• 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

• 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.
• 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. 2023 May 8. doi: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000002275. Epub ahead of print. 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. Illustration of Gut-Thyroid Axis in Alcohol Use Disorder: Interplay of Gut Dysfunction, Pro-Inflammatory Responses, and Thyroid Function. Cells. 2022 Oct 1;11(19):3100. doi: 10.3390/cells11193100. 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. 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. Front Pharmacol. 2021 Mar 2;11:598128. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.598128. PMID: 33737877; PMCID: PMC7960760.
• Vatsalya V, Kong M, Marsano LM, Kurlawala Z, Chandras KV, Schwandt ML, Ramchandani VA, McClain CJ. 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. 2020 Sep 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.