Research Summary
Dr. Cihakova’s research interest is cardiac Immunology. She focuses on examining the role of various immune cells such as macrophaes, T cells, Innate lymphoid cells and their mediators cytokines and chemokines in pathogenesis of cardiac diseases such as myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction and pericarditis. Dr. Cihakova is also interested in the pathogenic role of SSA/SSB antibodies in development of congenital complete heart block.
Lab
Dr. Cihakova’s lab focuses on two main areas related to myocarditis. The first area of interest is the role of the inflammatory cytokines in myocarditis and DCMI. They have discovered that IL17A is critical for progression from myocarditis to DCMI while not being essential for myocarditis development (Baldeviano et al, 2010). They are currently investigating the mechanism of how IL-17A is driving DCMI and have evidence that IL17A and cardiac resident cells interaction is critical for DCMI. Dr. Cihakova and her lab are also interested in the role of the various inflammatory cells in myocarditis and how they contribute to the cardiac remodeling and DCMI. Clinically, different types of myocarditis are recognized based on the predominant infiltrating cell type such as giant cell myocarditis or eosinophilic necrotizing myocarditis. They have developed several models that reflect closely these clinical myocarditis entities. These models allow them to investigate the role of neutrophils, T cells, NK cells, myeloid cells and eosinophils and their contribution to cardiac inflammation and remodeling.
Lab Website: Cihakova Research Laboratory
Core Facility:
Technology Expertise Keywords
Multiparameter Flow Cytometry, Cardiac Mice Models, ELISA, Indirect Fluorescence
Selected Publications
Chen G, Bracamonte-Baran W, Diny NL, Hou X, Talor MV, Fu K, Liu K, Davogustto G, Vasquez H, Taegtmeyer H, Frazier OH, Waisman A, Conway SJ, WanF, Cihakova D*. Cardiac Fibroblasts Promote Development of Heart Failure, European Journal of Immunology. 2018.48(9):1522-1538. Article was chosen as a front cover story.
Bracamonte-Baran W, Chen G, Hou X, Talor MV, Choi H, Davogustto G, Taegtmeyer H, Sung J, Hackam DJ, Nauen D and Cihakova D*. Non-cytotoxic Cardiac Innate Lymphoid Cells Are a Resident and Quiescent Type 2-Commited Population. Front. Immunol., 29 March 2019
Diny NL, Baldeviano GC, Talor MV, Barin JG, Ong S, Bedja D, Hays GH, Gilotra NA, Coppens I, Rose NR, and Cihakova D*. Eosinophil-derived IL4 drives progression of myocarditis to inflammatory dilated cardiomyopathy. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2017; 214(4):943-957. Article was chosen as a front cover story.
Wu L, Ong S, Talor MV, Barin JG, Baldeviano GC, Kass DA, Bedja D, Zhang H, Sheikh A, Margolick JB, Iwakura5 Y, Rose NR, and Cihakova D*. Cardiac Fibroblasts Mediate IL-17A-Driven Inflammatory Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Journal of Experimental Medicine. 2014; 211(7):1449-64 (article was featured by website Faculty 1000)
Baldeviano GC, Barin JG, Talor MV, Srinivasan S, Bedja D, Zheng D, Gabrielson K, Iwakura Y, Rose NR, Cihakova D*. Interleukin-17A Is Dispensable for Myocarditis but Essential for the Progression to Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Circ Res. 2010; 106(10):1646-1655. (Editorial choice – featured as “In this Issue”)
