Publications by authors named "T De Smedt"

Inhibition of the adenosine 2A receptor (AR) is recognized as a promising immunotherapeutic strategy but is challenged by the ubiquity of AR function in the immune system. To develop a safe yet efficacious immunotherapy, the discovery of a novel negative allosteric modulator (NAM) was preferred. Leveraging an in-house, sensitive, high-throughput screening cellular assay, novel AR NAM scaffolds were identified, followed by an extensive structure-activity relationship (SAR) study, leading to the discovery of potent 2-amino-3,5-dicyanopyridine derivatives.

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Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) have the potential to improve accessibility, diversity, and retention in clinical trials by moving trial activities to participants' homes and local surroundings. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 European regulators to identify regulatory challenges and opportunities for the implementation of DCTs in the European Union. The key opportunities for DCTs that were recognized by regulators include a reduced participation burden, which could facilitate the participation of underserved patients.

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There is a strong and continuously growing interest in using large electronic healthcare databases to study health outcomes and the effects of pharmaceutical products. However, concerns regarding disease misclassification (i.e.

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The Accelerated Development of VAccine beNefit-risk Collaboration in Europe (ADVANCE) is a public-private collaboration aiming to develop and test a system for rapid vaccine benefit-risk monitoring using existing European healthcare databases. Incidence rate (IR) estimates of vaccination-associated adverse events that are needed to model vaccination risks can be calculated from existing healthcare databases when vaccination (exposure) data are available. We assessed different methods to derive IRs in risk periods following vaccination when exposure data are missing in one database, using estimated IRs and IRRs from other databases for febrile seizures, fever and persistent crying.

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Article Synopsis
  • Elevated arginase 1 activity leads to a depletion of extracellular arginine, which negatively impacts T cell function and serves as an immunosuppressive mechanism in tumors.
  • The mitochondrial arginase isoform Arg2, expressed in T cells, plays a critical role in regulating CD8+ T cell activity and enhancing their tumor-fighting abilities.
  • Deleting Arg2 in CD8+ T cells enhances their activation and effectiveness against tumors, especially when combined with PD-1 blockade, suggesting that targeting Arg2 could be a promising strategy for improving cancer immunotherapy.
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