Dr. Sudhir Paul

Regular Member

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Medical School
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Research Interests:

• Covalent vaccination against intractable diseases
• Development of catalytic antibodies for therapy of Alzheimer disease and microbial diseases
• Innate catalytic immunity to B cell superantigens and traditional antigens
• Selection pressures in evolution of catalytic activity in antibodies
• Inhibition of pathogenic autoantibodies with catalytic and reversible binding activity

The research in my lab combines translational objectives with novel discoveries concerning covalent and catalytic reactions that form the basis of our scientific approach. We are developing a globally effective HIV vaccine by the covalent immunization strategy, which permits the otherwise forbidden induction of broadly neutralizing antibodies to superantigenic epitopes. The finding of frequent innately-produced catalytic antibodies to B cell microbial superantigens has suggested their potential for immunotherapy. Catalytic antibodies to HIV and Staphylococcus aureus have been isolated from phage display libraries. In addition, catalytic antibodies to amyloid beta peptide are being developed for immunotherapy of Alzheimer disease. Covalently reactive antigen analogs that permanently inactivate secreted antibodies and might induce B cell tolerance are under study for treatment of pathogenic autoimmune reactions. At the basic science level, we are interested in mechanisms of combined enzymatic and high affinity ligand binding antibody activities, structural factors that permit the catalytic function to mature adaptively following exposure to antigens, and defects that permit overexpression of catalytic Abs in autoimmune disease.

A tutorial in my lab can provide experience in HIV neutralization assays, vaccine methods, antibody engineering, protein structure-function studies and phage display libraries.

Selected Publications:

Paul, S. Two-faced catalytic autoantibodies. Blood. 117: 2084-2086, 2011.

Paul, S., Planque, S., Nishiyama, Y., Escobar, M.E., and Hanson, C.V. Back to the future: Covalent epitope-based HIV vaccine development. Expert Rev Vaccines. 9:1027-1043, 2010.

Planque, S., Salas, M., Mitsuda, Y., Sienczyk, M., Escobar, M.E., Mooney, J.P., Morris, M.-K., Nishiyama, Y., Ghosh, D., Kumar, A., Gao, F., Hanson, C.V., and Paul, S. Neutralization of genetically diverse HIV-1 strains by IgA antibodies to the gp120 CD4 binding site from long-term survivors of HIV infection. AIDS. 24:875-884, 2010.

Paul, S., Planque, S., and Nishiyama, Y. Immunological origin and functional properties of catalytic autoantibodies to amyloid β peptide. J Clin Immunol. 30 Suppl 1:S43-S49, 2010.

Additional Publications