In Person & By Zoom

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81853192041?pwd=DlS9NR8Q7JLSk7wgYACVanVFiTtcnz.1
Meeting ID: 818 5319 2041
Passcode: 563519

(Andy) Qigui Yu, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology,
Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana

Immune checkpoints (ICPs) are essential regulators of the immune system, critical for immune surveillance, defense, regulation, and self-tolerance. Our research shows that soluble ICPs are dysregulated in the periphery across multiple human diseases, including AIDS, COVID-19, alcohol use disorder, and sickle cell disease, highlighting their potential as non-invasive biomarkers and indicators of therapeutic efficacy. In the central nervous system (CNS), we have identified dynamic regulation of ICPs in response to injury and infection. Using a traumatic brain injury (TBI) model, we recently demonstrated that PD-L1, a key inhibitory ICP, is robustly and transiently induced in reactive astrocytes, which act as neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory gatekeepers. In neuroHIV, both soluble and membrane-bound ICPs are dysregulated in the CNS, correlating with neuroimmune activation, inflammation, and clinical manifestations of the disease.