Silvio Antoniak, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Member of the McAllister Heart Institute, to investigate the potential therapeutic approach in inhibiting the coagulation factor Xa or PAR2 in viral myocarditis and H1N1 influenza A virus infection.
The project investigates the contribution of the blood coagulation factor Xa and its receptor, protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) to the pathology of virus infections by inhibiting innate antiviral immune responses. Dr. Antoniak showed in collaboration with Dr. U. Rauch (Charit茅 – Universit盲tsmedizin Berlin, Germany) and Dr. N. Mackman (黑料网 Chapel Hill) that PAR2 reduced innate immune responses to Coxsackievirus B3 infection causing a more pronounced viral myocarditis. Furthermore, Dr. Antoniak found that PAR2 and its activator FXa contribute to the pathology of H1N1 influenza A virus infection. The Antoniak lab will use two well-described infection models with Coxsackievirus B3 myocarditis and H1N1 influenza A virus pneumonia to investigate mechanism by which factor Xa and PAR2 enhances virus infections. More importantly, inhibition of the factor Xa-PAR2 pathway might improve antiviral responses.
听