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Seminar Series – “Targeting T-lymphocytes during Heart Failure: Mechanisms to Drug Development”

Event Details:
Seminar Flyer - Shyam Bansal

Summary:
My research endeavors focus on comprehensive analysis of dysregulated innate and adaptive immune networks and their role in mediating pathophysiology of ischemic heart failure (HF). We are particularly interested in deciphering the role of T-cell subsets, and time-dependent phenotypic changes that these cells undergo during pathological activation. As an extension, we are also interested in identifying and developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to detect and reverse, respectively, pathological changes in immune cells for their bench-to-bed transition. In this regard, we have been focusing on TNF receptor (TNFR1) 1 and estrogen receptor (ER) signaling to identify and test novel drug molecules to selectively inhibit T cell activation during chronic HF. Our recent work has shown that the expression of TNF receptor (TNFR) 1 regulates survival and proliferation of T-lymphocytes activated during chronic HF and could be a viable mechanism to design selective inhibitors for modulating T-cell activity. We have also found that estrogen receptor (ER) α signaling is important for pathological activation of T-cells; identified a selective ERβ agonist (to antagonize ERα signaling) and showed its therapeutic efficacy.