Publications by authors named "Vella L"

Cells have developed a highly regulated system for the uptake, transport, utilization, storage, and export of metals, ensuring the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) function as a mechanism through which a cell can export its cargo and transfer it to recipient cells. However, in contrast to the other molecular cargo associated with sEVs, the metal content of sEVs is not well characterized.

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The generation and maintenance of protective immunity is a dynamic interplay between host and environment that is impacted by age. Understanding fundamental changes in the healthy immune system that occur over a lifespan is critical in developing interventions for age-related susceptibility to infections and diseases. Here, we use multi-omic profiling (scRNA-seq, proteomics, flow cytometry) to examined human peripheral immunity in over 300 healthy adults, with 96 young and older adults followed over two years with yearly vaccination.

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Patients with B-cell lymphomas have altered cellular components of vaccine responses due to malignancy and therapy, and the optimal timing of vaccination relative to therapy remains unknown. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccines created an opportunity for new insights in vaccine timing because patients were challenged with a novel antigen across multiple phases of treatment. We studied serologic messenger RNA vaccine response in retrospective and prospective cohorts with lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, paired with clinical and research immune parameters.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study identifies the interaction between BTLA on T cells and HVEM on regulatory T cells as a major factor limiting the effectiveness of T cell-based immunotherapies in tumors.
  • - High levels of BTLA in CAR T cells are linked to poorer treatment outcomes, prompting researchers to delete BTLA to improve the T cells' tumor-fighting abilities.
  • - By removing BTLA, T cells show enhanced signaling and function, suggesting that targeting the BTLA-HVEM interaction could boost the success of CAR T cell therapies.
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Endometrial cancer, the most common gynaecological cancer worldwide, is closely linked to obesity and metabolic diseases, particularly in younger women. New circulating biomarkers have the potential to improve diagnosis and treatment selections, which could significantly improve outcomes. Our approach focuses on extracellular vesicle (EV) biomarker discovery by directly profiling the proteome of EVs enriched from frozen biobanked endometrial tumours.

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Article Synopsis
  • Monoclonal antibodies, like lecanemab and aducanumab, have been recently approved in the USA as treatments for Alzheimer's disease, although they are costly and require frequent administration.
  • Researchers are exploring synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) as a new method to produce antibodies, potentially addressing the limitations of traditional antibody production.
  • This study successfully created synthetic mRNA for a tau-specific antibody, demonstrating its effectiveness in producing functioning antibodies and targeting intracellular tau, which could benefit Alzheimer's and related diseases.
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  • HPV8, a type of human papillomavirus linked to skin cancer, affects immune cell presence and inflammation in patients with epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV).
  • The study found that HPV8 E6 significantly induces the chemokine CCL2, attracting monocytes and leading to a predominance of macrophages in the lesions, surpassing even pro-inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α.
  • Researchers highlighted a specific mechanism involving the C/EBPα/miR-203/p63 pathway in how HPV8 E6 influences CCL2 production, showing that HPV8's oncoproteins disrupt skin immune balance for viral persistence.
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Parkinson's disease (PD) is an increasingly common neurodegenerative disease. It has been suggested that the etiology of idiopathic PD is complex and multifactorial involving environmental contributions, such as viral or bacterial infections and microbial dysbiosis, in genetically predisposed individuals. With advances in our understanding of the gut-brain axis, there is increasing evidence that the intestinal microbiota and the mammalian immune system functionally interact.

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  • Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Childhood (MIS-C) is a serious condition following SARS-CoV-2 infection, often requiring ICU care, but is difficult to distinguish from other fever-related illnesses, causing treatment delays.
  • A study involving 104 children aimed to identify diagnostic features by analyzing breath samples and blood tests, eventually finding that certain breath compounds and specific plasma proteins were linked to MIS-C.
  • The findings suggest that monitoring specific immune cell markers and plasma levels could improve diagnostic accuracy for MIS-C, potentially leading to better outcomes for affected children in emergency settings.
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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a clear, transparent fluid derived from blood plasma that protects the brain and spinal cord against mechanical shock, provides buoyancy, clears metabolic waste and transports extracellular components to remote sites in the brain. Given its contact with the brain and the spinal cord, CSF is the most informative biofluid for studies of the central nervous system (CNS). In addition to other components, CSF contains extracellular vesicles (EVs) that carry bioactive cargoes (e.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Results indicate that as people age, T cell subsets shift toward a more activated state, and naive CD4 T cells undergo significant genetic changes despite previously being thought resilient to aging.
  • * A new subtype of CD8αα T cells, which is lost with age and is important for quick immune responses, was identified, highlighting the complex molecular changes in T cells that may influence how the immune system functions differently
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Lipids play a significant role in maintaining central nervous system (CNS) structure and function, and the dysregulation of lipid metabolism is known to occur in many neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Here we review what is currently known about lipid dyshomeostasis in Alzheimer's disease. We propose that small extracellular vesicle (sEV) lipids may provide insight into the pathophysiology and progression of Alzheimer's disease.

