Shanmugam Nagarajan

Assistant Professor, Department of  Microbiology & Immunology

Immunology 

Ph.D., University of Madras

Phone: (501) 364-2814
Fax: (501) 364-3161 

E-mail   

Research Description

A therosclerosis is an inflammatory process that leads to the onset of cardiovascular disease.  Recent evidence suggests that immunological mechanisms also contribute to the development of atherosclerosis.  One of the risk factors implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is the generation of oxidative products of LDL (oxLDL) .  OxLDL induces an autoimmune response as evidenced by the presence of antibody (IgG) against oxLDL and oxLDL-immune complex (oxLDL-IC) in atherosclerotic lesions in patients and animal models.  In fact, the titer of autoantibody against oxLDL correlates with the progression of atherosclerosis in humans and in the hyperlipidemic mouse model.  These findings support the concept that oxLDL-IC are involved in the inflammatory processes leading to the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis.  Inflammatory cells such as monocytes express Fcgamma receptors, Fc g R.  Hence, activation and adhesion of inflammatory cells could be mediated via the interaction between oxLDL-IC and Fc g R expressed on these cells.  My laboratory is focused to study the role of Fc g R in the progression of atherosclerosis. 

Breast-fed infants appear to be less prone to infections and allergic reactions than those fed formula, suggesting that diet may influence neonatal immune system development.  However, 70% of infants are fed some type of infant formula during early growth and development.  There has been a great deal of research attempting to mimic biologic actions of breast milk on immune development using infant formula.  However, a detailed analysis of the immune status, particularly neonatal immune system development of breast-fed versus formula-fed infants is lacking.  The other aspect of my research is to delineate the molecular mechanism(s) underlying the early dietary intervention on the development of neonatal immunity.

References

Nagarajan S, Stewart BW and Badger TM.  Soy isoflavones attenuates human monocyte adhesion to endothelial cell specific CD54 by inhibiting monocyte CD11a.  Journal of Nutrition 136: 2384-2390, 2 006 .

Wang YC, Sashidharamurthy R, Nagarajan S and Selvaraj P. B7-1-HAS (CD80-CD24), a recombinant hybrid costimulatory molecule retains ligand binding and costimulatory functions.  Immunology Letters 105: 185-192, 2006.

Nagarajan S and Selvaraj P. Human tumor membrane vesicles modified to express glycolipid-anchored IL-12 by protein transfer induce T cell proliferation in vitro: A potential approach for local delivery of cytokines during vaccination.  Vaccine 24: 2264-2274, 2006 .

Stewart BW and Nagarajan S.  Recombinant Soluble CD36 Blocks OxLDL-Induced Monocyte Cell Adhesion.  Molecular Immunology 43:  255-267, 2006.

Nagarajan S, Fifadara NH, and Selvaraj P.  Signal specific activation and regulation of human neutrophil Fcgamma receptors.  Journal of Immunology 174:5423-5432, 2005 .

Selvaraj P, Fifadara N, Nagarajan S, Cimino A, Wang G.  Functional regulation of human neutrophil Fc gamma receptors.  Immunological Research 29:219-230, 2004.

Nagarajan S, Selvaraj P.  Glycolipid-anchored IL-12 expressed on tumor cell surface induces antitumor immune response.  Cancer Research 62:2869-74, 2002.

Poloso NJ, Nagarajan S, Mejia-Oneta JM, Selvaraj P.  GPI-anchoring of GM-CSF results in active membrane-bound and partially shed cytokine.  Molecular Immunology 2002, 38:803-16. 

Nagarajan S, Li P, Zhu C, Selvaraj P.  Recombinant CD16A-Ig forms a homodimer and cross-blocks the ligand binding functions of neutrophil and monocyte Fcgamma receptors.  Molecular Immunology 38:527-38, 2002.

Williams TE, Nagarajan S, Selvaraj P, Zhu C.  Quantifying the impact of membrane microtopology on effective two-dimensional affinity.  Journal of Biological Chemistry 276:13283-13288, 2001. 

Chen R, Nagarajan S, Prince GM, Maheshwari U, Terstappen LW, Kaplan DR, Gerson SL, Albert JM, Dunn DE, Lazarus HM, Medof ME.  Impaired growth and elevated Fas receptor expression in PIGA(+) stem cells in primary paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.  Journal of Clinical Investigation 106:689-696, 2000. 

Nagarajan S, Venkiteswaran K, Anderson M, Sayed U, Zhu C, Selvaraj P.  Cell-specific, activation-dependent regulation of neutrophil CD32A ligand-binding function.  Blood 95:1069-1077, 2000 .

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