-threatening COVID-19 in unvac ...

BMC2023

Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies

Devis Tuia, Benjamin Alexander Kellenberger

Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined the ...

2023

Inhibitors of acyl protein thioesterases against microbial infections

Françoise Gisou van der Goot Grunberg, Laurence Gouzi Abrami, Valeria Cagno, Francisco De Magalhães Sarmento R De Mesquita

The present invention relates inhibitors of acyl protein thioesterases and method of preparation thereof. It also relates to the use of inhibitors of acyl protein thioesterases in the treatment and/or prevention of a microbial infection such as viral or ba ...

2023

Viral Genetic Determinants of Prolonged Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection Among Infants in a Healthy Term Birth Cohort

Thomas Junier, Jacques Fellay, Dylan Lawless, Zhi Ming Xu

Background. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with acute respiratory infection. We sought to identify RSV variants associated with prolonged infection. ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2023

Back-to-Africa introductions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the main cause of tuberculosis in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Jacques Fellay, Zhi Ming Xu

In settings with high tuberculosis (TB) endemicity, distinct genotypes of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) often differ in prevalence. However, the factors leading to these differences remain poorly understood. Here we studied the MTBC populat ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2023

PSGL-1 is an evolutionarily conserved antiviral restriction factor

Chao Jiang, Ying Liu

The arms race between viruses and their hosts shaped the evolutionary history and the genome composition of both parties. Restriction factors are the first-line antiviral effectors encoded by the host genomes and are often conserved through evolution to pr ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023

How to: Diagnose inborn errors of intrinsic and innate immunity to viral, bacterial, mycobacterial, and fungal infections

Alessandro Borghesi

Background: Inborn errors of intrinsic and innate immunity constitute the focus of a growing research field that investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying susceptibility to infections previously not considered part of the spectrum of inborn errors o ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2022

Cecropins contribute to Drosophila host defense against a subset of fungal and Gram-negative bacterial infection

Bruno Lemaitre, Alexia Laurie Carboni, Mark Austin Hanson

Cecropins are small helical secreted peptides with antimicrobial activity that are widely distributed among insects. Genes encoding Cecropins are strongly induced upon infection, pointing to their role in host defense. In Drosophila, four cecropin genes cl ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2022

Invasive Streptococcal Infection Can Lead to the Generation of Cross-Strain Opsonic Antibodies

Hamed Khakzad

The bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes is a common cause of both mild and severe human diseases resulting in substantial morbidity and mortality each year. No vaccines are available, and our understanding of the antibody response to this human pathogen is st ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2022

In vitro synergistic action of TAT-RasGAP 317-326 peptide with antibiotics against Gram-negative pathogens

Grazia Vizzarro

Objectives: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria are a continuously increasing threat for medicine, caus-ing infections recalcitrant to antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) were identified as alternatives to antibiotics, being naturally occurring short ...

2022