Inflammatory and Diarrheal Diseases
Anil Mishra, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatrics; Division of Allergy and Immunology
Description of Research
The goal of Dr. Mishra’s research investigates novel pharmaceutical targets for the treatment of patients with eosinophilic diseases including eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders and food allergies. The laboratory has identified and biologically characterized several critical pathways that regulate allergic responses. Dr. Mishra’ laboratory is presently focused on the role of invariant natural killer (iNKT) cells and its growth, survival and activating cytokines IL-15 and IL-18 and chemokines CXCL16. Most recently, he demonstrated that esophageal biopsies of EE patients have increased expression of IL-15 mRNA. Induced IL-15 expression significantly correlates with esophageal eosinophilia in humans and, following treatment IL-15 levels were reduced in improved EE patient. Furthermore he demonstrated that, IL-15R gene-deficient mice are protected from the induction of EE. His recent investigations suggest that most T cells accumulated in the esophagus of EE patients are iNKT cells, which indicates their role in EE pathogenesis and subject is under investigation.
Collaborations and Core Use
Dr. Mishra has used the Bioinformatics, Microarray, and Integrative Morphology Cores in collaboration with Drs. Aronow, Hogan, Rothenberg, and Witte examining the RNA transcripts that are responsible for eosinophilic esophagitis. Anticipated use of Cores: Integrative Morphology, Gene and Protein Expression, and Bioinformatics Cores.
