Joost Oppenheim to speak at Cytokines conference Jan 30-31 2012 -San Diego, CA

Nov. 23, 2011 - PRLog -- Joost J. Oppenheim, Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation at NIH, NCI will give a featured presentation on “Type Chemokine and Toll-like Receptors (TLR) Cross-talk With Neuropeptide Algesic Receptors (TRPV1) Enhances Painful Inflammatory Reactions” at the 10th Cytokines and Inflammation Conference to be held in San Diego, CA on January 30-31, 2012 by GTC.

Chemokine receptor cross-talk suppresses analgesic opioid receptors, but stimulates algesic TRPV1 receptors, thus promoting pain. Painful Herpes Zoster infection due to herpes virus (VZV) induces mediators that enhance the expression of TLR3, 7 and 9 by peripheral neurons present in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Stimulation of these TLR, in turn induces chemokines and transactivates TRPV1 resulting in enhanced calcium flux by capsaicin stimulated TRPV1. Thus VZV by inducing TRPV1 can cause severe neuralgia. Furthermore, in a mouse tumor model treatment with suppressive oligonucleotides that inhibit TLR9 suppressed sensitivity to pain due to heat, which is mediated by TRPV1. Consequently stimulation of DRG neurons by TLR ligands can directly and indirectly cause nerve pain.

Dr. Oppenheim obtained his M.D. degree from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, trained as a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland. He returned to the National Institute of Dental Research and subsequently headed the Section of Cellular Immunology there and, since 1983, has been head of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation, NCI-Frederick. Dr. Oppenheim has devoted his research career to the study of cytokines.  He was a codiscoverer of Interleukin 1, the Interleukin 8 and Monocyte Chemotactic Peptide 1 chemokines and most recently has been identifying cellular granule products and nuclear binding proteins as “alarmins” with cytokine-like functions.

The10th Cytokines and Inflammation Conference will bring together a 50-50 mix of academic and industry authoritative experts from leading affiliations (such as Biogen Idec, Merck, ChemoCentryx, FDA, Abbott, Janssen, BMS, MedImmune, Centocor, NIH, Scripps, UCSD, Stanford, UCLA, Sanford-Burnham, LIAI, etc.) to cover many current and relevant aspects of basic, translational or full development cytokine biology and its applicability to human health.

This conference is also part of the Novel Immunotherapeutics Summit, which consists of this track and three other tracks:
1) 4th Immunotherapeutics and Immunomonitoring
2) Immunotherapeutics Partnering and Dealmaking
3) Allergy Drug Discovery and Development

For more information, please visit www.gtcbio.com

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