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Many parasitic worms have a major adverse impact on human and animal populations worldwide due to the chronicity of their infections. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that extracellular vesicles (EVs) are intimately involved in modulating (suppressing) inflammatory/immune host responses and parasitism. As one of the most pathogenic nematodes of livestock animals, is an ideal model system for EV exploration.

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The ability of most patients with selective immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency (SIgAD) to remain apparently healthy has been a persistent clinical conundrum. Compensatory mechanisms, including IgM, have been proposed, yet it remains unclear how secretory IgA and IgM work together in the mucosal system and, on a larger scale, whether the systemic and mucosal anti-commensal responses are redundant or have unique features. To address this gap in knowledge, we developed an integrated host-commensal approach combining microbial flow cytometry and metagenomic sequencing (mFLOW-Seq) to comprehensively define which microbes induce mucosal and systemic antibodies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists are studying how some brain cancer cells (glioblastoma) become very invasive and resist treatment, like radiotherapy and the drug temozolomide.
  • They think tiny parts of cells called small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) can help these cancer cells communicate and grow in a harmful way.
  • The research shows that these vesicles can make the cancer cells more aggressive, especially after treatment, leading to a worse situation for patients.
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Understanding the complexity of the long-lived HIV reservoir during antiretroviral therapy (ART) remains a considerable impediment in research towards a cure for HIV. To address this, we developed a single-cell strategy to precisely define the unperturbed peripheral blood HIV-infected memory CD4 T cell reservoir from ART-treated people living with HIV (ART-PLWH) via the presence of integrated accessible proviral DNA in concert with epigenetic and cell surface protein profiling. We identified profound reservoir heterogeneity within and between ART-PLWH, characterized by new and known surface markers within total and individual memory CD4 T cell subsets.

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Hyposmia is a prevalent prodromal feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), though the neuropathology that underlies this symptom is poorly understood. Unlike the substantia nigra, the status of metal homeostasis in the olfactory bulbs has not been characterized in PD. Given the increasing interest in metal modulation as a therapeutic avenue in PD, we sought to investigate bulbar metals and the effect of AT434 (formerly PBT434) an orally bioavailable, small molecule modulator of metal homeostasis on hyposmia in a mouse model of parkinsonism (the tau knockout (tau) mouse).

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Background And Objective: In individuals experiencing homelessness, determinants of functional capacity (i.e. the ability to perform activities of daily living) are poorly understood.

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Anti-programmed death-1 (anti-PD-1) immunotherapy reinvigorates CD8 T cell responses in patients with cancer but PD-1 is also expressed by other immune cells, including follicular helper CD4 T cells (Tfh) which are involved in germinal centre responses. Little is known, however, about the effects of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy on noncancer immune responses in humans. To investigate this question, we examined the impact of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy on the Tfh-B cell axis responding to unrelated viral antigens.

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Background: Reliable data on the adult SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate in Germany are still scarce. We performed a federal state-wide cross-sectional seroprevalence study named SaarCoPS, that is representative for the adult population including elderly individuals and nursing home residents in the Saarland.

Methods: Serum was collected from 2940 adults via stationary or mobile teams during the 1 pandemic wave steady state period.

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Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread globally, including across Europe, resulting in different morbidity and mortality outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic over 18 mo in relation to the effect of COVID-19 vaccination at a population level across 35 nations in Europe, while evaluating the data for cross-border epidemiological trends to identify any pertinent lessons that can be implemented in the future.

Methods: Epidemiological data were obtained from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and Our World in Data databases while Ministry of Health websites of each respective country and local newspapers were used for COVID-19-related vaccination strategies.

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Patients with COVID-19 present with a wide variety of clinical manifestations. Thromboembolic events constitute a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Severe COVID-19 has been associated with hyperinflammation and pre-existing cardiovascular disease.

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Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. However, the impact of asymptomatic CMV infections (ie, DNAemia) on clinical outcomes is not well established.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of children undergoing first SOT at our institution from January 2012 to June 2018.

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For the treatment of neurological diseases, achieving sufficient exposure to the brain parenchyma is a critical determinant of drug efficacy. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) functions to tightly control the passage of substances between the bloodstream and the central nervous system, and as such poses a major obstacle that must be overcome for therapeutics to enter the brain. Monoclonal antibodies have emerged as one of the best-selling treatment modalities available in the pharmaceutical market owing to their high target specificity.

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