Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Sushmita Sinha
Department of Pathology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

Biography

Dr. Sushmita Sinha graduated from Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, India.Her work is focused on elucidating immunological pathways and therapy mechanisms in Multiple Sclerosis. During her first postdoc at OHSU, She studied the therapeutic efficacy and mechanisms of a phase one drug (Recombinant T cell receptor Ligands) in EAE model. Phase one drug showed that RTL551 (containing I-Ab ?1?1 + covalently-linked MOG-35-55; murine counterpart of human drug RTL1000) successfully treats active and passive EAE in B6 mice. Mechanistically, she found out that RTL551 treatment was found to dramatically reduce infiltrating encephalitogenic cells in the CNS of mice with EAE, induced down-regulation of adhesion molecules on the CNS endothelium, dampened chemokine cascade in the CNS, significantly reduced proinflammatory cytokines IL-17 and TNF-alpha selectively from encephalitogenic cells and a reduction in T-bet expressing CD4+ T cells. The applicability of antigen specific therapies for Multiple Sclerosis is challenging due to the lack of a single obvious target antigen and the possible involvement of multiple myelin-reactive CD4 and CD8 T cell specificities in the inflammatory phase of the disease. Using SJL model of relapsing remitting EAE, she showed that a single RTL was found to deviate autoimmune responses of cognate T cell specificity and induce bystander suppression that reverses clinical signs of EAE in mice immunized with multiple encephalitogenic peptides. At UT Southwestern she broadened her research expertise to study human Multiple Sclerosis. She found interesting changes in the CD8 T cell population in Multiple Sclerosis patients very early during the course of Copaxone® therapy. As a PI at University of Iowa, She established her research program to continue exploring novel therapeutic targets and therapy mechanisms in Multiple Sclerosis. These studies were being performed in close collaboration with Dr Nitin Karandikar, Professor and Chair of Pathology and Multiple Sclerosis clinic doctors and staff. With an extensive experience of both, EAE model and human Multiple Sclerosis, she is uniquely qualified to carry out this project which addresses an important and timely question about bioequivalence of a recently approved generic drug for Multiple Sclerosis.

Research Interest

Explore immune-pathological and regulatory mechanisms of autoimmune diseases with particular emphasis on Multiple Sclerosis.