Rahul Suresh

Present Position: Graduate Student, PhD Candidate

Undergraduate: Govt. College of Technology (Coimbatore, India), 2007; B.Tech in Industrial Biotechnology

Research interests: Characterization of host response to Leishmania infections.

Research Summary:

I am interested in host’s immune response to Leishmania. I am currently trying to characterize the cytokine’s effects (mainly TNFα, IFNγ and IL10) on intracellular killing of Leishmania amastigotes. It is shown that a Th1 response would enable in effectively curing the patient of Leishmaniasis. My data shows that when TNFα is given along with IFNγ to murine macrophages, there is increased killing of intracellular parasites consistent with the Th1 model. Even when IL10 (an anti-inflammatory cytokine) is given along with the other two cytokines there is increased killing of the parasite showing that TNFα can effectively reverse the anti inflammatory effect of IL10. I am also trying to characterize another phenomenon called intracellular opsonization. Here we can see the antibodies attach to the parasite even after the parasite is completely internalized. This is perhaps one of the mechanisms used by the parasite to gain increased virulence.  This is unique to macrophage parasites because the ligations of the Fcγ receptors will lead to the production of IL10 and Th2 response.  This in turn helps to exacerbating the disease. The actual mechanism as to how this happens is still under investigation.