Arjen Schots

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Wageningen University & Research

Chronic infection with Schistosoma mansoni parasites is associated with reduced allergic sensitization in humans, while schistosome eggs protects against allergic airway inflammation (AAI) in mice. One of the main secretory/excretory molecules from schistosome eggs is the glycosylated T2-RNAse Omega-1 (ω1). We hypothesized that ω1 induces protectio...

The development of effective recombinant vaccines against parasitic nematodes has been challenging and so far mostly unsuccessful. This has also been the case for Ostertagia ostertagi, an economically important abomasal nematode in cattle, applying recombinant versions of the protective native activation-associated secreted proteins (ASP). To gain...

Several vaccine platforms have been developed to fight pathogenic threats, with Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) representing a very promising alternative to traditional platforms. VLPs trigger strong and lasting humoral and cellular immune responses with fewer safety concerns and higher stability than other platforms. The use of extensively characteriz...

Glycoproteins are the dominant category among approved biopharmaceuticals, indicating their importance as therapeutic proteins. Glycoproteins are decorated with carbohydrate structures (or glycans) in a process called glycosylation. Glycosylation is a post-translational modification that is present in all kingdoms of life, albeit with differences i...

Helminths are parasitic worms that have successfully co-evolved with their host immune system to sustain long-term infections. Their successful parasitism is mainly facilitated by modulation of the host immune system via the release of excretory-secretory (ES) products covered with glycan motifs such as Lewis X, fucosylated LDN, phosphorylcholine a...

Secretions of parasitic worms (helminths) contain a wide collection of immunomodulatory glycoproteins with the potential to treat inflammatory disorders, like autoimmune diseases. Yet, the identification of single molecules that can be developed into novel biopharmaceuticals is hampered by the limited availability of native parasite-derived protein...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Type 2 immunity plays an essential role in the maintenance of metabolic homeostasis and its disruption during obesity promotes meta‐inflammation and insulin resistance. Infection with the helminth parasite Schistosoma mansoni and treatment with its soluble egg antigens (SEA) induce a type 2 immune response in metabolic organs and improve insulin se...

The redundancy of the genetic code allows for a regulatory layer to optimize protein synthesis by modulating translation and degradation of mRNAs. Patterns in synonymous codon usage in highly expressed genes have been studied in many species, but scarcely in conjunction with mRNA secondary structure. Here, we analyzed over 2,000 expression profiles...

Helminth parasites secrete a wide variety of immunomodulatory proteins and lipids to dampen host immune responses. Many of these immunomodulatory compounds are modified with complex sugar structures (or glycans), which play an important role at the host–parasite interface. As an example, the human blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni produces highly fuc...

Type 2 immunity plays an essential role in the maintenance of metabolic homeostasis and its disruption during obesity promotes meta-inflammation and insulin resistance. Infection with the helminth parasite Schistosoma mansoni and treatment with its soluble egg antigens (SEA) can induce a type 2 immune response in metabolic organs and improve insuli...

α-Galactosidases (EC 3.2.1.22) are retaining glycosidases that cleave terminal α-linked galactose residues from glycoconjugate substrates. α-Galactosidases take part in the turnover of cell wall–associated galactomannans in plants and in the lysosomal degradation of glycosphingolipids in animals. Deficiency of human α-galactosidase A (α-Gal A) caus...

Aim: Treatment of inflammatory disorders relies on the intervention in immune responses thereby restoring homeostasis. IL-10 is a cytokine with therapeutic potential, but until now has not been as successful as previously anticipated. A reason for this may be that IL-10 responsiveness depends on the environment of the inflamed tissue. In this stud...

Inflammatory disorders are becoming more prevalent in the Western world. Treatment of these diseases relies on the intervention in inflammatory responses thereby restoring immune homeostasis. One cytokine that has the potential to restore immune homeostasis is the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10). But until now IL-10 treatment has...

Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that plays a key role in maintaining immune homeostasis. IL-10-mediated responses are triggered upon binding to a heterodimeric receptor complex consisting of IL-10 receptor (IL-10R)1 and IL-10R2. Engagement of the IL-10R complex activates the intracellular kinases Jak1 and Tyk2, but the exact...

STAT1 is not required for IL-10 activity. Bone marrow-derived macrophages, dendritic cells and mast cells from wild-type and STAT1-/- mice were tested for their response to IL-10. Cells pre-treated with IL-10 were stimulated with 100 ng/ml LPS and TNF-α expression was determined to asses anti-inflammatory properties of IL-10 in macrophages (A) and...

Flow cytometric analysis of transfected CHO-K1 cells. CHO-K1 cells were analysed by flow cytometry upon co-transfection of IL-10R1 and IL-10R2 constructs. (A) Dual staining for extracellular expression of IL-10R1 and IL-10R2. Pictures are given for the isotype and surface staining upon co-transfection of full IL-10R1 and IL-10R2 constructs and reve...

Flow cytometric analysis of bone marrow-derived cells. Bone marrow-derived macrophages, dendritic cells and mast cells were analysed by flow cytometry for the expression of cellular markers CD11b & F4/80 (macrophage markers), CD11c & MHC-II (dendritic cell markers) or FcεRI & c-kit (mast cell markers). Bone marrow-derived cells from all transgenic...

Infection with the helminth Schistosoma (S.) mansoni drives the development of interleukin (IL)-10-producing regulatory B (Breg) cells in mice and man, which have the capacity to reduce experimental allergic airway inflammation and are thus of high therapeutic interest. However, both the involved antigen and cellular mechanisms that drive Breg cell...

Macrophage subsets of the MZ do not bind the control protein ovalbumin. Spleens were snap-frozen 30 minutes after i.v. injection of 200 μg fluorescently labeled SEA or ovalbumin (OVA), and binding analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. SEA but not OVA localized in the marginal zone to macrophages expressing Siglec-1 (marginal metallophilic macrophage...

Additional data on the specificity and persistence of egg antigen-induced B cell activity. (A-B) A non-schistosomal control protein does not activate B cells. Wild-type mice were i.p. injected with two doses of 100 μg SEA in PBS, 100 μg human serum albumin (HSA) in PBS or PBS alone. At day 14, CD19+ sorted splenic B cells were restimulated with SEA...

B cell IL-10 induction by egg antigens is independent of TLR4. C57BL/6 wild-type and TLR4-deficient mice were i.p. injected with two doses of 100 μg SEA in PBS, or PBS as control. At day 14, CD19+ sorted splenic B cells were restimulated with SEA (20 μg/ml) for 2 days. Secreted IL-10, intracellular IL-10 and CD86 expression of B cells are shown. Si...

Depletion control for splenic cell subsets and Treg cell activity after clodronate treatment. (A-C) Gating scheme and representative FACS plots of splenocyte subsets which were subsequently analyzed for in vivo-captured fluorescently labeled egg antigens (shown in Fig 3). Splenocytes were pre-gated for living singlets. (A) Red pulp macrophages were...

B cell IL-10 induction by SEA is independent of SIGN-R1, TLR2 and TLR4. (A) C57BL/6 wild-type or SIGN-R1-deficient mice were treated with 2 doses of SEA (each 100 μg) for 2 weeks or PBS as control. Secreted IL-10 was detected by ELISA after 2 days restimulation of splenic CD19+ B cells with SEA (20 μg/ml). Summary of N = 2–6 mice per group. (B, C)...

Anti-IgM Ab does not further increase SEA-induced IL-10 expression of B cells. Splenic B cells from naïve mice were cultured with 20 μg/ml SEA or medium as control, with or without addition of anti-IgM Ab in different concentrations. After 3 days of culture, supernatants were analyzed for IL-10 and IL-6 by ELISA. Summary of 3 experiments. Significa...

