Publications by authors named "Piet Maes"

In 2022, the World Health Organization declared the worldwide outbreak of mpox to be a public health emergency of international concern. The causative monkeypox virus (MPXV) belonged to clade IIb and is transmitted through sexual contact with a low case fatality rate (0.1%), which, together with under-detection, all contributed to a rapid global spread particularly within the MSM (men who have sex with men) community.

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The approval of COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral drugs has been crucial to end the global health crisis caused by SARS-CoV-2. However, to prepare for future outbreaks from drug-resistant variants and novel zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs), additional therapeutics with a distinct antiviral mechanism are needed. Here, we report a novel guanidine-substituted diphenylurea compound that suppresses CoV replication by interfering with the uridine-specific endoribonuclease (EndoU) activity of the viral non-structural protein-15 (nsp15).

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Understanding the dispersal patterns of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) lineages is crucial to public health decision-making, especially in countries with limited access to viral genomic sequencing. This study provides a comprehensive epidemiological and phylodynamic perspective on SARS-CoV-2 lineage dispersal in Iran from February 2020 to July 2022. We explored the genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 combining 1281 genome sequences with spatial data in a phylogeographic framework.

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The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants escaping immunity challenges the efficacy of current vaccines. Here, we investigated humoral recall responses and vaccine-mediated protection in Syrian hamsters immunized with the third-generation Comirnaty Omicron XBB.1.

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Article Synopsis
  • The 2022 mpox outbreak in Belgium involved extensive genomic analysis, revealing 248 complete monkeypox virus genomes related to the MPXV Clade IIb B.1.
  • Researchers identified at least 79 introduction events of the virus into Belgium, but local transmission remained limited.
  • Tecovirimat showed the strongest in vitro effectiveness against the 2022 MPXV strain, indicating its potential as a treatment option.
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Wild-type Marburg virus (MARV) can only be handled in biosafety level 4 facilities. By removing an essential gene from the virus genome, deficient virus particles can be generated that are only capable of replication if the missing gene product is provided in trans. As a result, these viruses are restricted to specific cell lines, making them safe to handle at lower biosafety levels.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.214.2, identified in Belgium in January 2021, which has a mutation that may affect its transmissibility and immune evasion, similar to the Omicron variant.
  • This variant spread significantly in Central Africa and Europe, with its origin traced back to the Republic of the Congo, and its transmission correlated with human travel patterns.
  • In Belgian nursing homes, the variant led to moderately severe outcomes, and unique immune responses in elderly patients suggest a need for targeted nasal vaccine strategies against emerging variants.
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Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection poses a significant risk to immunosuppressed transplant recipients, manifesting through primary infection, reinfection, or reactivation.

Methods: We analyzed the emergence of drug resistance in CMV infection in 3 patients who were later found to have received an allograft from a shared, deceased donor. The seronegative transplant recipients developed symptomatic CMV infections after bowel/pancreas, kidney, or lung transplantation.

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Article Synopsis
  • Before 2017, a family of viruses related to the Bunyamwera virus included five genera of arthropod and rodent viruses with tri-segmented negative-sense RNA genomes.
  • In 2017, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses promoted this family to an order and added more families for various non-segmented to polysegmented viruses across different life forms.
  • By April 2024, due to ongoing discoveries, this order was elevated to a class, now encompassing hundreds of viruses, many of which are pathogenic to humans, animals, plants, and fungi.
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Understanding the evolution of the B cell response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants is fundamental to design the next generation of vaccines and therapeutics. We longitudinally analyze at the single-cell level almost 900 neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (nAbs) isolated from vaccinated people and from individuals with hybrid and super hybrid immunity (SH), developed after three mRNA vaccine doses and two breakthrough infections. The most potent neutralization and Fc functions against highly mutated variants belong to the SH cohort.

