Publications by authors named "Rory D de Vries"

Shift work can cause circadian misalignment, which often results in sleeping problems and has been associated with immune dysfunction. To better understand the impact of shift work on a primary immune response to vaccination, we compared severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific humoral and cellular immune responses after one injection of the messenger RNA (mRNA)-1273 vaccine between day workers (n = 24) and night shift workers (n = 21). In addition, duration and quality of sleep were assessed for a period of 7 days around the time of vaccination using actigraphy and daily sleep diaries, and their relationship with immunogenicity of mRNA-1273 vaccination was studied.

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  • Scientists established a direct-contact transmission model for the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.5 variant using Syrian hamsters, which are highly susceptible to the virus.
  • The research involved testing different inoculation doses and co-housing durations to ensure reliable transmission and comparing viral loads and tissue damage between infected donor and naïve recipient hamsters.
  • Results indicated that while both male and female hamsters could be infected similarly, males shed significantly more infectious virus; overall, the Omicron BA.5 variant resulted in lower viral loads and less severe symptoms compared to prior strains, highlighting the model's potential for studying new treatment strategies.
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Background: Netherton syndrome (NS) is a rare, severe genetic skin disorder, currently classified as an inborn error of immunity (IEI) due to previously reported immune dysregulation. We recently reported the results of an immunological evaluation showing no evidence for a relevant B- and/or T-cell mediated immunodeficiency, but immune responses after vaccination were not evaluated in that study. Therefore, we evaluated immune responses to three vaccine platforms in adult NS patients to further investigate the presence of a clinically relevant B- and/or T-cell immunodeficiency.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were introduced to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This also resulted in a reduction of notifications of other acute respiratory infections and an altered seasonality when NPIs were lifted. Without circulation of pathogens, waning of antibodies is expected, which is a first indicator of decreased immunity.

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  • The mpox outbreak in 2022-2023 led to widespread vaccination using a vaccine called MVA-BN (also known as JYNNEOS or Imvanex).
  • Research shows that orthopoxvirus-specific antibodies, which protect against the virus, decreased to undetectable levels one year after a two-dose MVA-BN vaccination in at-risk individuals.
  • Ongoing monitoring is crucial to assess how the decline in antibody levels affects immunity in the population.
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Lung transplant recipients (LTRs) are particularly at risk of developing severe coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), but are also difficult to protect by vaccination due to their immunocompromised state. Here, we investigated the immunogenicity of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in LTRs who had a prior natural SARS-CoV-2 infection. At a median of 184 days after SARS-CoV-2 infection, LTRs were vaccinated twice with the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine, with a 28-day interval.

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Bivalent COVID-19 vaccines comprising ancestral Wuhan-Hu-1 (WH1) and the Omicron BA.1 or BA.5 subvariant elicit enhanced serum antibody responses to emerging Omicron subvariants.

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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).

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Background: Insight into cellular immune responses to COVID-19 vaccinations is crucial for optimizing booster programs in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs).

Methods: In an immunologic substudy of a multicenter randomized controlled trial (NCT05030974) investigating different repeated vaccination strategies in KTR who showed poor serological responses after 2 or 3 doses of an messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccine, we compared SARS-CoV-2-specific interleukin-21 memory T-cell and B-cell responses by enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISpot) assays and serum IgG antibody levels. Patients were randomized to receive: a single dose of mRNA-1273 (100 μg, n = 25), a double dose of mRNA-1273 (2 × 100 μg, n = 25), or a single dose of adenovirus type 26 encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (Ad26.

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Neutralizing antibodies are considered a correlate of protection against severe human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) disease. Currently, HRSV neutralization assays are performed on immortalized cell lines like Vero or A549 cells. It is known that assays on these cell lines exclusively detect neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) directed to the fusion (F) protein.

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Healthy individuals with hybrid immunity, due to a SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to first vaccination, have stronger immune responses compared to those who were exclusively vaccinated. However, little is known about the characteristics of antibody, B- and T-cell responses in kidney disease patients with hybrid immunity. Here, we explored differences between kidney disease patients and controls with hybrid immunity after asymptomatic or mild coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).

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Objective: We evaluated the immunogenicity of a bivalent BA.1 COVID-19 booster vaccine in people with HIV (PWH).

Design: Prospective observational cohort study.

