Ahuja, Sunil K., M.D.

Research

Research interests:
Dr. Sunil Ahuja’s Lab is focused on the characterization of the host determinants of immunological health. His work is supported through both federal (e.g. NIH MERIT) and non-federal (e.g. Doris Duke) agencies. His team has a strong track record of successful and productive multi-disciplinary research. Their work in the HIV field has been published in top journals (e.g. NEJM, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Science, PNAS, JAMA-Internal Medicine, Blood, CID) with more than 7,885 citations until July 2015. The quality of publication history supports their ability to conduct large-scale genetic/genomic (e.g. RNA-Seq, GWAS, eQTL), epigenetic, epidemiologic, immunologic and translational research related to infectious, immune and inflammatory diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS, allergy, autoimmunity, immunological aspects of transplantation, NASH studies and aging studies). Since 1996, the research team has included more than 139 undergraduate students, 21 graduate students, 16 medical students, 30 post-doctoral fellow and several assistant and associate professors. Dr. Ahuja also oversees the Center for Personalized Medicine and Genome Unit which houses Illumina-based equipment for conducting GWASs and next-generation sequencing studies. The Centers represent a nodal point for cross-fertilization of ideas from a multi-disciplinary group of investigators from the VA, University affiliate and the DoD. His major research accomplishments include:

1. Discovery of key chemokine receptors, including CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), the major HIV co-receptor
2. Gene regulation of CCR5
3. Host genetic determinants of HIV-AIDS susceptibility
4. Influence of treatment timing and host immune-genetic determinants on response to anti-HIV therapy and vaccines
5. Allergen challenge chamber studies
6. Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Studies
7. Lung Transplant Studies
8. Genetics, epigenetic and immunological inter-relationships in HIV-AIDS

Awards & Accomplishments

Affiliations

• Professor of Medicine, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics/Biochemistry, University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSCSA), San Antonio, TX
• President’s Council/Dielmann Chair for Excellence in Medical Research, UTHSCSA, San Antonio, TX
• Director, Research Enhancement Programs, UTHSCSA, San Antonio, TX
• Director, Center for Personalized Medicine, South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS), San Antonio, TX

Publications

Complete list of Dr. Ahuja’s published work is also available in Dr. Ahuja’s NCBI Pubmed Bibliography:
Impact factors (IF) of publications (n=91): 9 (>25 IF), 4 (15-25 IF), 12 (10-15 IF), 6 (7.5-10 IF), 45 (4-7.5 IF) and 15 (<4 IF) and book Chapters (n=2). Citations (Till July 31, 2015): 7,885.

