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Hepato Immunology program is driven by Dr. Nirupma Trehanpati, Professor and Faculty in charge in the department of Molecular and Cellular medicine, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), New Delhi.
Hepato Immunology Lab focus on
- Viral persistence and Clearance,
- Inflammation and acute liver failure,
- Liver cancer
- Immunotherapy and CAR NK cells
- Transplant Immunology.
Her group has been focused for the past ten years on developing a better understanding of the human immune responses in chronic hepatitis B and acute hepatitis E virus infections during pregnancy with a specific focus on neonate’s immunology. Over the past few years we have focused on immune responses in babies after HBV vaccine administration. For this, we have implemented the use of system biology approaches to monitor the B cells development and T cells exhaustion to identify the mechanisms of viral clearance or persistence of hepatitis B virus.
Acute viral hepatitis induced by Hepatitis E (AVH-E) and hepatitis A viral infections (AVH-A) is often serious in pregnancy and could result in acute liver failure (ALF). We have implemented the use of system biology approaches to monitor the immunity together with microRNAs as regulators of gene expression. Our group showed for the first time that HEV infection deranged the immune response in third trimester of pregnancy. Functionality of monocytes and macrophages is severely impaired in pregnant patients who have gone to cute liver failure due to HEV infection. Further by integrating system biology approach, we were able to reveal that a specific microRNA profile can predict fatality in pregnancy due to hepatitis E infection and acute liver failure. In addition group is recently evaluating the gut microbiome and interactions of pathogens influencing immunity.
Our team also works on the revolutionary CAR-NK cell therapy and immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer). Many immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are being used for treating cancer and also available for liver cancer. However, efficacy of ICIs is still not optimal in many patients. Therfore, along with ICI our group is also focusing on CAR-NK therapy.
In the past decade, CAR T-cell therapy has shown remarkable success in treating certain types of leukemia and lymphoma; however, a lot of work is still needed to harness this therapy for solid tumors like liver cancer. CAR-NK therapy stands for Chimeric Antigen Receptor NK cell therapy which involves genetically modifying a patient's own NK cells or NK cell lines and equipping them with a receptor for recognition and killing of cancer cells.
The future of cancer immunotherapy will largely depend on the ability of researchers to make it affordable to larger populations by selection of individual based on informative markers etc.
