Publications by authors named "F Bettens"
Article Synopsis
- HLA antigen presentation and T-cell mediated immunity are crucial for managing acute viral infections like COVID-19, with the effectiveness linked to the variety of T-cell responses and how well peptides are presented.
- A study analyzed T-cell receptors from 116 healthy individuals and transplant recipients, finding that many possess T-cell sequences capable of recognizing SARS-CoV-2 even without prior exposure.
- The research suggests that genetic factors allow diverse T-cell responses against the virus, potentially explaining why many individuals mount effective immune responses before vaccination, possibly due to mechanisms like heterologous immunity.
The Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is a critical genetic system for different outcomes after solid organ and hematopoietic cell transplantation. Its polymorphism is usually determined by molecular technologies at the DNA level. A potential role of HLA allelic expression remains under investigation in the context of the allogenic immune response between donors and recipients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn transplantation, direct allorecognition is a complex interplay between T-cell receptors (TCR) and HLA molecules and their bound peptides expressed on antigen-presenting cells. In analogy to HLA mismatched hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), the TCR CDR3β repertoires of alloreactive cytotoxic CD8 responder T cells, defined by the cell surface expression of CD137 and triggered by HLA mismatched stimulating cells, were analyzed in different HLA class I mismatched combinations. The same HLA mismatched stimulatory cells induced very different repertoires in distinct but HLA identical responders.
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- Immune reconstitution after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) leads to a new T-cell repertoire, influenced by factors like conditioning, infections, and graft versus host disease (GVHD).
- A study involving 116 full chimeric HSCT recipients revealed minimal overlap in T-cell receptor (TCR) diversity before and after transplantation, indicating that new T-cell development is the main pathway.
- Key factors such as older patient or donor age and CMV infection were associated with lower TCR diversity one year post-transplant, while CMV-specific T-cell clones impacted the repertoire's composition but did not predict GVHD or other complications.
A total of 3 novel human leukocyte antigen-B (HLA-B) alleles were detected by next generation sequencing and confirmed by monoallelic sequencing.
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