• Discovery of key chemokine receptors, including CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), the major HIV coreceptor
  • Ahuja SK, Ozçelik T, Milatovitch A, Francke U, Murphy PM. (1992). Molecular evolution of the human interleukin-8 receptor gene cluster. Nature Genet.2(1):31-6. (PMID: 1303245).
  • Mummidi S, Ahuja SS, McDaniel BL, Ahuja SK. (1997). The human CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) gene. Multiple transcripts with 5′-end heterogeneity, dual promoter usage, and evidence for polymorphisms within the regulatory regions and noncoding exons. J Biol Chem. 272(49):30662-71. (PMID: 9388201).
• Host genetic determinants of HIV-AIDS susceptibility
  • Gonzalez E, Rovin BH, Sen L, Cooke G, Dhanda R, Mummidi S, Kulkarni H, Bamshad MJ, Telles V, Anderson SA, Walter EA, Stephan KT, Deucher M, Mangano A, Bologna R,Ahuja SS,Dolan MJ,Ahuja SK. HIV-1 infection and AIDS dementia are influenced by a mutant MCP-1 allele linked to increased monocyte infiltration of tissues and MCP-1 levels. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2002;99:13795-13800 (PMID:12374865)
    • Cover of PNAS Oct.15 2002: MCP-1 SNPs influence recruitment of monocytes to the brain to influence HIV-associated dementia
  • Gonzalez E, Kulkarni H, Bolivar H, Mangano A, Sanchez R, Catano G, Nibbs RJ, Freedman BI, Quinones MP, Bamshad MJ, Murthy KK, Rovin BH, Bradley W, ClarkRA,AndersonSA, O’Connell R J, Agan BK, Ahuja SS, Bologna R, Sen L, Dolan MJ, Ahuja SK. (2005). The influence of CCL3L1 gene-containing segmental duplications on HIV-1/AIDS susceptibility. Science. 307(5714):1434-40. (PMID: 15637236).
    • Cover of Science magazine Mar.4 2005.
    • Accompanied by News & Views, and Perspective.
• Influence of treatment timing and host immune-genetic determinants on response to anti-HIV therapy and vaccines.
  • Le T, Wright EJ, Smith DM, He W, Catano G, Okulicz JF, Young JA, Clark RA, Richman DD, Little SJ, Ahuja SK. (2013). Enhanced CD4+ T cell recovery with earlier HIV-1 antiretroviral therapy. N Engl J Med. 368 (3):218-30. (PMID: 23323898).
    • Selected as among top 20 advances by NIAID investigators in 2013.
    • Accompanied by editorial by Bruce Walker and Marty Hirsch in NEJM.
  • Okulicz JF, Le T, Agan BK, Camargo J, Landrum ML, Wright EJ, Dolan MJ, Ganesan A, Ferguson TM,  Smith DM, Richman DD, Little SJ, Clark RA, He W, Ahuja SK. (2015). Influence of the Timing of Anti-retroviral Therapy on Normalization of Immune Status in HIV-1 Infected Individuals. JAMA Intern Med. 175(1):88-99. (PMID: 25419650).
    • Selected by NIAID as among top 10 advances for the first half of FY 2015
    • Accompanied by commentary by Tim Schaker in JAMA-IM
• Gene regulation of CCR5:
  • Mummidi S, Bamshad M, Ahuja SS, Gonzalez E, Feuillet PM, Begum K, Galvis MC, Kostecki V, Valente AJ, Murthy KK, Haro L, Dolan MJ, Allan JS, Ahuja SK. (2000). Evolution of human and non-human primate CC chemokine receptor 5 gene and mRNA. Potential roles for haplotype and mRNA diversity, differential haplotype-specific transcriptional activity, and altered transcription factor binding to polymorphic nucleotides in the pathogenesis of HIV-1 and simian immunodeficiency virus. J Biol Chem. 275(25):18946-61. (PMID: 10747879).
  • Gornalusse GG, Mummidi S, Gaitan AA, Jimenez F, Ramsuran V, Picton ACP, Rogers K, Manoharan M, Avadhanam N, Murthy8 KK, Martinez H, Murillo AM, Chykarenko ZA, Hutt R, Daskalakis D, Shostakovich-Koretskaya L, Abdool Karim SS, Martin JN, Deeks SG, Hecht F, Sinclair E, Clark RA, Okulicz J, Valentine FT, Martinson N, Tiemessen CT, Ndung’u T, Hunt PW, He W, Ahuja SK. (2015). Epigenetic mechanisms, T-cell activation, and CCR5 genetics interact to regulate T-cell expression of CCR5, the major HIV-1 coreceptor. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 112(34):E4762-71. (PMID: 26307764).
    • Selected for the ‘In This Issue’ highlights by PNAS Editor. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 112(34):10563-64.
• Allergen challenge chamber studies:
  • Jacobs RL, Harper N, He W, Andrews CP, Rather CG, Ramirez DA, Ahuja SK (2012). Responses to ragweed pollen in a pollen challenge chamber versus seasonal exposure identify allergic rhinoconjunctivitis endotypes. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 130 (1):122-7. (PMID: 22554707).
    • Accompanied with Editorial by Dr. JA Bernstein.
  • He W, Jimenez F, Martinez H, Harper N, Manoharan M, Carrillo A, Ingale P, Liu Y-G, Ahuja SS, Clark RA,Rather CG, Ramirez DA, Andrews CP, Jacobs RL, Ahuja SK. (2015). Cockroach Sensitization Mitigates Allergic Rhinoconjunctivitis Symptom Severity in Individuals Allergic to House Dust Mites and Pollen. J Allergy Clin. Immunol.pii: S0091-6749(15)00547-3.(PMID: 26026342).