Plant-based production of IPSE. (A) SDS-PAGE and Coomassie blue staining of apoplast fluids (AF) from empty vector (EV), N-terminally tagged H6F-IPSE infiltrated N. benthamiana plants and subsequent small-scale purification of IPSE using Ni-NTA resin and the Äkta Prime purification system. Purified IPSE was analysed under reducing and non-reducing...

The IL-10 phenotype is not reliant on artificially high stimulation with PMA/ionomycin. Splenic B cells from IL-10-GFP (TIGER) mice were cultured for 2 days with 20 μg/ml SEA or medium as control. Intracellular IL-10 expression of total B cells as assessed by GFP signal in the presence or absence of PMA and ionomycin during the last 4 hours of the...

IPSE/alpha-1 activates Breg cells dose-dependently while the major egg antigens omega-1 and kappa-5 as well as worm antigen are ineffective. Splenic B cells from naïve mice were cultured for 3 days with different concentrations (indicated by numbers in the x-axis label) of natural (n) IPSE/alpha-1, omega-1 or kappa-5, or medium as negative and 20 μ...

Plants have evolved a limited repertoire of NB-LRR disease resistance (R) genes to protect themselves against a myriad of pathogens. This limitation is thought to be counterbalanced by the rapid evolution of NB-LRR proteins, as only few sequence changes have been shown to be sufficient to alter resistance specificities towards novel strains of a pa...

Deficiency of α-galactosidase A (α-GAL) causes Fabry disease (FD), an X-linked storage disease of the glycosphingolipid globtriaosylcerammide (Gb3) in lysosomes of various cells and elevated plasma globotriaosylsphingosine (Lyso-Gb3) toxic for podocytes and nociceptive neurons. Enzyme replacement therapy is used to treat the disease, but clinical e...

Helminth parasites control host-immune responses by secreting immunomodulatory glycoproteins. Clinical trials and mouse model studies have demonstrated the potential of helminth-derived glycoproteins for the treatment of immune-related diseases, like allergies and autoimmune diseases. Studies are however hampered by the limited availability of nati...

Mushrooms are well known for their immunomodulating capacities. However, little is known about how mushroom-stimulated dendritic cells (DCs) affect T cells. Therefore, we investigated the effect of mushroom compounds derived from seven edible mushroom species on DCs, their fate in DCs, and the effect of the mushroom-stimulated DCs on T cells. Each...

Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is a signalling molecule that plays a key role in developmental and immunological processes in mammals. Three TGF-β isoforms exist in humans, and each isoform has unique therapeutic potential. Plants offer a platform for the production of recombinant proteins, which is cheap and easy to scale up and has a low...

Secretory IgA (sIgA) is a crucial antibody in host defense at mucosal surfaces. It is a promising antibody isotype in a variety of therapeutic settings such as passive vaccination and treatment of inflammatory disorders. However, heterologous production of this heteromultimeric protein complex is still suboptimal. The challenge is the coordinate ex...

Human interleukin-22 (IL-22) is a member of the IL-10 cytokine family that has recently been shown to have major therapeutic potential. IL-22 is an unusual cytokine as it does not act directly on immune cells. Instead, IL-22 controls the differentiation, proliferation and antimicrobial protein expression of epithelial cells, thereby maintaining epi...

Background Our food is a potential source of immunomodulating compounds that may be used to steer immune responses towards a desired status for instance reducing inflammatory disorders. However, to identify and characterize such bioactive compounds, biologically relevant and standardized assays are required. Macrophages play an important role in im...

Despite causing considerable damage to host tissue during the onset of parasitism, nematodes establish remarkably persistent infections in both animals and plants. It is thought that an elaborate repertoire of effector proteins in nematode secretions suppresses damage-triggered immune responses of the host. However, the nature and mode of action of...

The unique features of IgA, such as the ability to recruit neutrophils and suppress the inflammatory responses mediated by IgG and IgE, make it a promising antibody isotype for several therapeutic applications. However, in contrast to IgG, reports on plant production of IgA are scarce. We produced IgA1κ and IgG1κ versions of three therapeutic antib...