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Article Synopsis
  • Metagenomics helps diagnose infections, but there hasn't been much comparison of methods for finding viruses across different labs.
  • A study was done by the European Society for Clinical Virology to test twelve different lab methods using a special reference panel that simulates low amounts of viruses.
  • The results showed that most methods could find common viruses, but some struggled with very low amounts, suggesting labs need to follow the same standards for better results.
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Several inflammatory diseases are characterized by a disruption in the equilibrium between the host and its microbiome. Due to the increase in resistance, the use of antibiotics for the widespread, nonspecific killing of microorganisms is at risk. Pro-microbial approaches focused on stimulating or introducing beneficial species antagonistic toward pathobionts may be a viable alternative for restoring the host-microbiome equilibrium.

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is a family for negative-sense RNA viruses with genomes of about 10.5-14.6 kb.

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Infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV) is responsible for approximately 296 million chronic cases of hepatitis B, and roughly 880,000 deaths annually. The global burden of HBV is distributed unevenly, largely owing to the heterogeneous geographic distribution of its subtypes, each of which demonstrates different severity and responsiveness to antiviral therapy. It is therefore crucial to the global public health response to HBV that the spatiotemporal spread of each genotype is well characterized.

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Since the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Belgium, UZ/KU Leuven has played a crucial role as the National Reference Centre (NRC) for respiratory pathogens, to be the first Belgian laboratory to develop and implement laboratory developed diagnostic assays for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) and later to assess the quality of commercial kits. To meet the growing demand for decentralised testing, both clinical laboratories and government-supported high-throughput platforms were gradually deployed across Belgium. Consequently, the role of the NRC transitioned from a specialised testing laboratory to strengthening capacity and coordinating quality assurance.

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Since the emergence of the first omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant at the end of 2021, several sub-variants have evolved and become predominant in the human population, showing enhanced transmissibility and ability to (partly) escape the adaptive immune response. The XBB sub-variants (e.g.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Their genomes range from 10.8 to 11.5 kb and consist of three RNA segments that encode essential proteins like nucleoprotein (NP), glycoprotein (GP), and a large protein with RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) activity.
  • * The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) provides detailed information on this family, including its potential zinc-finger (Z) protein, which has an unclear function.
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  • Tulaviridae is a family of ambisense RNA viruses, having genomes about 12.2 kb in length, which have been found in fungi.
  • Their genome is nonsegmented and features three open reading frames (ORFs): one for a nucleoprotein (NP), one for a large (L) protein that has an RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) domain, and one for a protein with an unknown function.
  • This information is summarized from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report, which is accessible at ictv.global/report/tulasviridae.
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  • - The wupedeviridae family is made up of negative-sense RNA viruses with genomes around 20.5 kb, typically found in myriapods (e.g., centipedes and millipedes).
  • - Their genome is divided into three monocistronic RNA segments, which encode important proteins like a nucleoprotein (NP), glycoprotein (GP), and a large protein that includes an RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) domain.
  • - This information is derived from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on wupedeviridae, which can be found at ictv.global/report/wupedeviridae.
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  • The text discusses a family of negative-sense RNA viruses discovered in myriapods, with genomes approximately 16.0 kb in size.
  • Mypovirid viruses possess three monocistronic RNA segments, which code for a nucleoprotein, a glycoprotein, and a large protein that includes an RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) domain.
  • This information is part of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the Mypoviridae family, which can be accessed online.
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Public holidays have been associated with SARS-CoV-2 incidence surges, although a firm link remains to be established. This association is sometimes attributed to events where transmissions occur at a disproportionately high rate, known as superspreading events. Here, we describe a sudden surge in new cases with the Omicron BA.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The leishbuviridae is a group of negative-sense RNA viruses, roughly 8.0 kb in size, that have been discovered in protists.
  • - Its genome consists of three separate RNA segments, each coding for a nucleoprotein, a glycoprotein, and a large protein that includes an RNA-directed RNA polymerase domain.
  • - This information is part of a report by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), which can be accessed at ictv.global/report/leishbuviridae.
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is a family of negative-sense RNA viruses with genomes of 6.2-9.7 kb that have been associated with fungi and stramenopiles.

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In the future, zoonotic spillover events are expected to occur more frequently. Consequences of such events have clearly been demonstrated by recent outbreaks of monkeypox, Ebola virus, and the well-known severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Virus discovery has proven to be an important tool in the preparation against viral outbreaks, generating data concerning the diversity, quantity, and ecology of the vertebrate virome.

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