• Academic Office: 505 S. Hancock St. CTR Room 514A, Louisville, KY 40202
• Clinical Research Office: Clinical Trials Unit, 4th Floor HCOC Building, 401 E. Chestnut Street, Louisville, KY 40202
• Clinical Office: 3rd Floor, Healthcare Outpatient Center Building, 401 E. Chestnut Street, Louisville, KY 40202

• Clinical Laboratory for the Intervention Development of AUD and Organ-Injury

Education and Training

• M.D.: Medicine, Odessa State Medical University (2002)
• Pg.D.: Preventive and Promotive Healthcare (with Dissertation), Apollo Hospitals Education and Research Foundation (2005)
• M.S.: Mental Health Counseling, Fort Valley State University (2006)
• M.Sc.: Health Promotion Management (with Thesis), American University (2013)
• Fellowship: Addiction Pharmacology and Psychiatry, NIAAA, National Institutes of Health (2014)

Licenses

• Kentucky State: 281431. Behavioral and Mental Health, Substance Abuse
• NPI: 1528763307

Distinguished Membership

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (2021)
• Fellow of the American Society of clinical Pharmacology (2024)

Major Contributions to the Advancement of Medicine

1. Invented novel dual-target drug formulation to treat AUD and ALD (registered Patent at US patent & trademark office); licensing and IND efforts ongoing.
2. Developed prognostic criteria for severe alcoholic hepatitis, demonstrating the efficacy of K18M65 using a multivariable algorithm, called LOUPAHS.
3. Illustrated gut-brain axis for the pathophysiological response of withdrawal, craving, and withdrawal-associated depression domains in alcohol use disorder (Novel paradigms for the gut–brain axis during alcohol withdrawal, withdrawal-associated depression, and craving in patients with alcohol use disorder).
4. Characterized the presentation of Early-stage Alcohol-associated Liver Disease (Chapter Three - Drinking and laboratory biomarkers, and nutritional status characterize the clinical presentation of early-stage alcohol-associated liver disease).
5. Titrated and identified a high dose of Thiamine (Targeted therapeutic: 449 mg minimum daily; preventative: 200 mg) to protect and treat neurological status from the cytokine storm encountered at the severe stage of COVID disease (Repurposing Treatment of Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome for Th-17 Cell Immune Storm Syndrome and Neurological Symptoms in COVID-19: Thiamine Efficacy and Safety, In-Vitro Evidence and Pharmacokinetic Profile).
6. General recommendations include long-term prescription since inflammation continued despite no evidence of clinical presentation, contributing to long COVID. This finding went into direct clinical practice protocol globally in 2021 yr. (https://www.jocmr.org/index.php/JOCMR/article/view/4658/25893530#s4)
7. Contributed to the application and approval process of the ICD Code 11 nomenclature for “Hangover” as an independent entity in the medical coding system managed by WHO. Indexing of Alcohol Hangover in ICD 11 was an effort that was carried out by the Alcohol Hangover Research Group (AHRG) and its contributing members/authors. The International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) listed the alcohol hangover as a separate entity subsequently.

Leadership

• Director, Addiction-Liver Research, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
• Director, U-01 AlcHepNet Consortia - Louisville Site
• Director, Clinical Laboratory for the Intervention Development of AUD and Organ-Injury
• Faculty, Robert A. Winn CIPP Program

Teaching and Instruction

• Medical Faculty - July 2021 (Training Clinical Fellows, medical residents and medical students)
• Research Faculty - July 2023 (Serving Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology as approved  faculty for dissertation primary mentorship and dissertation committee membership)

Research Interests

• Novel Human Alcohol Mechanistic Paradigm
• Treatment Assessment of AUD
• Gut-Brain Axis
• Organ Injury/Severity (ALD)
• AUD-Viral Comorbidity

Our clinical research group develops the treatment of alcohol use disorder. Studies focus on the pharmacodynamics of alcohol administration in alcohol addiction and associated organ injury (primarily focused on liver diseases [AALD], and cardiovascular diseases). All studies use novel human paradigms to target treatment efficacy, prognostic value in the disease population, comparing with the disease, and healthy controls. Such novel clinical designs utilize a unique platform for investigations evaluating sex, age, drinking patterns, phenotypes, and genetic polymorphisms on alcohol responses in addiction and organ injury. Our research extends to identifying novel pathways of alcohol addiction pathology and therapeutic-mechanistic targets in clinical setting and validate the mechanisms by translating the findings in preclinical models.

