Prof. dr. Nathalie Cools currently is appointed with a 50% assistant professorship at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp and is senior lead scientist of the Immune Regulation and tolerance-inducing Strategies (IRiS) research group at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp.
The main research interests of the IRiS team focus on immunobiology of human dendritic cells in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity and their modulation in order to provide the prospect for their use to suppress pathogenic immune responses in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is the most common disabling neurologic disease of young people, affecting approximately one in thousand people in Europe. Our research has demonstrated that dendritic cells of MS patients are in an “hyper-activated” state setting a cascade of processes in motion that ultimately results in damage to the body’s own myelin. In contrast, when dendritic cells were generated in the laboratory under the influence of vitamin D, so-called tolerance-inducing or tolerogenic DC (tolDC) were created being able to re-educate the immune system not to react against myelin. Currently, this novel tolDC approach is being moved forward to a first phase I study in patients with MS. To date, a dose-escalation clinical trial for a clinical-grade vitamin D3-treated tolDC product has been approved by the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) in Belgium.
Contact & links
- Affiliation: University of Antwerp
- Unit: Immune Regulation and tolerance-inducing Strategies research group
- Location: Falculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Antwerpen, Belgium
Selected publications:
- Clinical use of tolerogenic dendritic cells-harmonization approach in European collaborative effort Ten Brinke A. et al.Mediators of inflammation – ISSN 0962-9351- (2015) p. doi.org/10.1155/2015/471719
- Rapid exercise-induced mobilization of dendritic cells is potentially mediated by a Flt3L-and MMP-9-dependent process in multiple sclerosis. Deckx N. et al. Mediators of inflammation – ISSN 0962-9351-2015 (2015) p. 1-10 doi.org/10.1155/2015/158956
- Circulating dendritic cells of multiple sclerosis patients are proinflammatory and their frequency is correlated with MS-associated genetic risk factors. Thewissen K. et al. Multiple sclerosis : clinical and laboratory research – ISSN 1352-4585-20:5 (2014) p. 548-557 doi.org/10.1177/1352458513505352
- Tolerogenic dendritic cell vaccines to treat autoimmune diseases : can the unattainable dream turn into reality? Van Brussel I. et al. Autoimmunity reviews – ISSN 1568-9972-13:2 (2014) p. 138-150 doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2013.09.008
- Hurdles in therapy with regulatory T cells Trzonkowski P. et al. Science translational medicine – ISSN 1946-6234-7:304 (2015) p. doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aaa7721
