364 results match your criteria: "Institute for Experimental Immunology[Affiliation]"

Microvascular Network Remodeling in the Ischemic Mouse Brain Defined by Light Sheet Microscopy.

Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol

April 2024

Department of Neurology and Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany (N.H., Y.Q., A.M.Y., A.L., D.M.H.).

Background: Until now, the analysis of microvascular networks in the reperfused ischemic brain has been limited due to tissue transparency challenges.

Methods: Using light sheet microscopy, we assessed microvascular network remodeling in the striatum from 3 hours to 56 days post-ischemia in 2 mouse models of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion lasting 20 or 40 minutes, resulting in mild ischemic brain injury or brain infarction, respectively. We also examined the effect of a clinically applicable S1P (sphingosine-1-phosphate) analog, FTY720 (fingolimod), on microvascular network remodeling.

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Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE) is a severe disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS) caused by the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). The generation of protective immunity after TBEV infection or TBE vaccination relies on the integrated responses of many distinct cell types at distinct physical locations. While long-lasting memory immune responses, in particular, form the basis for the correlates of protection against many diseases, these correlates of protection have not yet been clearly defined for TBE.

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KCNA2 IgG autoimmunity in neuropsychiatric diseases.

Brain Behav Immun

March 2024

German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Department of Neurology and Experimental Neurology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Electronic address:

Background: Autoantibodies against the potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily A member 2 (KCNA2) have been described in a few cases of neuropsychiatric disorders, but their diagnostic and pathophysiological role is currently unknown, imposing challenges to medical practice.

Design / Methods: We retrospectively collected comprehensive clinical and paraclinical data of 35 patients with KCNA2 IgG autoantibodies detected in cell-based and tissue-based assays. Patients' sera and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were used for characterization of the antigen, clinical-serological correlations, and determination of IgG subclasses.

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In-vivo tracking of deuterium metabolism in mouse organs using LC-MS/MS.

J Chromatogr A

February 2024

Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften-ISAS-e.V., Otto-Hahn-Str. 6b, Dortmund 44227, Germany. Electronic address:

Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics with stable isotope labeling (SIL) is an established tool for sensitive and precise analyses of tissue metabolism, its flux, and pathway activities in diverse models of physiology and disease. Despite the simplicity and broad applicability of deuterium (H)-labeled precursors for tracing metabolic pathways with minimal biological perturbations, they are rarely employed in LC-MS/MS-guided metabolomics. In this study, we have developed a LC-MS/MS-guided workflow to trace deuterium metabolism in mouse organs following H -glucose infusion.

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Serodiagnostic tests for antibody detection to estimate the immunoprotective status regarding SARS-CoV-2 support diagnostic management. This study aimed to investigate the performance of serological assays for COVID-19 and elaborate on test-specific characteristics. Sequential samples ( = 636) of four panels (acute COVID-19, convalescent COVID-19 (partly vaccinated post-infection), pre-pandemic, and cross-reactive) were tested for IgG by indirect immunofluorescence test (IIFT) and EUROIMMUN EUROLINE Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Profile (IgG).

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates a new test (indirect immunofluorescence cell-based assay, CBA) for detecting anti-MAG IgM antibodies, which are linked to an autoimmune disorder affecting peripheral nerves.
  • - Researchers tested this new method on samples from 95 patients with confirmed anti-MAG neuropathy and 55 patients with other neuropathy types, showing a very high sensitivity of 98.9% and a perfect specificity of 100% compared to the traditional testing method (ELISA).
  • - The CBA offers a faster and easier way to detect these antibodies and could potentially improve the monitoring of anti-MAG levels over time, although further large studies are recommended for more robust findings.
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Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic innate immune cells, able to recognize and eliminate virus-infected as well as cancer cells. Metabolic reprogramming is crucial for their activity as they have enhanced energy and nutritional demands for their functions during an infection. Fatty acids (FAs) represent an important source of cellular energy and are essential for proliferation of immune cells.

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  • Autonomous migration is crucial for immune cell function and has significant implications for various diseases.
  • ComplexEye is a new high-throughput microscope that allows for efficient analysis of cell migration in standard 96- and 384-well plates.
  • This system dramatically speeds up the process of screening for compounds that affect neutrophil migration, completing in 4 days what would typically take 60 days with standard methods.
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  • MCT8 deficiency leads to severe movement issues in mice due to insufficient thyroid hormone transport in the brain, which affects neural function significantly.* -
  • Researchers used proteome analysis to study brain areas in normal mice versus those with MCT8 deficiency, identifying over 2900 proteins and 67 that differed significantly between the two groups.* -
  • Among the findings, decreased expression of Pde10a, an enzyme important for dopamine signaling, was noted; this may be a critical factor in the movement disorders associated with MCT8 deficiency.*
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Antiretroviral therapy (ART) transformed HIV from a life-threatening disease to a chronic condition. However, eliminating the virus remains an elusive therapy goal. For several decades, Friend virus (FV) infection serves as a murine model to study retrovirus immunity.

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Background: Purkinje cytoplasmic autoantibody type 1 (PCA-1)/anti-Yo autoimmunity is a common high-risk paraneoplastic neurological disorder, traditionally attributed antigenically to cerebellar degeneration-related protein 2 (CDR2), predominantly affecting women with gynecologic or breast adenocarcinoma. Single-modality CDR2 testing may produce false-positive results. We assessed the performance characteristics of the more recently purported major PCA-1/Yo antigen, CDR2-like (CDR2L), side by side with CDR2, in a line blot format.

