Hongbo R. Luo
Department of Lab Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital
811 Enders Building
320 Longwood Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617-910-2303
Fax: 617-730-0885
Email: hongbo.luo@childrens.harvard.edu
Visit my lab page here.
One of the major players in innate immune system is neutrophil which is the most abundant cell type among circulating white blood cells and constitutes the first line of host defense against invading bacteria and other pathogens. The long-term objective of our research is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms and cellular signaling pathways that control various neutrophil functions. The ultimate goal is to control the number and function of neutrophils during infection and inflammation. Currently, we are particularly interested in signaling pathways mediated by inositol phospholipid PtdIns(3,4,5)P3, inositol phosphates (e.g. InsP4), and reactive oxygen species (ROS). We utilize a wide variety of approaches ranging from basic molecular and cell biology methods to high throughput chemical genetic screening and animal inflammation models to dissect these pathways.
Ongoing studies:
1) Signal pathways mediating neutrophil directional movement.
2) Molecular mechanism of neutrophil spontaneous cell death.
3) Neutrophil homeostasis under normal and inflammatory conditions.
4) Regulation of neutrophil function in bacterial pneumonia.
5) Improving neutrophil performance in granulocyte transfusion.
6) Regulation of hematopoiesis by neutrophils.
References:
Prasad, A., Jia, Y., Chakraborty, A., Li, Y., Jain, S.K., Zhong, J., Roy, S.G., Loison, L., Mondal, S., Sakai, J., Blanchard, C., Snyder, S.H., and Luo, H.R. (2011). Inositol hexakisphosphate kinase 1 (InsP6K1) regulates neutrophil function in innate immunity by inhibiting PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 signaling. Nature Immunology (In press).
Jo, H., Lo, P.K., Li, Y., Loison, F., Green, S., Wang, J., Silberstein, L.E., Ye, K., Chen, H., and Luo, H.R. (2011). Deactivation of Akt by a small molecule inhibitor targeting pleckstrin homology domain and facilitating Akt ubiquitination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108, 6486-6491. 1091-6490.
Li, Y., Prasad, A., Jia, Y., Ghosh Roy, S., Loison, F., Mondal, S., Kocjan, P., Silberstein, L.E., Ding, S., and Luo, H.R. (2011). Pre-treatment with PTEN inhibitor SF1670 augments the efficacy of granulocyte transfusion in a clinically relevant mouse model. Blood. 1528-0020.
Hattori, H., Subramanian, K.K., Sakai, J., Jia, Y., Li, Y., Porter, T.F., Loison, F., Sarraj, B., Kasorn, A., Jo, H., Blanchard, C., Zirkle, D., McDonald, D., Pai, S.Y., Serhan, C.N., and Luo, H.R. (2010). Small-molecule screen identifies reactive oxygen species as key regulators of neutrophil chemotaxis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107, 3546-3551.
Xu, Y., Loison, F., and Luo, H.R. (2010). Neutrophil spontaneous death is mediated by down-regulation of autocrine signaling through GPCR, PI3Kgamma, ROS, and actin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107, 2950-2955.
Last Update: 12/13/2012