Explanipedia

The tuberculosis-associated microenvironment promotes HIV-1 persistence by impairing CD8+ T cell-mediated viral control Open

Simon Cronin, Jennifer Simpson, Andrea Pereyra Casanova, Yuchen Li, J. Rojas , et al. · 2025

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is the most common coinfection in people living with HIV-1 (PLWH). This coinfection is associated with accelerated HIV-1 disease progression and reduced survival. …

Dendritic cells and HIV transmission: roles and subsets of antigen-presenting cells in the human anogenital tract Open

D Buffa, Thomas R. O’Neil, Erica E. Vine, Lara Sarkawt, Freja A. Warner van Dijk , et al. · 2025

Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells and play a key role in facilitating the sexual transmission of HIV, functioning as a delivery system responsible for trafficking the virus from exposed barrier sites to their key ta…

Herpes simplex virus type-1 infection and spread in a novel porcine corneal explant model is restricted to the epithelium Open

Sana Arshad, Hafsa Rana, Naomi R. Truong, Ushasree Pattamatta, Kirstie M. Bertram , et al. · 2025

Herpes Keratitis (HK) is a debilitating infection of the cornea that remains the leading cause of infectious blindness in developed countries. Caused primarily by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), it is associated with recurrent inflamm…

The spatial biology of HIV infection Open

Kevin Hu, Thomas R. O’Neil, Heeva Baharlou, Paul J. Austin, Jackson F. Karrasch , et al. · 2025

HIV infection implicates a spectrum of tissues in the human body starting with viral transmission in the anogenital tract and subsequently persisting in lymphoid tissues and brain. Though studies using isolated cells have contributed signi…

Recent Advances in Our Understanding of Human Inflammatory Dendritic Cells in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Open

Freja A. Warner van Dijk, Kirstie M. Bertram, Thomas R. O’Neil, Yuchen Li, D Buffa , et al. · 2025

Anogenital inflammation is a critical risk factor for HIV acquisition. The primary preventative HIV intervention, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is ineffective in blocking transmission in anogenital inflammation. Pre-existing sexually tr…

Innate immune cell activation by adjuvant AS01 in human lymph node explants is age independent Open

Vicki V Stylianou, Kirstie M. Bertram, Van Anh Vo, Elizabeth B Dunn, Heeva Baharlou , et al. · 2024

Vaccine adjuvants are thought to work by stimulating innate immunity in the draining lymph node (LN), although this has not been proven in humans. To bridge the data obtained in animals to humans, we have developed an in situ human LN expl…

Characterising plasmacytoid and myeloid AXL+ SIGLEC-6+ dendritic cell functions and their interactions with HIV Open

Freja A. Warner van Dijk, Orion Tong, Thomas R. O’Neil, Kirstie M. Bertram, Kevin Hu , et al. · 2024

AXL + Siglec-6 + dendritic cells (ASDC) are novel myeloid DCs which can be subdivided into CD11c + and CD123 + expressing subsets. We showed for the first time that these two ASDC subsets are present in inflamed human anogenital tissues wh…

Herpes simplex virus spreads rapidly in human foreskin, partly driven by chemokine-induced redistribution of Nectin-1 on keratinocytes Open

Hafsa Rana, Naomi R. Truong, B. H. Johnson, Heeva Baharlou, Jason J. Herbert , et al. · 2024

HSV infects keratinocytes in the epidermis of skin via nectin-1. We established a human foreskin explant infection model to investigate HSV entry and spread. HSV1 entry could only be achieved by the topical application of virus via high de…

Epithelial dendritic cells vs. Langerhans cells: Implications for mucosal vaccines Open

Erica E. Vine, Paul J. Austin, Thomas R. O’Neil, Najla Nasr, Kirstie M. Bertram , et al. · 2024

Next-generation vaccines may be delivered via the skin and mucosa. The stratified squamous epithelium (SSE) represents the outermost layer of the skin (epidermis) and type II mucosa (epithelium). Langerhans cells (LCs) have been considered…

OMIP‐096: A 24‐color flow cytometry panel to identify and characterize CD4 + and CD8 + tissue‐resident T cells in human skin, intestinal, and type II mucosal tissue Open

Thomas R. O’Neil, Andrew N. Harman, Anthony L. Cunningham, Najla Nasr, Kirstie M. Bertram · 2023

There is a great need to understand human immune cells within tissue, where disease manifests and infection occurs. Tissue‐resident memory T cells (TRMs) were discovered over a decade ago, there is a great need to understand their role in …

Redefining the human corneal immune compartment using dynamic intravital imaging Open

Laura E. Downie, Xinyuan Zhang, Mengliang Wu, S. M. Karunaratne, Joon Keit Loi , et al. · 2023

The healthy human cornea is a uniquely transparent sensory tissue where immune responses are tightly controlled to preserve vision. The cornea contains immune cells that are widely presumed to be intraepithelial dendritic cells (DCs). Corn…

An in situ analysis pipeline for initial host-pathogen interactions reveals signatures of human colorectal HIV transmission Open

Heeva Baharlou, Nicolas Canete, Erica E. Vine, Kevin Hu, Di Yuan , et al. · 2022

The initial immune response to HIV determines transmission. However, due to technical limitations we still do not have a comparative map of early mucosal transmission events. By combining RNAscope, cyclic immunofluorescence, and image anal…

An in situ quantitative map of initial human colorectal HIV transmission Open

Heeva Baharlou, Nicolas Canete, Erica E. Vine, Kevin Hu, Di Yuan , et al. · 2022

The initial immune response to HIV is critical in determining transmission. However, due to technical limitations we still do not have a comparative map of early mucosal transmission events. We combined RNAscope, cyclic-immunofluorescence …

