Potential determinants of the decline in mpox cases in Belgium: A behavioral, epidemiological and seroprevalence study.

Objectives: The 2022 mpox epidemic reached a peak in Belgium and the rest of Europe in July 2022, after which it unexpectedly subsided. This study investigates epidemiological, behavioral, and immunological factors behind the waning of the epidemic in Belgium.

Methods: We investigated temporal evolutions in the characteristics and behavior of mpox patients using national surveillance data and data from a prospective registry of mpox patients in the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp).

Outbreak of among asylum seekers in Belgium in 2022: operational challenges and lessons learnt.

Since 2022, European countries have been facing an outbreak of mainly cutaneous diphtheria caused by toxigenic among asylum seekers. In Belgium, between 1 March and 31 December 2022, 25 cases of toxigenic infection were confirmed among asylum seekers, mostly among young males from Afghanistan. Multi-locus sequence typing showed that most isolates belonged to sequence types 574 or 377, similar to the majority of cases in other European countries.

Interference with glycosaminoglycan-chemokine interactions with a probe to alter leukocyte recruitment and inflammation in vivo.

In vivo leukocyte recruitment is not fully understood and may result from interactions of chemokines with glycosaminoglycans/GAGs. We previously showed that chlorite-oxidized oxyamylose/COAM binds the neutrophil chemokine GCP-2/CXCL6. Here, mouse chemokine binding by COAM was studied systematically and binding affinities of chemokines to COAM versus GAGs were compared.

Role of cations in the interaction of pradimicins with HIV-1 envelope gp120.

Pradimicins (PRM) are a unique class of nonpeptidic carbohydrate-binding agents that inhibit HIV infection by efficiently binding to the HIV-1 envelope gp120 glycans in the obligatory presence of Ca(2+). Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) data revealed that addition of EDTA dose-dependently results in lower binding signals of PRM-A to immobilized gp120. Pradimicin derivatives that lack the free carboxylic acid group on the C-18 position failed to bind gp120 and were devoid of significant antiviral activity.

The griffithsin dimer is required for high-potency inhibition of HIV-1: evidence for manipulation of the structure of gp120 as part of the griffithsin dimer mechanism.

Griffithsin (Grft) is a protein lectin derived from red algae that tightly binds the HIV envelope protein gp120 and effectively inhibits virus infection. This inhibition is due to the binding by Grft of high-mannose saccharides on the surface of gp120. Grft has been shown to be a tight dimer, but the role of the dimer in Grft's anti-HIV function has not been fully explored.