From the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine…

April 2025 Research Highlights reported by the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine.

 

Kempuraj Duraisamy, MS, MPhil, PhD, Associate Professor, Associate Director of the Center of Excellence for Neuroinflammation Research at the Institute of Neuroimmune Medicine has been investigating neuroinflammatory responses in neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory disorders such as Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), dementia, traumatic brain injury (TBI)/neurotrauma, Long-COVID, and Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), neuroinflammation/blood-brain barrier (BBB) -on-a-chip system, and biomarker discovery. Dr. Kempuraj identified the role of mast cells, proinflammatory cytokines and neurotoxic molecules in AD, PD and TBI in the brains of human patients, US Army military personnel, animal models, and cell culture models of neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Kempuraj reported damage to the neurovascular unit and BBB dysfunctions in these neuroinflammatory disorders and evaluated neurotherapeutic drugs. His research specialty also includes the development of human primary mast cells from human umbilical cord-blood CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, evaluation of mast cell activation associated diseases, and inhibition of mast cell activation by anti-inflammatory drugs and natural compounds/senolytics. In collaboration with Dr. Mohan at the University of Missouri School of Medicine and Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital (Columbia, MO) he is investigating blast explosion-associated brain and ocular damage in various models and evaluating drugs to treat these pathologies. Dr. Kempuraj along with Dr. Theoharides, working on Brain on chip model for PD and other disorders. Dr. Kempuraj has published over 175 research articles (h-index 59, total citations 12779) and presented over 275 scientific abstracts at the conferences. He has served many times in NIH grant review study sections and European funding agencies for neuroscience. These studies were funded by the Department of Defense (DOD), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Veterans Affairs.

 

PubMed My Bibliography/Full List of Publications (166 in PubMed)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1n1GvvxUz6sQ0/bibliography/public/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9HursUAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

 

Recent Publications  

  1. Tsilioni I, Kempuraj D, Theoharides TC. Nobiletin and Eriodictyol Suppress Release of IL-1β, CXCL8, IL-6, and MMP-9 from LPS, SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein, and Ochratoxin A-Stimulated Human Microglia. Int J Mol Sci. 2025, 26(2):636. PMID:39859348. https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/26/2/636
  2. Kempuraj D, Dourvetakis KD, Cohen J, Valladares DS, Joshi RS, Kothuru SP, Anderson T, Chinnappan B, Cheema AK, Klimas NG, Theoharides TC. Neurovascular unit, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration markers in brain disorders. Front Cell Neurosci. 18:1491952, 2024.PMID: 39526043.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2024.1491952/full
  3. Thangavel R, Kaur H, Dubova I, Selvakumar GP, Ahmed ME, Raikwar SP, Govindarajan R, Kempuraj D. Parkinson’s Disease Dementia Patients: Expression of Glia Maturation Factor in the Brain. Int J Mol Sci. 2024, 25(2):1182. PMID: 38256254. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38256254/
  4. Cohen J, Mathew A, Dourvetakis KD, Sanchez-Guerrero E, Pangeni RP, Gurusamy N, Aenlle KK, Ravindran G, Twahir A, Isler D, Sosa-Garcia SR, Llizo A, Bested AC, Theoharides TC, Klimas NG, Kempuraj D. Recent Research Trends in Neuroinflammatory and Neurodegenerative Disorders. 2024, 13(6):511, PMID: 38534355. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38534355/
  5. Theoharides TC, Twahir A, Kempuraj D. Mast cells in the autonomic nervous system and potential role in disorders with dysautonomia and neuroinflammation. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2024, 132(4):440-454. PMID: 37951572.   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37951572/
  6. Kempuraj D, Mohan RR. Blast injury: Impact to the cornea. Exp Eye Res. 2024 Jul;244:109915. PMID: 38677709. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38677709/
  7. Kempuraj D, Aenlle KK, Cohen J, Mathew A, Isler D, Pangeni RP, Nathanson L, Theoharides TC, Klimas NG. COVID-19 and Long COVID: Disruption of the Neurovascular Unit, Blood-Brain Barrier, and Tight Junctions. 2024, 30(4):421-439. PMID: 37694571. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37694571/
  8. Kempuraj D, Ceruti S. Editorial: 15 years of frontiers in cellular neuroscience: blood brain barrier modulation and dysfunction in brain diseases. Front Cell Neurosci. 2024, 18:1511314. PMID: 39534683 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39534683/
  9. Kempuraj D, Tsilioni I, Aenlle KK, Klimas NG, Theoharides TC. Long COVID elevated MMP-9 and release from microglia by SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. Transl Neurosci. 2024, 15(1):20220352. PMID: 39403255 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39403255/