http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/6183/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31846/ 2012-03-01T00:00:00Z In a phase I/IIa clinical trial, 17 HIV-1 infected patients, stable on cART, received 4 vaccinations with autologous dendritic cells electroporated with mRNA encoding Tat, Rev and Nef, after which cART was interrupted. Vaccination was safe and feasible. During the analytical treatment interruption (ATI), no serious adverse events were observed. Ninety-six weeks following ATI, 6/17 patients remained off therapy. Although induced and/or enhanced CD4+and CD8+T-cell responses specific for the immunogens were observed in most of the patients, we found no correlation with the number of weeks off cART. Moreover, CD4+T-cell counts, plasma viral load and the time remaining off cART following ATI did not differ from historical control data. To conclude, the vaccine was safe, well tolerated and resulted in vaccine-specific immune responses. Since no correlation with clinical parameters could be found, these results warrant further research in order to optimize the efficacy of vaccine-induced T-cell responses. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32318/ 2008-05-15T00:00:00Z In this report we explore the use of MALDI-FTICR mass spectrometry for the quantitative analysis of five HIV-1 protease inhibitors in cell lysates. 2,5-Dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) was used as the matrix. From a quantitative perspective, DHB is usually a poor matrix due to its poor shot-to-shot and poor spot-to-spot reproducibilities. We found that the quantitative precisions improved significantly when DMSO (dimethylsulfoxide) was added to the matrix solution. For lopinavir and ritonavir, currently the most frequently prescribed HIV-1 protease inhibitors, the signal-to-noise ratios improved significantly when potassium iodide was added to the matrix solution. The mean quantitative precisions, expressed as % relative standard deviation, were 6.4% for saquinavir, 7.3% for lopinavir, 8.5% for ritonavir, 11.1% for indinavir, and 7.2% for nelfinavir. The mean quantitative accuracies, expressed as % deviation, were 4.5% for saquinavir, 6.0% for lopinavir, 5.9% for ritonavir, 6.6% for indinavir, and 8.0% for nelfinavir. The concentrations measured for the individual quality control samples were all within 85-117% of the theoretical concentrations. The lower limits of quantification in cell lysates were 4 fmol/μL for saquinavir, 16 fmol/μL for lopinavir, 31 fmol/μL for ritonavir, and 100 fmol/μL for indinavir and nelfinavir. The mean mass accuracies for the protease inhibitors were ≤ 0.28 ppm using external calibration. Our results show that MALDI-FTICR mass spectrometry can be successfully used for precise, accurate, and selective quantitative analyses of HIV-1 protease inhibitors in cell lysates. In addition, the lower limits of quantification obtained allow clinical applications of the technique. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/35453/ 2007-05-01T00:00:00Z In the present study, we examined the effect of the loss of the human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-B*3501-restricted nucleoprotein (NP)418-426epitope on interferon (IFN)-γ-production and lytic activity of the human cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response in vitro. Extensive amino acid variation at T cell receptor contact residues of the NP418-426epitope has led to repeated evasion from specific CTL. We generated recombinant influenza viruses with variants of the NP418-426epitope, which were used to stimulate peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from six HLA-B*3501-positive study subjects in order to expand virus-specific CTL. Loss of the NP418-426epitope resulted in a significant reduction of IFN-γ-expressing CD8+T cells, similar to that observed previously after the loss of the HLA-B*2705-restricted NP383-391epitope. In addition, the effect of the loss of the NP418-426epitope on the lytic activity of the virus-specific CTL response was assessed. Also this functional property of the virus-specific CTL response was affected significantly by the loss of this and the NP383-391epitope, as determined using the newly developed fluorescent antigen-transfected target cell (FATT)-CTL assay. These findings indicate that the loss of single immunodominant epitopes affects the functionality of the virus-specific CTL response significantly. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37060/ 2007-02-15T00:00:00Z Mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for studying the intracellular pharmacokinetics of antiretroviral drugs. However, the biohazard of HIV-1 calls for a safety protocol for such analyses. To this end, we extracted HIV-1 producing cells with methanol or ethanol at 4 °C. After extraction, no viral infectivity was detected, as shown by a reduction in infectious titers of more than 6 log. In addition, this protocol is compatible with the quantitative analysis of antiretroviral drugs in cell extracts using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) MS. Thus, using this protocol, infectious HIV-1 is inactivated and antiretroviral drugs are extracted from cells in a single step. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/3831/ 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z In this study the construction is described of HIV-1 molecular clones in which CTL epitopes from RT or Env late proteins were inserted into the Nef early protein. The ectopic epitopes were efficiently processed from the recombinant Nef proteins, were recognized by their cognate CTL in cytolytic assays, and did not perturb virus replication or viral protein expression in vitro. These recombinant viruses will therefore be an important tool in studying the effect of distinct epitope expression kinetics on the efficiency of CTL-mediated suppression of HIV-1 replication.