P32 Dr. Abdullah
Impact of chronic IFN-I signalling in liver fibrosis on anti-viral immunity

The underlying cellular and molecular factors for the enhanced susceptibility of patients with liver fibrosis to viral and bacterial infections are unclear. Recently, we found that translocation of gut microbiota induces chronic IFN-I expression, which hampers viral clearance in a preliminary experiments. In this project, we aim to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which IFN-I might affect the function of key players of anti-viral immunity i.e. antigen presenting cells, CD4 T and CD8 T cells in liver fibrosis and how this may perpetuate and accelerate the fibrogenic process. The results of this project will enhance our understanding of impaired cellular immunity in patients with liver fibrosis, aggravation of liver fibrosis by persistent infection and potentially open new venues for therapeutic and vaccination approaches. [...]

Publications

• Jobin K. , Stumpf N. E., Schwab S., Eichler M., Neubert P., Rauh M., Adamowski M., Babyak O., Hinze D., Sivalingam S., Weisheit C., Hochheiser K., Schmidt S., Meissner M., Garbi N., Abdullah Z., Wenzel U., Hölzel M., Jantsch J., Kurts C. (2020): A high-salt diet compromises antibacterial neutrophil responses through hormonal perturbation. Science Translat Med, 12(536), eaay3850, [17.161]
• Graefe C. , Eichhorn L., Wurst P., Kleiner J., Heine A., Panetas I., Abdulla Z., Hoeft A., Frede S., Kurts C., Endl E., Weisheit C. K. (2019): Optimized Ki-67 staining in murine cells: a tool to determine cell proliferation. Mol Biol Rep, 2019 46(4), 4631-4643, [2.107]
• Neubert P. , Weichselbaum A., Reitinger C., Schatz V., Schröder A., Ferdinand J. R., Simon M., Bär A. L., Brochhausen C., Gerlach R. G., Tomiuk S., Hammer K., Wagner S., van Zandbergen G., Binger K. J., Müller D. N., Kitada K., Clatworthy M. R., Kurts C., Titze J., Abdullah Z., Jantsch J. (2019): HIF1A and NFAT5 coordinate Na+-boosted antibacterial defense via enhanced autophagy and autolysosomal targeting. Autophagy, 15(11), 1899-1916, [11.059]
• Holland T. , Wohlleber D., Marx S., Kreutzberg T., Vento-Asturias S., Schmitt-Mbamunyo S., Welz M., Janas M., Komander K., Eickhoff S., Brewitz A., Hasenberg M., Männ L., Gunzer M., Wilhelm C., Kastenmüller W., Knolle P., Abdullah Z., Kurts C., Garbi N. (2017): Rescue of T-cell function during persistent pulmonary adenoviral infection by TLR9 activation. J Allergy Clin Immun, 141(1), 416-419, [3.557]
• Hackstein CP , Assmus LM, Welz M, Klein S, Schwandt T, Schultze J, Förster I, Gondorf F, Beyer M, Kroy D, Kurts C, Trebicka J, Kastenmüller W, Knolle PA, Abdullah Z. (2016): Gut microbial translocation corrupts myeloid cell function to control bacterial infection during liver cirrhosis. Gut,, , 1-12, [14.921]
• Beyer, M. , Abdullah Z., Chemnitz J.M., Maisel D., Sander J., Lehmann C., Thabet Y., Shinde P.V., Schmidleithner L., Köhne M., Trebicka J., Schierwagen R., Hofmann A., Popov A., Lang K.S., Oxenius A., Buch T., Kurts C., Heikenwalder M., Fätkenheuer G., Lang P.A., Hartmann P., Knolle P.A., Schultze J.L. (2016): Tumor necrosis factor impairs CD4+ T Cell-mediated immune control in chronic viral infection. Nature Immunology, , accepted, [19.381]
• Abdullah Z. , Kurts C. (2016): More trouble with FGF23: a novel role in systemic immunosuppression. Kidney International, 89(6), 1176–1177, [7.683]
• Wolf, M.J. , Adili, A., Piotrowitz, K., Abdullah, Z., Boege, Y., Stemmer, K., Ringelhan, M., Simonavicius, N., Egger, M., Wohleber, D., Lorentzen, A., Einer, C., Schulz., Clavel, T., Protzer, U., Thiele, C., Zischka, H., Moch, H., Tschöp, M., Tumanov, A.V., Haller, D., Unger, K., Karin, M., Kopf, M., Knolle, P., Weber, A., Heikenwalder, M. (2014): Metabolic activation of intrahepatic CD8+ T cells and NKT cells causes nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and liver cancer via cross-talk with hepatocytes.. Cancer Cell, 26 (4), 549-564, [23.214]
• Abdullah, Z , Knolle, P.A. (2014): Scaling of immune responses against intracellular bacterial infection.. The EMBO Journal, 33 (20), 2283-94, [9.643]
• Huang L.R. , Wohlleber, D., Reisinger, F., Jenne, C.N., Cheng, R.L., Abdullah, Z., Schildberg, F.A., Odenthal, M., Dienes, H.P., van Roijen, N., Schmitt, E., Garbi, N., Croft, M., Kurts, C., Kubes, P., Protzer, U., Heikenwalder, M., Knolle, P.A. (2013): Intrahepatic myeloid cell-aggregates enable local CD8+ T cell expansion and successful immunotherapy against chronic viral liver infection.. Nature Immunology, 14 (6), 5742-583, [19.381]