Recommendations from a James Lind Alliance priority setting partnership - a qualitative interview study.

Background: The James Lind Alliance (JLA) offers a method for research priority setting with patients, clinicians and carers. The method is increasingly used but publications primarily discuss the outcome of such projects, rather than reflecting on the JLA method itself. Scrutiny of the method is crucial in order to understand and correctly interpret its outcomes.

The Launch of the European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation in the Netherlands: A Qualitative Multi-Stakeholder Analysis.

Involving patients' representatives in the research and development of medicinal products (medicines R&D) leads to better medical treatment. In 2014, the European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) was started with the goal of increasing the capacity and capabilities of patient representatives in this field. To make this academy more accessible and applicable for the Netherlands, a Dutch version was launched in September 2019.

Dutch juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients, carers and clinicians create a research agenda together following the James Lind Alliance method: a study protocol.

Background: Research on Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) should support patients, caregivers/parents (carers) and clinicians to make important decisions in the consulting room and eventually to improve the lives of patients with JIA. Thus far these end-users of JIA-research have rarely been involved in the prioritisation of future research.

Main Body: Dutch organisations of patients, carers and clinicians will collaboratively develop a research agenda for JIA, following the James Lind Alliance (JLA) methodology.

Quality of care in the intensive care unit from the perspective of patient's relatives: development and psychometric evaluation of the consumer quality index 'R-ICU'.

Background: The quality standards of the Dutch Society of Intensive Care require monitoring of the satisfaction of patient's relatives with respect to care. Currently, no suitable instrument is available in the Netherlands to measure this. This study describes the development and psychometric evaluation of the questionnaire-based Consumer Quality Index 'Relatives in Intensive Care Unit' (CQI 'R-ICU').

Involving burn survivors in agenda setting on burn research: an added value?

Background And Aim: The role of burn survivors in burn research is usually restricted to being objects of study and beneficiaries of research results, while decision-making on research is traditionally the domain of a small group of experts, mainly scientists. In this article we compare the research priorities of burn survivors and professionals and investigate to what extent it is possible to come to a joint research agenda.

Methodology: The project followed the Dialogue Model for research agenda setting.

Induction of T cell anergy by liposomes with incorporated major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II/peptide complexes.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to use small unilamellar liposomes with incorporated MHC II/peptide complexes as a carrier system for multivalent antigen presentation to CD4 + T cells.

Methods: Purified peptide pre-loaded MHC II molecules were incorporated into small unilamellar liposomes and tested for their ability to activate A2b T cells. The outcome of T cell activation by such liposomes in the absence of accessory cells was tested via flow cytometry and a T cell anergy assay.

Modulation of Th2 responses by peptide analogues in a murine model of allergic asthma: amelioration or deterioration of the disease process depends on the Th1 or Th2 skewing characteristics of the therapeutic peptide.

Allergen-specific CD4+ Th2 cells play an important role in the immunological processes of allergic asthma. Previously we have shown that, by using the immunodominant epitope OVA323-339, peptide immunotherapy in a murine model of OVA induced allergic asthma, stimulated OVA-specific Th2 cells, and deteriorated airway hyperresponsiveness and eosinophilia. In the present study, we defined four modulatory peptide analogues of OVA323-339 with comparable MHC class II binding affinity.

Liposomes in autoimmune diseases: selected applications in immunotherapy and inflammation detection.

In this contribution three examples are discussed of ongoing research where liposomes are used as carrier systems for immunotherapy and inflammation detection in autoimmune diseases. Liposomes can be used as carrier systems of antigenic peptides to peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The second example deals with their use as carrier systems for MHC-peptide complexes for multivalent Ag-presentation to autoreactive T lymphocytes to specifically modulate the activity of these T lymphocytes.

Liposomes with incorporated MHC class II/peptide complexes as antigen presenting vesicles for specific T cell activation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to design a well-characterized liposomal carrier system for multivalent antigen presentation in order to activate T cells.

Methods: MHC class II molecules were loaded with peptide and subsequently reconstituted into liposomes. A FACS assay was developed to monitor peptide loading and MHC class II incorporation in the liposomes.

Anergic T cells actively suppress T cell responses via the antigen-presenting cell.

We here show that anergic T cells are active mediators of T cell suppression. In co-culture experiments, we found that anergic T cells, derived from established rat T cell clones and rendered anergic via T cell presentation of the specific antigen (Ag), were active inhibitors of T cell responses. Anergic T cells inhibited not only the responses of T cells with the same Ag specificity as the anergic T cells, but were also capable of efficiently inhibiting polyclonal T cell responses directed to other epitopes.