Vincent K. Tuohy, Ph.D.
Staff

Vincent K. Tuohy, Ph.D.

Staff

  • Department of Immunology
  • Lerner Research Institute (NB30)
  • The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
  • 9500 Euclid Avenue
  • Cleveland, Ohio 44195
  • (216) 445-9684
  • (216) 444-8372

Research interest

Autoimmunity, Immunoregulation, T Cells, Gene Therapy, Cancer Vaccines

Current program

  • Plasticity of Self-Recognition in Autoimmune Disease
  • Immunoregulation of Autoimmunity
  • Gender Regulation of Autoimmunity
  • Gene Therapy in the Treatment of Autoimmunity
  • Autoimmune Sensorineural Hearing Loss
  • Ovarian Autoimmunity and Premature Ovarian Failure
  • Autoimmune Myocarditis and Heart Failure
  • Development of Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines

Brief Description

Our laboratory focus involves understanding the complex self-recognition events that lead to progression of autoimmune disease and developing novel therapeutic strategies that prevent disease progression. We have a long-standing history of research on multiple sclerosis (MS) and have developed a widely used mouse model called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) that mimics many of the features of MS. Our recent studies show that a single injection of a gene encoding beta interferon is sufficient to provide long-term therapy for central nervous system autoimmune demyelinating disease.

We have recently developed a mouse model for autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss (ASNHL), the most common cause of sudden deafness in adults and have developed mouse models for autoimmune-mediated heart failure involving targeted recognition of several different heart antigens including cardiac a-myosin heavy chain and the ß1-adrenergic receptor. In addition, we have developed a mouse model for premature ovarian failure, a disease that affects 1% of women in their childbearing years, and our extended program involves the development of novel autoimmune models that provide effective therapeutic cancer vaccines for ovarian, breast, and prostate cancer.

Investigators

  • Justin M. Johnson, B.S., Laboratory Manager
  • Robert Aguilar, M.S., Graduate Student
  • Ritika Jaini, Ph.D., Research Fellow

Collaborators

  • Xiaoxia Li, Ph.D. Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
  • Firouz Daneshgari, M.D., Department of Urology, CWRU, Cleveland, OH
  • Cynthia C. Morton, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, Department of Pathology, Boston, MA
  • Nahid G. Robertson, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, Department of Pathology, Boston, MA
  • M. Edward Medof, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
  • Lawrence M. Nelson, M.D., Developmental Endocrinology Branch, NICHD, NIH, Bethesda, MD
  • Robert Aguilar
  • Graduate Student
  • Location:NB3-15
  • aguilar@ccf.org
  • (216) 444-0613
  • Ritika Jaini Ph.D.
  • Research Associate
  • Location:NB3-15
  • jainir@ccf.org
  • (216) 444-0613
  • Justin Johnson
  • Principle Research Technologist
  • Location:NB3-15
  • johnsoj1@ccf.org
  • (216) 444-0613
  • (216) 444-8372
  • Cagri Sakalar Ph.D.
  • Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Location:NB3-15
  • sakalac@ccf.org
  • (216) 444-0613

Publications

Tuohy, V.K., & Jaini, R. (2011) Prophylactic cancer vaccination by targeting functional non-self. Annals of Medicine (in press)

Gulen, M.F., Kang, Z., Bulek, K., Youzhong, W., Kim, T.W., Chen, Y., Altuntas, C.Z., Sass Bak-Jenson, K., McGeachy, M.J., Do, J.S., Xiao, H., Delgoffe, G.M., Min, B., Powell, J.D., Tuohy, V.K., Cua, D.J., & Li, X. (2010) The Receptor SIGIRR suppresses Th17 cell proliferation via inhibition of the interleukin-1 receptor pathway and mTOR kinase activation. Immunity 32:54-66. PMCID: PMC Journal – In Process

Kang, Z.*, Altuntas, C.Z.*, Gulen, M.F., Liu, C., Giltiay, N., Qin, H., Liu, L., Qian, W., Ransohoff, R.M., Bergmann, C., Stohlman, S., Tuohy, V.K.†, & Li, X.† (2010) Astrocyte-restricted ablation of interleukin-17-induced Act1-mediated signaling ameliorates autoimmune encephalomyelitis. (* indicates that Z.K. and C.Z.A. contributed equally to this work; † indicates that V.K.T. and X.L. contributed equally to this work) Immunity 32:414-425. PMCID: PMC Journal – In Process

Jaini, R., Kesaraju, P., Johnson, J.M., Altuntas, C.Z., Jane-wit, D., & Tuohy, V.K. (2010) An autoimmune -mediated strategy for prophylactic breast cancer vaccination. Nature Medicine 16:799-803. PMID: 20512124; PMCID: In Process Commentary: Flemming, A. (2010) Cancer: steps towards a prophylactic breast cancer vaccine. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 9:594-595. PMID: 20671760. Commentary: Eisenstein M. (2011) Vaccines: Know your enemy. Nature 471:S8-9. PMID: 21430720.

Tuohy, V.K. (2010) A prophylactic vaccine for breast cancer? Why not? Breast Cancer Research 12:405. PMID: 21143772; PMCID: In Process

Liu, J., Lin, F., Strainic, M.G., An, F., Miller, R.H., Altuntas, C.Z., Heeger, P.S., Tuohy, V.K., & Medof, M.E. (2008) IFN-γ and IL-17 production in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis depends on local APC•T cell complement production. Journal of Immunology 180:5882-5889. PMCID: PMC Journal – In Process

Altuntas, C.Z., Daneshgari, F., Liu, G., Fabiyi, A., Kavran, M., Johnson, J.M., Gulen, M.F., Jaini, R., Li, X., Frenkl, T.L., & Tuohy, V.K. (2008) Bladder dysfunction in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Journal of Neuroimmunology 203:58-63. PMCID: PMC2760767

Jane-wit, D., Altuntas, C.Z., Johnson, J.M., Forsthuber, T.G., & Tuohy, V.K. (2008) Sex-defined T-cell responses to cardiac self determine differential outcomes of murine dilated cardiomyopathy. American Journal of Pathology 172:11-21. PMCID: PMC Journal – In Process