Featured Publications

• Vatsalya V, Verster JC, Sagaram M, Royer AJ, Hu H, Parthasarathy R, Schwandt ML, Kong M, Ramchandani VA, Feng W, Agrawal R, Zhang X, McClain CJ. Novel paradigms for the gut-brain axis during alcohol withdrawal, withdrawal-associated depression, and craving in patients with alcohol use disorder. Front Psychiatry. 2023 Sep 29;14:1203362. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1203362. PMID: 37840804; PMCID: PMC10570744.
• Sagaram M, Frimodig J, Jayanty D, Hu H, Royer AJ, Bruner R, Kong M, Schwandt ML, Vatsalya V. One-month assessment of Th-cell axis related inflammatory cytokines, IL-17 and IL-22 and their role in alcohol-associated liver disease. Front Immunol. 2023 Dec 14;14:1202267. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1202267. PMID: 38162671; PMCID: PMC10755956.
• Vatsalya, V, Feng, W, Kong, M, Hu, H, Szabo, G, McCullough, A, Dasarathy, S, Nagy, LE, Radaeva, S, Barton, B, Mitchell, M, McClain, CJ (2023). The Beneficial Effects of Lactobacillus GG Therapy on Liver and Drinking Assessments in Patients with Moderate Alcohol-Associated Hepatitis. Am J Gastroenterol. PMID: 37040544.
• Hassanein T, McClain CJ, Vatsalya V, Stein LL, Flamm SL, Martin P, Cave MC, Mitchell M Jr, Barton B, Nagy L, Szabo G, McCullough A, Dasarathy S, Shah J, Blevins C, Scott D, Krebs W, Brown JE, Lin W. (2023). Safety, Pharmacokinetics, & Efficacy Signals of Larsucosterol (DUR-928) in Alcohol-associated Hepatitis. Am J Gastroenterol. PMID: 37011138.
• Sagaram M, Royer AJ, Hu H, Rajhans A, Parthasarathy R, Krishnasamy SS, Mokshagundam SP, Kong M, Schwandt ML, Parajuli D, Cave MC, Vatsalya V (2022). Illustration of Gut–Thyroid Axis in Alcohol Use Disorder: Interplay of Gut Dysfunction, Pro-Inflammatory Responses, and Thyroid Function. Cells. 2022; 11(19):3100. PMID: 36231061. PMCID: PMC9563601.
• Sagaram M, Parthasarathy R, Condon SL, Closson CF, Kong M, Schwandt ML, Jophlin LL, Feng W, Barve AJ, Vatsalya V. Theragnostic Efficacy of K18 Response in Alcohol Use Disorder with Clinically Significant Fibrosis Using Gut-Liver Axis. Int J Mol Sci. 2022 May 23;23(10):5852. doi: 10.3390/ijms23105852. PMID: 35628661; PMCID: PMC9143806..
• Vatsalya V, Li F, Frimodig J, Gala KS, Srivastava S, Kong M, Ramchandani VA, Feng W, Zhang X, McClain CJ. (2023). Repurposing treatment of Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome for Th-17 cell immune storm syndrome and neurological symptoms in COVID-19: thiamine efficacy and safety, in-vitro evidence and pharmacokinetic profile. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2021 Mar 2;11:598128.
• Vatsalya V, Kong M, Marsano LM, Kurlawala Z, Chandras KV, Schwandt ML, Ramchandani VA, McClain CJ. (2020). Interaction of Heavy Drinking Patterns and Depression Severity Predicts Efficacy of Quetiapine Fumarate XR in Lowering Alcohol Intake in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients. Subst Abuse. 9;14:1178221820955185. doi: 10.1177/1178221820955185. PMID: 32963470; PMCID: PMC7488613.
• Vatsalya V, Cave MC, Kong M, Gobejishvili L, Falkner KC, Craycroft J, Mitchell M, Szabo G, McCullough A, Dasarathy S, Radaeva S, Barton B, McClain CJ. Keratin 18 Is a Diagnostic and Prognostic Factor for Acute Alcoholic Hepatitis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020 Aug;18(9):2046-2054. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2019.11.050. Epub 2019 Dec 4. PMID: 31811953; PMCID: PMC7269867.
• Vatsalya V, Cave MC, Kumar R, Srivastava S, Khanal S, Jenson AB, Schwandt ML, Barve SS, Ramchandani VA, McClain CJ. Alterations in Serum Zinc and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Concentrations in Treatment-Naive HIV-Diagnosed Alcohol-Dependent Subjects with Liver Injury. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2019 Jan;35(1):92-99. doi: 10.1089/AID.2018.0124. Epub 2018 Dec 11. PMID: 30280905; PMCID: PMC6343188.
• Vatsalya V, Song M, Schwandt ML, Cave MC, Barve SS, George DT, Ramchandani VA, McClain CJ. Effects of Sex, Drinking History, and Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids Dysregulation on the Onset of Liver Injury in Very Heavy Drinking Alcohol-Dependent Patients. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2016 Oct;40(10):2085-2093. doi: 10.1111/acer.13197. Epub 2016 Sep 2. PMID: 27589090; PMCID: PMC5367046.
• Vatsalya V, Gowin JL, Schwandt ML, Momenan R, Coe MA, Cooke ME, Hommer DW, Bartlett S, Heilig M, Ramchandani VA. Effects of Varenicline on Neural Correlates of Alcohol Salience in Heavy Drinkers. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2015 Jul 25;18(12):pyv068. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyv068. PMID: 26209857; PMCID: PMC4675979.

More publications can be reviewed at the National Library of Medicine.