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  • Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is a rare skin condition triggered by gluten, characterized by the presence of specific IgA autoantibodies against proteins like endomysium and transglutaminase.
  • An international study analyzed serum samples from 242 DH patients at diagnosis, using various methods including indirect immunofluorescence on monkey oesophagus and ELISA tests for specific autoantibodies.
  • The findings showed that IgA antibodies detected via indirect immunofluorescence had the highest reactivity and diagnostic accuracy, indicating a strong link between these autoantibodies and DH, which can be further improved with additional testing.
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  • Lung infections can make kids and older people sick, and special immune cells called alveolar macrophages help fight them off.
  • Scientists studied these immune cells to understand how they change when there's an infection in the lungs.
  • They found that these cells get a special marker called CD11b and that this helps them work better with other immune cells to protect against the infection.
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Externalized histones erupt from the nucleus as extracellular traps, are associated with several acute and chronic lung disorders, but their implications in the molecular pathogenesis of interstitial lung disease are incompletely defined. To investigate the role and molecular mechanisms of externalized histones within the immunologic networks of pulmonary fibrosis, we studied externalized histones in human and animal bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples of lung fibrosis. Neutralizing anti-histone antibodies were administered in bleomycin-induced fibrosis of C57BL/6 J mice, and subsequent studies used conditional/constitutive knockout mouse strains for TGFβ and IL-27 signaling along with isolated platelets and cultured macrophages.

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  • Scientists tested if special brain cells, called neural precursor cells (NPCs), could help mice with strokes, especially those with high cholesterol.
  • They found that giving NPCs to the mice reduced damage in the brain right after the stroke but caused some bad side effects, like bleeding and more immune cells in mice with high cholesterol.
  • In the long run, NPCs helped the mice recover a little at first but didn't have lasting benefits on their brain or health later on.
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  • PD-1-based immune checkpoint inhibitors are key treatments for melanoma, and tumor PD-L1 expression is a crucial biomarker for predicting therapy success.
  • This study analyzed PD-L1 levels from various tumor tissues, including primary tumors and metastases, from 448 patients who received treatment between 2014 and 2020, comparing their correlation with treatment outcomes like best overall response and survival rates.
  • Results showed that PD-L1 positivity in lymph node metastases was significantly associated with better treatment responses and overall survival, while primary tumors and skin/subcutaneous metastases showed weaker correlations.
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Utility of Protein Microarrays for Detection of Classified and Novel Antibodies in Autoimmune Neurologic Disease.

Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm

September 2023

From the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and Neurology (A.M., E.P.F., S.J.P., B.Y., A.Z., D.D.); Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (C.L., N.V., M.G., R.L.-C., J.M.); Khon Kaen University (N.V.), Thailand; University of Virginia (M.W.B.); Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics (S.D.), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; The Institute for Experimental Immunology (R.M., M.S.), affiliated to Euroimmun AG, Lubeck, Germany.

Background And Objectives: Neural antibodies are detected by tissue-based indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) in Mayo Clinic's Neuroimmunology Laboratory practice, but the process of characterizing and validating novel antibodies is lengthy. We report our assessment of human protein arrays.

Methods: Assessment of arrays (81% human proteome coverage) was undertaken using diverse known positive samples (17 serum and 14 CSF).

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Introduction: The increasing identification of specific autoantibodies against brain structures allows further refinement of the group of autoimmune-associated epilepsies and affects diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms. The early etiological allocation of a first seizure is particularly challenging, and the contribution of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis is not fully understood.

Methods: In this retrospective study with a mean of 7.

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Antiviral immunity often requires CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) that actively migrate and search for virus-infected targets. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) have been shown to suppress CTL responses, but it is not known whether this is also mediated by effects on CTL motility. Here, we used intravital 2-photon microscopy in the Friend retrovirus (FV) mouse model to define the impact of Tregs on CTL motility throughout the course of acute infection.

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Objectives: The correlate(s) of protection against SARS-CoV-2 remain incompletely defined. Additional information regarding the combinations of antibody and T cell-mediated immunity which can protect against (re)infection is needed.

Methods: We conducted a population-based, longitudinal cohort study including 1044 individuals of varying SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection statuses.

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Article Synopsis
  • GFI1 is a transcriptional repressor that is crucial for the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) into myeloid and lymphoid cells, with its expression levels influencing HSC quantity and function.
  • In experiments using various mouse strains, HSCs with either reduced (KD) or completely absent (KO) GFI1 expression showed significantly lower numbers compared to wild-type (WT) mice, highlighting the importance of GFI1 levels.
  • Co-transplantation studies demonstrated that HSCs with reduced or lacking GFI1 expression have a lower capacity for self-renewal and differentiation, indicating a dose-dependent effect of GFI1 on HSC function.
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  • Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) is effective for high-resolution imaging of tissue vasculature but faces challenges with labor-intensive data processing due to large datasets.!* -
  • VesselExpress is a new automated software that analyzes key vascular network parameters quickly and efficiently, being around 100 times faster than existing tools and requiring no user input.!* -
  • The software uses a unique dual Frangi filter approach to reveal significant changes in brain vasculature due to obesity and highlights distinct 3D vascular differences across various organs.!*
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Background: Immune responses against tumors are subject to negative feedback regulation. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) blocking Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), a receptor expressed on T cells, or its ligand PD-L1 have significantly improved the treatment of cancer, in particular malignant melanoma. Nevertheless, responses and durability are variables, suggesting that additional critical negative feedback mechanisms exist and need to be targeted to improve therapeutic efficacy.

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