HIV transmitting mononuclear phagocytes; integrating the old and new Open

Erica E. Vine, Jake W. Rhodes, Freja A. Warner van Dijk, Scott N. Byrne, Kirstie M. Bertram , et al. · 2022

In tissue, mononuclear phagocytes (MNP) are comprised of Langerhans cells, dendritic cells, macrophages and monocyte-derived cells. They are the first immune cells to encounter HIV during transmission and transmit the virus to CD4 T cells …

An in situ Quantitative Map of Initial Human Colorectal HIV Transmission Open

Heeva Baharlou, Nicolas Canete, Erica E. Vine, Kevin Hu, Di Yuan , et al. · 2022

Optimal Isolation Protocols for Examining and Interrogating Mononuclear Phagocytes From Human Intestinal Tissue Open

Chloe M. Doyle, Erica E. Vine, Kirstie M. Bertram, Heeva Baharlou, Jake W. Rhodes , et al. · 2021

The human intestine contains numerous mononuclear phagocytes (MNP), including subsets of conventional dendritic cells (cDC), macrophages (Mf) and monocytes, each playing their own unique role within the intestinal immune system and homeost…

Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 infects Langerhans cells and the novel epidermal dendritic cell, Epi-cDC2s, via different entry pathways Open

Kirstie M. Bertram, Naomi R. Truong, Jacinta B. Smith, Min Kim, Kerrie J. Sandgren , et al. · 2021

Skin mononuclear phagocytes (MNPs) provide the first interactions of invading viruses with the immune system. In addition to Langerhans cells (LCs), we recently described a second epidermal MNP population, Epi-cDC2s, in human anogenital ep…

Human anogenital monocyte-derived dendritic cells and langerin+cDC2 are major HIV target cells Open

Jake W. Rhodes, Rachel A. Botting, Kirstie M. Bertram, Erica E. Vine, Hafsa Rana , et al. · 2021

A NOVEL LANGERIN EXPRESSING TYPE 2-CONVENTIONAL DENDRITIC CELL IS SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASED IN CROHN’S DISEASE Open

Chloe M. Doyle, Kirstie M. Bertram, Jake W. Rhodes, Anthony L. Cunningham, Grahame Ctercteko , et al. · 2021

Crohn’s disease is a chronic relapsing auto-inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract that primarily affects young individuals with an increasing incidence rate. There is still no cure for Crohn’s disease and current treatment-o…

AFid: a tool for automated identification and exclusion of autofluorescent objects from microscopy images Open

Heeva Baharlou, Nicolas Canete, Kirstie M. Bertram, Kerrie J. Sandgren, Anthony L. Cunningham , et al. · 2020

Motivation Autofluorescence is a long-standing problem that has hindered the analysis of images of tissues acquired by fluorescence microscopy. Current approaches to mitigate autofluorescence in tissue are lab-based and involve either chem…

Identification of HIV-Transmitting Sub-Epithelial Mononuclear Phagocytes in Human Anogenital and Colorectal Tissues Open

Jake W. Rhodes, Rachel A. Botting, Kirstie M. Bertram, Hafsa Rana, Heeva Baharlou , et al. · 2020

Tissue mononuclear phagocytes (MNP) are specialised in pathogen detection and antigen presentation. They are the first cells of the immune system to encounter HIV and play a key role in transmission as they deliver the virus to CD4 T cells…

Manipulation of Mononuclear Phagocytes by HIV: Implications for Early Transmission Events Open

Kirstie M. Bertram, Orion Tong, Caroline Royle, Stuart Turville, Najla Nasr , et al. · 2019

Mononuclear phagocytes are antigen presenting cells that play a key role in linking the innate and adaptive immune systems. In tissue, these consist of Langerhans cells, dendritic cells and macrophages, all of which express the key HIV ent…

Identification of HIV transmitting CD11c+ human epidermal dendritic cells Open

Kirstie M. Bertram, Rachel A. Botting, Heeva Baharlou, Jake W. Rhodes, Hafsa Rana , et al. · 2019

Digital removal of autofluorescence from microscopy images Open

Heeva Baharlou, Nicolas Canete, Kirstie M. Bertram, Kerrie J. Sandgren, Anthony L. Cunningham , et al. · 2019

Autofluorescence is a long-standing problem that has hindered fluorescence microscopy image analysis. To address this, we have developed a method that identifies and removes autofluorescent signals from multi-channel images post acquisitio…

Phenotypic and functional consequences of different isolation protocols on skin mononuclear phagocytes Open

Rachel A. Botting, Kirstie M. Bertram, Heeva Baharlou, Kerrie J. Sandgren, James Fletcher , et al. · 2017

Mononuclear phagocytes are present in skin and mucosa and represent one of the first lines of defense against invading pathogens, which they detect via an array of pathogen-binding receptors expressed on their surface. However, their extra…

Understanding natural herpes simplex virus immunity to inform next‐generation vaccine design Open

Kerrie J. Sandgren, Kirstie M. Bertram, Anthony L. Cunningham · 2016

Incremental advances in our knowledge of how natural immune control of herpes simplex virus (HSV) develops have yielded insight as to why previous vaccine attempts have only been partially successful, however, our understanding of these pa…

Relay of Herpes Simplex Virus between Langerhans Cells and Dermal Dendritic Cells in Human Skin Open

Min Kim, Naomi R. Truong, Virginia James, Lidija Bosnjak, Kerrie J. Sandgren , et al. · 2015

The mechanism by which immunity to Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) is initiated is not completely defined. HSV initially infects mucosal epidermis prior to entering nerve endings. In mice, epidermal Langerhans cells (LCs) are the first dendriti…

Kirstie M. Bertram YOU? Author Swipe