Immune checkpoints (ICM) are key components of T cell exhaustion. Chronically infecting viral pathogens like HIV, HCV and HBV exploit ICMs for their advantage to downplay optimal immune responses, leading to chronic disease. Our Infection and Inflammation focuses primarily to explore into the quality of T-cell responses in chronic viral infections. Intervention measures to identify critical biomarkers of immune regulation in chronic viral infection remains an ongoing research portfolio at DBT-CUTN.

Selvavinayagam ST, Karishma SJ, Kannan H, Yong YK, Suvaithenamudhan S, Rajeshkumar M, Aswathy B, Kalaivani V, Kalpana R, Kumaresan A, Jayapal P, Kannan M, Gopalan N, Samudi C, Vignesh R, Murugesan A, Anshad AR, Ganesh B, Joseph N, Babu H, Govindaraj S, Larsson M, Kandasamy SL, Palani S, Singh K, Byrareddy S, Velu V, Shankar EM, Raju S. Clinical characteristics and novel mutations of omicron subvariant XBB in Tamil Nadu, India - A cohort study. The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia 2023 (in press) (ISSN: 2772-3682)

Vimali J, Yong YK, Murugesan A, Ashwin R, Balakrishnan P, Raju S, Velu V, Larsson M, Shankar EM. Surrogate biomarkers of disease progression in human pegivirus seropositive human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals. Viral Immunology 2023, 36(1):55-62. doi: 10.1089/vim.2022.0144 (IF: 2.175) (ISSN: 1557-8976)

Vimali J, Yong YK, Murugesan A, Vishnupriya K, Ashwin R, Daniel EA, Balakrishnan P, Raju S, Mohamed R, Velu V, Larsson M, Shankar EM. Plasma interleukin-7 correlation with human immunodeficiency virus RNA and CD4+ T cell counts, and interleukin-5 with circulating hepatitis B virus DNA levels may have implications in viral control. Frontiers in Medicine 2022, 9: 1019230. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.1019230 (IF: 5.058) (ISSN: 2296-858X)

Selvavinayagam ST, Yong YK, Joseph N, Hemashree K, Tan HY, Zhang Y, Rajeshkumar M, Kumaresan A, Kalpana R, Kalaivani V, Monika AVD, Suvaithenamudhan S, Kannan M, Murugesan A, Narayanasamy K, Palani S, Larsson M, Shankar EM, Raju S. Low SARS-CoV-2 viral load among vaccinated individuals infected with Delta B.1.617.2 and Omicron BA.1.1.529 but not with Omicron BA.1.1 and BA.2 variants. Frontiers in Public Health 2022, 10:1018399. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1018399 (IF: 6.461) (ISSN: 2296-2565)

Wong S-W, Ting Y-W, Yong Y-K, Tan H-Y, Barathan M, Riazalhosseini B, Bee CJ, Tee K-K, Larsson M, Velu V, Shankar EM, Mohamed R. Chronic inflammation involves CCL11 and IL-13 to facilitate the development of liver cirrhosis and fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation 2021, 81:147-159. doi: 10.1080/00365513.2021.1876245 (IF: 2.209) (ISSN: 0036-5513)

Bhattacharya P, Ellegard R, Khalid M, Svanberg C, Govender M, Keita AV, Soderholm JD, Myrelid P, Shankar EM, Nystrom S, Larsson M. Complement opsonization of HIV affects primary infection of human colorectal mucosa and subsequent activation of T cells. eLife 2020, 9: e57869. doi: 10.7554/eLife.57869 (IF: 8.713) (ISSN: 2050-084X)

Ansari AW, Ahmad F, Shankar EM, Yong YK, Tan HY, Jacobs R, Larsson M, Velu V, Kamarulzaman A, Schmidt RE. Diminished coinhibitory molecule 2B4 expression is associated with preserved iNKT cell phenotype in HIV long-term nonprogressors. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 2020, 85(1):73-78. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000002399 (IF: 3.771) (ISSN: 1525-4135)

Velu V, Vignesh R, Shankar EM, Thyagarajan SP. Is herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2 a silver lining? Frontiers in Immunology 2020, 11:586781. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.586781 (IF: 8.786) (ISSN: 1664-3224)