Narrative Biography:

Dr. Sergiy Sukhanov obtained his MS in Biology in 1990 from Shevchenko Kiev State University (Ukraine) and his PhD in Molecular Biology/Virology in 1996 from Zabolotny Microbiology Institute (Ukraine). He trained as a postdoctoral fellow first at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (1998-1999, Sao Paulo, Brazil) and then at the Shevchenko Kiev State University (1999-2000) and the University of Missouri at Kansas City (2000-2002, Kansas City, MO). In 2002 he joined Cardiovascular Research Lab (PI: Dr. P. Delafontaine) in the University of Kansas-Medical Center (Kansas City, KS). In 2003 lab was moved to the Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) and Dr. Sukhanov was promoted to his first faculty position, as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine of the Tulane University Health Sciences Center. Dr.Sukhanov’s research focuses on studying mechanisms of atherosclerosis development using animal model and cultured cells such as vascular smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and monocyte/macrophages. Dr.Sukhanov has published 18 papers in highly ranked scientific journals and has over 60 abstracts presented on international/domestic conferences. For his research contributions into area of cardiovascular diseases, Dr.Sukhanov received the Young Faculty Research Award from American Federation for Medical Research (twice, in 2008 and 2010) and he was awarded by Gordon Conference Scholarship Fund in 2009.

COBRE Research Summary:

Atherosclerosis is the principal underlying cause of most cardiovascular disease-related deaths, the leading cause of mortality in the USA. Insufficient energy production, impaired DNA repairing and smooth muscle cell (SMC) apoptosis are hallmarks of advanced atherosclerotic plaque. Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is a multifunctional glycolytic enzyme that plays a key role in energy production pathway and also GAPDH involves in maintenance the cell genome integrity and the cell apoptosis. We are the first to demonstrate the important link between the key pro-atherogenic molecule oxidized low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL), oxidative stress, GAPDH downregulation and inhibition of SMC energy metabolism. We also demonstrated an association between increased oxidative stress and reduced GAPDH levels within atherosclerotic plaque in vivo. The major hypothesis of COBRE project that restoring GAPDH levels in SMC would be protective against oxidant-induced apoptosis, impaired DNA repairing and suppression of cell migration in vitro and against diet-induced atherosclerosis in vivo. We plan to study whether an increase in GAPDH levels in aortic SMC reduces OxLDL-induced apoptosis and prevents suppression of SMC migration and study whether an OxLDL triggers GAPDH-specific effect on DNA repairing system. Using animal model of atherosclerosis (ApoE-deficient mice), we plan to study whether SMC-specific GAPDH overexpression suppresses atherosclerosis in vivo.

A brief list of selected publications:

• Higashi Y, Sukhanov S*, Shai SY, Anwar S, Delafontaine P. 2009 IGF-1, oxidative stress and atherosclerosis (review). Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism. In Press, *Both authors are equally contributed to the paper
• Titterington J, Sukhanov S, Higashi Y, Vaughn C, Bowers B, Delafontaine P. (2009) Growth Hormone-Releasing Peptide-2 Suppresses Vascular Oxidative Stress in ApoE-/- Mice But Does Not Reduce Atherosclerosis. Endocrinology, in press.
• Murthy SN, Sukhanov S, McGee J, Greco JA, Chandra S, Delafontaine P, Kadowitz PJ, McNamara DB, Fonseca VA. (2009) Insulin glargine reduces carotid intimal hyperplasia after balloon catheter injury in Zucker fatty rats possibly by reduction in oxidative stress. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. 2009 Apr 10.
• Higashi Y, Sukhanov S, Parthasarathy S, Delafontaine P. (2008) The Ubiquitin ligase Nedd4 mediates oxidized low-density lipoprotein induced downregulation of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor. American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulation Physiology: 295:1684-1689
• Sukhanov S, Higashi Y, Shai SY, Vaughn C, Mohler J, Li Y, Song YH, Titterington J, Delafontaine P. (2007) IGF-1 reduces inflammatory responses, suppresses oxidative stress and decreases atherosclerosis progression in ApoE-deficient mice. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology; 27(12):2684-2690
• Danchuk S, Sukhanov S, Horvat D, Uddin MN, Puschett JB. (2007) Effects of resibufogenin in experimental hypertension. American Journal of Nephrology: 28(1):8-13
• Sukhanov S, Higashi YH, Shai SH, Ono K, Itabe H, Parthasarathy S, Delafontaine P. (2006) A novel effect of oxidized low density lipoprotein: ATP depletion via downregulation glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Circulation Research: 99(2):191-200
• Higashi Y, Peng P, Du J, Sukhanov S, Li Y, Itabe H, Parthasarathy S, Delafontaine P. (2005) A redox-sensitive pathway is involved in oxidized LDL-induced downregulation of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor and apoptosis of human aortic smooth muscle cells; Journal of Lipids Research; 46: 1266-1277
• Sukhanov S, Delafontaine P. (2005) Protein chip-based microarray profiling of oxidized low density lipoprotein-treated cells. Proteomics, 5:1274-1280
• Sukhanov S, Song Y, Delafontaine P. (2003) Global analysis of differentially expressed genes in oxidized LDL-treated human aortic smooth muscle cells. Biochemical Biophysics Research Communications, 306: 443-449
• Sukhanov S, De Andrade I, Dolnikoff M, Ferreira A. (1999) Neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment alters rat intestinal muscle reactivity to some agonists. European Journal of Pharmacology, 386: 247-252