• 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)

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 paradigm to target treatment efficacy, prognostic value in disease population; comparing with the disease and healthy controls. Such novel clinical designs utilize an 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

• Thakurdesai A, Jha SK, Erinkitola I, Said A, Joshi T, Schwandt ML, Parajuli D, Singal AK, Kong M, Cave MC, Vatsalya V. The gut-immune-liver axis in patients with alcohol use disorder and clinically low serum zinc levels. Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken). 2024 Aug 2. doi: 10.1111/acer.15408. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39095327.
• Sayed K, Dolin CE, Wilkey DW, Li J, Sato T, Beier JI, Argemi J, Vatsalya V, McClain CJ, Bataller R, Wahed AS, Merchant ML, Benos PV, Arteel GE. A plasma peptidomic signature reveals extracellular matrix remodeling and predicts prognosis in alcohol-associated hepatitis. Hepatol Commun. 2024 Jul 31;8(8):e0510. doi: 10.1097/HC9.0000000000000510. PMID: 39082970.
• Gobejishvili L, Vatsalya V, Avila DV, Feygin YB, McClain CJ, Mokshagundam S, Barve S. Association of Circulating Markers of Microbial Translocation and Hepatic Inflammation with Liver Injury in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Biomedicines. 2024 May 31;12(6):1227. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12061227. PMID: 38927434; PMCID: PMC11200675.
• 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. Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Efficacy Signals of Larsucosterol (DUR-928) in Alcohol-Associated Hepatitis. Am J Gastroenterol. 2024 Jan 1;119(1):107-115. doi: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000002275. Epub 2023 Apr 3. PMID: 37011138; PMCID: PMC10758349.
• 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, 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.
• Xu R, Vatsalya V, He L, Ma X, Feng W, McClain CJ, Zhang X. Altered urinary tryptophan metabolites in alcohol-associated liver disease. Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken). 2023 Sep;47(9):1665-1676. doi: 10.1111/acer.15148. Epub 2023 Jul 17. PMID: 37431708; PMCID: PMC10782820.
• Vatsalya V, Feng W, Kong M, Hu H, Szabo G, McCullough A, Dasarathy S, Nagy LE, Radaeva S, Barton B, Mitchell M, McClain CJ. The Beneficial Effects of Lactobacillus GG Therapy on Liver and Drinking Assessments in Patients with Moderate Alcohol-Associated Hepatitis. Am J Gastroenterol. 2023 Aug 1;118(8):1457-1460. doi: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000002283. Epub 2023 Apr 11. PMID: 37040544; PMCID: PMC10524173.
• McClain CJ, Kirpich I, Song M, Vatsalya V. Keratin 18-M65: A biomarker for early-stage alcohol-associated liver disease. Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken). 2023 Jul;47(7):1257-1260. doi: 10.1111/acer.15117. Epub 2023 Jun 14. PMID: 37526591.
• Winrich EJ, Tiwari H, Gala KS, Royer AJ, Parajuli D, Vatsalya V. Characterization of Hypomagnesemia in Alcoholic Hepatitis Patients and Its Association with Liver Injury and Severity Markers. J Clin Med. 2023 Apr 19;12(8):2968. doi: 10.3390/jcm12082968. PMID: 37109302; PMCID: PMC10142006.

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