Plants are gaining increasingly acceptance as a production platform for recombinant proteins. One reason for this is their ability to carry out posttranslational protein modifications in a similar if not identical way as mammalian cells. The capability of plants to carry out human-like complex glycosylation is well known. Moreover, the targeted man...

Heterologous expression platforms of biopharmaceutical proteins have been significantly improved over the last decade. Further improvement can be established by examining the intrinsic properties of proteins. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine with a short half-life that plays an important role in re-establishing immune homeost...

Plants lack the seemingly unlimited receptor diversity of a somatic adaptive immune system as found in vertebrates and rely on only a relatively small set of innate immune receptors to resist a myriad of pathogens. Here, we show that disease-resistant tomato plants use an efficient mechanism to leverage the limited nonself recognition capacity of t...

Plants lack the seemingly unlimited receptor diversity of a somatic adaptive immune system as found in vertebrates and rely on only a relatively small set of innate immune receptors to resist a myriad of pathogens. Here, we show that disease‐resistant tomato plants use an efficient mechanism to leverage the limited nonself recognition capacity of t...

The intestinal mucosa is of major importance for immune development. To further study the ontogeny of avian mucosal immunity, mRNA levels of IgM, IgY and IgA, the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) and a number of cytokines were determined at different ages in jejunum and ileum of non-immunized healthy juvenile layer chickens. Immunoglobulin...

The Rx1 protein, as many resistance proteins of the nucleotide binding-leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) class, is predicted to be cytoplasmic because it lacks discernable nuclear targeting signals. Here, we demonstrate that Rx1, which confers extreme resistance to Potato virus X, is located both in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Manipulating the nucleocyto...

Plants are an attractive platform for the production of N-glycosylated subunit vaccines. Wild type glycosylation of plants can be exploited to produce vaccines that antigen-presenting cells effectively take up, degrade and present to cells of the adaptive immune system. Alternatively, glycoengineered plants can be used to produce humanized antigens...

The two closely related nematode species Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida are one of the major problems encountered in potato cultivation. There is a spectrum of potato plant genes known, which confer resistance to these species and their pathotypes. Potato growing in The Netherlands has to follow strict rules to control spread of the pests....

Substituted xylan polymers constitute a major part of the hemicellulose fraction of plant cell walls, especially in monocotyledons. Endo-1,4-ß-xylanases (EC 3.2.1.8) are capable of hydrolyzing substituted xylan polymers into fragments of random size. Many herbivorous animals have evolved intimate relationships with endosymbionts to exploit their en...

Delivery of secretory IgA antibodies (sIgA) to mucosal surfaces is a promising strategy to passively prevent infectious diseases. Plants have been proposed as biofactories for such complex immunoglobulin molecules. Recently, the molecular characterization of all four monomers of chicken sIgA (IgA immunoglobulin heavy and light chains, J-chain and s...

Passive immune therapy is regaining interest to prevent and cure infectious diseases both in human and veterinary medicine. Therefore, systems are required that enable efficient targeted selection of antibodies originating from virtually any animal species. Here, a system for the selection of chicken IgA, using phage display, is described. A novel...

Lytic phages form a powerful platform for the display of large cDNA libraries and offer the possibility to screen for interactions with almost any substrate. To visualize these interactions directly by fluorescence microscopy, we constructed fluorescent T7 phages by exploiting the flexibility of phages to incorporate modified versions of its capsid...

Rational design of antibodies targeting essential viral proteins can complement the palette of antiviral resistance strategies. Here, stable and high expression of single-chain monoclonal antibodies targeting the nucleoprotein of the economically important plant virus Tomato spotted wilt virus, a protein that is involved in multiple steps in the vi...