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Article Synopsis
  • Antibody responses from COVID-19 vaccinations are decreasing, especially with the rise of the Omicron variant, prompting the need for new bivalent mRNA booster vaccines containing both ancestral and Omicron spike proteins.
  • A study evaluated how different initial vaccination regimens (priming) influenced the effectiveness of these bivalent boosters, revealing that while the boosters increased neutralizing antibodies and T-cell responses, they were less effective against the newer XBB.1.5 variant.
  • The findings support using vaccines tailored to current circulating strains for vulnerable populations and stress the need for ongoing monitoring of immune responses to inform future vaccination strategies.
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Purpose: Previous studies have demonstrated that the majority of patients with an inborn error of immunity (IEI) develop a spike (S)-specific IgG antibody and T-cell response after two doses of the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine, but little is known about the response to a booster vaccination. We studied the immune responses 8 weeks after booster vaccination with mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in 171 IEI patients. Moreover, we evaluated the clinical outcomes in these patients one year after the start of the Dutch COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

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BackgroundFollowing the 2022-2023 mpox outbreak, crucial knowledge gaps exist regarding orthopoxvirus-specific immunity in risk groups and its impact on future outbreaks.AimWe combined cross-sectional seroprevalence studies in two cities in the Netherlands with mathematical modelling to evaluate scenarios of future mpox outbreaks among men who have sex with men (MSM).MethodsSerum samples were obtained from 1,065 MSM attending Centres for Sexual Health (CSH) in Rotterdam or Amsterdam following the peak of the Dutch mpox outbreak and the introduction of vaccination.

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  • - Morbilliviruses, like measles virus (MeV), affect various mammals and are linked to significant health issues, particularly in unvaccinated populations, which has prompted the need for better animal models for studying their effects.
  • - Canine distemper virus (CDV) shares similarities with MeV but tends to be more lethal, leading researchers to create five recombinant CDVs to evaluate their potential as safer models for studying morbillivirus pathogenesis in ferrets.
  • - Out of the five recombinant CDVs tested, one exhibited a self-limiting infection profile that mimicked measles, revealing its promise for future studies on disease mechanisms and potential treatments for morbillivirus infections.
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Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a rare but fatal late neurological complication of measles, caused by persistent measles virus (MeV) infection of the central nervous system. There are no drugs approved for the treatment of SSPE. Here, we followed the clinical progression of a 5-year-old SSPE patient after treatment with the nucleoside analog remdesivir, conducted a post-mortem evaluation of the patient's brain, and characterized the MeV detected in the brain.

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Background: Data on cellular response and the decay of antibodies and T cells in time are scarce in lung transplant recipients (LTRs). Additionally, the development and durability of humoral and cellular immune responses have not been investigated in patients on the waitlist for lung transplantation (WLs). Here, we report our 6-month follow-up of humoral and cellular immune responses of LTRs and WLs, compared with controls.

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Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus transmitted by mosquitos that causes a debilitating disease characterized by fever and long-lasting polyarthralgia. To date, no vaccine has been licensed, but multiple vaccine candidates are under evaluation in clinical trials. One of these vaccines is based on a measles virus vector encoding for the CHIKV structural genes C, E3, E2, 6K, and E1 (MV-CHIK), which proved safe in phase I and II clinical trials and elicited CHIKV-specific antibody responses in adult measles seropositive vaccine recipients.

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Background: Mucosal antibodies play a critical role in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections or reinfections by blocking the interaction of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor on the cell surface. In this study, we investigated the difference between the mucosal antibody response after primary infection and vaccination.

Methods: We assessed longitudinal changes in the quantity and capacity of nasal antibodies to neutralize the interaction of RBD with the ACE2 receptor using the spike protein and RBD from ancestral SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan-Hu-1), as well as the RBD from the Delta and Omicron variants.

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Neutralizing antibodies are considered a correlate of protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19, although they are not the only contributing factor to immunity: T-cell responses are considered important in protecting against severe COVID-19 and contributing to the success of vaccination effort. T-cell responses after vaccination largely mirror those of natural infection in magnitude and functional capacity, but not in breadth, as T-cells induced by vaccination exclusively target the surface spike glycoprotein. T-cell responses offer a long-lived line of defense and, unlike humoral responses, largely retain reactivity against the SARS-CoV-2 variants.

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