A panel of 15 recombinant single chain antibodies (scFv) specific to grapevine virus B (GVB) were recovered from a human combinatorial scFv antibody library using the phage display technique against purified virus particles. Two selected scFv-encoding genes were expressed in recombinant Escherichia coli cells as dimeric antibodies. Successful detec...

A deterministic deconvolution scheme was proposed, for processing seismic data successfully. The fluctuation analysis tools based on discrete wavelet transforms were used to perform deterministic deconvolutions, and to characterize some statistical properties of reflectivity, with and without the presence of Gaussian white noise. The whiteness hypo...

A phage library containing 2.7 × 10(9) randomly expressed peptides was used to determine the epitopes of three monoclonal antibodies that bind to the coat protein of Potato Virus Y. Construction of the consensus sequences for the peptides obtained after three selection rounds indicated that each antibody recognized a different epitope located withi...

An instrumental system is described for detecting and sorting single fluorescent particles such as microspheres, bacteria, viruses, or even smaller macromolecules in a flowing liquid. The system consists of microfluidic chips (biochips), computer controlled high voltage power supplies, and a fluorescence microscope with confocal optics. The confoca...

Animals are continuously threatened by pathogens entering the body through natural openings. Here we show that in chicken ( Gallus gallus ), secretory IgA (sIgA) protects the epithelia lining these natural cavities. A gene encoding a chicken polymeric Ig receptor ( GG-pIgR ), a key component of sIgA, was identified, and shown to be expressed in the...

The selection of specific binding molecules like peptides and proteins from biolibraries using, for instance, phage display methods can be quite time-consuming. It is therefore desirable to develop a strategy that is much faster in selection and sorting of potential binders out of a biolibrary. In this contribution we separately discuss the current...

Expansin proteins, which have so far been identified only in plants, rapidly induce extension of plant cell walls by weakening the non-covalent interactions that help to maintain their integrity. Here we show that an animal, the plant-parasitic roundworm Globodera rostochiensis, can also produce a functional expansin, which it uses to loosen cell w...

Expansin proteins, which have so far been identified only in plants, rapidly induce extension of plant cell walls by weakening the non-covalent interactions that help to maintain their integrity. Here we show that an animal, the plant-parasitic roundworm Globodera rostochiensis, can also produce a functional expansin, which it uses to loosen cell w...

Capillary flow experiments are described with fluorescent molecules, bacteria, and microspheres using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy as an analytical tool. The flow velocity in the microcapillary is determined by fitting autocorrelation traces with a model containing parameters related to diffusion and flow. The flow profile of pressure-driv...

Disulfide bridge formation in the reducing environment of the cytosol is considered a rare event and is mostly linked to inactivation of protein activity. In this report the in vivo redox state of a single-chain Fv (scFv) antibody fragment in the plant cytosol was investigated. The scFv antibody fragment consists of the variable light and heavy cha...

Immunofluorescence (IF) is widely used both in research and diagnosis (1–4). Using IF, it is possible to localize antigens in tissues and individual cells. Antibodies (Abs), to which a fluorochrome is chemically added are extensively used for this purpose. However, conventional organic fluorochromes such as fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) or tetr...

Various lines of evidence show that local changes in the auxin concentration are involved in the initiation and directional expansion of syncytia induced by cyst nematodes. Analysis of nematode infections on auxin-insensitive tomato and Arabidopsis mutants revealed various phenotypes ranging from complete inhibition of syncytium development to a de...

We have used the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) to investigate the properties of surfactant-entrapped water pools in organic solvents (reversed micelles) with steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence methods. The surfactant used was sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) and the organic solvents were isooctane and (the more visc...

A new strategy has been designed to identify putative pathogenicity factors from the dorsal or subventral esophageal glands of the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis. Three independent criteria were used for selection. First, genes of interest should predominantly be expressed in infective second-stage juveniles, and not, or to a far less...

Interwoven networks of cellulose and pectin are the main components of plant cell walls¹, making them recalcitrant structures that can only be degraded by organisms producing a mix of synergistically acting enzymes. Animals were believed to be unable to synthesize these enzymes, depending instead on symbiotic microbes to render plants into a food s...

Structural information on intracellular fusions of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria with endogenous proteins is required as they are increasingly used in cell biology and biochemistry. We have investigated the dynamic properties of GFP alone and fused to a single chain antibody raised against lipopolysaccharide...

ABSTRACT A panel of recombinant single-chain antibodies (scFvs) against structural proteins of Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) was retrieved from a human combinatorial scFv antibody library using the novel phage display technique. After subcloning the encoding DNA sequences in the expression vector pSKAP/S, which allowed the scFvs to be expressed...

The ability of nematodes to live on plant hosts involves multiple parasitism genes. The most pronounced morphological adaptations of nematodes for plant parasitism include a hollow, protrusible stylet (feeding spear) connected to three enlarged esophageal gland cells that express products that are secreted into plant tissues through the stylet. Rev...

An expression system (pSKGFP), which permits the expression of single-chain variable fragments as fusion proteins with modified green fluorescent proteins, was designed. This expression system is comparable to frequently used phage display vectors and allows single-step characterization of the selected recombinant antibodies by flow cytometry or fl...

Naturally induced secretions from infective juveniles of the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis co-stimulate the proliferation of tobacco leaf protoplasts in the presence of the synthetic phytohormones alpha-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). With the use of a protoplast-based bioassay, a low-molecular-weight pept...

The objective of this study was to develop a specific immunological diagnostic assay for yellow disease in hyacinths, using monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Mice were immunized with a crude cell wall preparation (shear fraction) from Xanthomonas hyacinthi and with purified type IV fimbriae. Hybridomas were screened for a positive reaction with X. hyac...

The vector pSKAP/S was constructed to enable overexpression of single-chain variable fragment antibody (scFv)-alkaline phosphatase fusion proteins. In pSKAP/S, the scFv were genetically fused to the mutated Escherichia coli PhoA/S gene that encodes an alkaline phosphatase with increased specific activity. The restriction sites incorporated into pSK...

Methods for the generation of monoclonal antibodies against plant viruses are limited because current hybridoma techniques do not allow efficient exploitation of the immune repertoire. Moreover, the immunization procedures often lead to a bias towards an immunodominant contaminant in the immunogen preparation and not to the plant virus itself. The...

Reverse genetics to determine the relative importance of individual pathogenicity factors of the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis depends, apart from an efficient transformation protocol for this obligatory plant parasite, on the availability of an efficient promoter. PCR-based cloning was used to isolate a cDNA encoding glyceraldehyde-...

The genomic organization of genes encoding beta-1,4-endoglucanases (cellulases) from the plant-parasitic cyst nematodes Heterodera glycines and Globodera rostochiensis (HG-eng1, Hg-eng2, GR-eng1, and GR-eng2) was investigated. HG-eng1 and GR-eng1 both contained eight introns and structural domains of 2151 and 2492bp, respectively. HG-eng2 and GR-en...

ABSTRACT Recombinant single-chain antibodies (scFvs) against the lipopolysaccharide of Ralstonia solanacearum (biovar 2, race 3) were successfully selected by phage display from a large combinatorial antibody library. Characterization with regard to cross-reaction and use in routine immunoassays showed that the selected antibodies had improved char...

beta-1,4-Endoglucanases (EGases, EC 3.2.1.4) degrade polysaccharides possessing beta-1,4-glucan backbones such as cellulose and xyloglucan and have been found among extremely variegated taxonomic groups. Although many animal species depend on cellulose as their main energy source, most omnivores and herbivores are unable to produce EGases endogenou...

β-1,4-Endoglucanases (EGases, EC 3.2.1.4) degrade polysaccharides possessing β-1,4-glucan backbones such as cellulose and xyloglucan and have been found among extremely variegated taxonomic groups. Although many animal species depend on cellulose as their main energy source, most omnivores and herbivores are unable to produce EGases endogenously. S...