Haribabu Bodduluri, Ph.D.

Lab Staff and Students
Steven Mathis, PhD. Research Scientist
Yeshvanthi Singh, PhD. Post-doctoral fellow
Subir Kumar Juin PhD, Post-doctoral fellow

Research Interests

Our research is focused on identifying how chemokines control leukocyte migration and tumor development with particular emphasis on leukotriene B4 and its receptors BLT1 and BLT2. Over the last two decades, we developed mouse models and generated novel reagents to examine the function and regulation of BLT1 and BLT2. These models facilitated the identification that BLT1 is a critical mediator of inflammatory diseases including asthma, atherosclerosis, arthritis and other autoimmune diseases as well diet induced obesity.

Our studies on cancer use spontaneous mouse lung and colon tumor models that were crossed onto mice deficient in BLT. BLT1 is an important mediator of host response to infection and immune surveillance of intestinal cancers. Our studies showed that exposure to crystalline silica, a common agent encountered in mining and other industries strongly promotes lung cancer and that absence of BLT1 protects mice from developing silicosis and reduces the lung cancer burden. Our observations in models of colon cancer suggest that absence of BLT1 reshapes the gut microbiome to promote colon cancer development. Absence of BLT1 was also found to significantly impair cytotoxic T-cell mediated anti-tumor immunity in intestinal tumors as well as in implantable melanoma. In this case mast mediated LTB4 acts to recruit CD8+ T-cells and our current studies are aimed at understanding the mechanistic implications of these findings. Our recent observations on mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) suggest a complex role for lipid mediators of inflammation and microbiota in promoting neurodegenerative disorders. 

Selected Publications:

  1. Satpathy SR, JalaVR, Bodduluri SR, Krishnan E, HegdeB, HoyleG, FraigM, LusterAD and HaribabuB. Crystalline silica-induced LTB4 mediated inflammation promotes lung tumor growth. NatureCommun 2015 Apr 29;6:7064. doi: 10.1038/ncomms8064.
  2. Hester CM, Jala VR, Langille MG, Umar S, Greiner KA, Haribabu B.  Fecal microbes, short chain fatty acids, and colorectal cancer across racial/ethnic groups.  World Journal of Gastroenterology 2015 Mar 7;21(9):2759-69.  doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i9.2759.  PMID: 25759547.  PMCID: PMC4351229.
  3. Chheda ZS, Sharma RK, Jala VR, Luster AD, Haribabu B. Chemoattractant Receptors BLT1 and CXCR3 Regulate Antitumor Immunity by Facilitating CD8+ T Cell Migration into Tumors. J Immunol. 2016 Jul 27. pii: 1502376. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 27465528
  4. Jala VR, Bodduluri SR, Satpathy SR, Chheda Z, Sharma RK, Haribabu B. The yin and yang of leukotriene B4 mediated inflammation in cancer.Semin Immunol. 2017 Oct;33:58-64. doi: 10.1016/j.smim.2017.09.005. Epub 2017 Oct PMID: 28982616 
  5. Jala VR, Maturu P, Bodduluri SR, Krishnan E, Mathis S, Subbarao K, Wang M, Jenson AB, Proctor ML, Rouchka EC, Knight R, Haribabu B.  Leukotriene B4-receptor-1 mediated host response shapes gut microbiota and controls colon tumor progression.  Oncoimmunology 2017 Aug 10;6(12):e1361593.  doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2017.1361593.  PMID: 29209564.  PMCID: PMC5706601.
  6. Hegde B, Bodduluri SR, Satpathy SR, Alghsham RS, Jala VR, Uriarte SM, Chung DH, Lawrenz MB, Haribabu B.  Inflammasome-independent leukotriene B4 production drives crystalline silica-induced sterile inflammation.  Journal of Immunology 2018 May 15;200(10):3556-3567.  doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1701504.  Epub 2018 Apr 2.  PMID: 29610142.  PMCID: PMC5940517.
  7. Jala VR, Bodduluri SR, Ghosh S, Chheda Z, Singh R, Smith ME, Chilton PM, Fleming CJ, Mathis SP, Sharma RK, Knight R, Yan J, Haribabu B.  Absence of CCR2 reduces spontaneous intestinal tumorigenesis in the ApcMin/+ mouse model.  International Journal of Cancer 2021 Jan 26. doi: 10.1002/ijc.33477. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33497467.
  8. Bodduluri SR, Mathis S, Maturu P, Krishnan E, Satpathy SR, Chilton PM, Mitchell TC, Lira S, Locati M, Mantovani A, Jala VR, Haribabu B.  Mast cell-dependent CD8+ T-cell recruitment mediates immune surveillance of intestinal tumors in ApcMin/+ mice.  Cancer Immunology Research 2018 Mar;6(3):332-347.  doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-17-0424.  Epub 2018 Jan 30.  PMID: 29382671.
  9. Mathis SP, Bodduluri SR, Haribabu B. Interrelationship between the 5-lipoxygenase pathway and microbial dysbiosis in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Biol Lipids. 2021 Sep;1866(9):158982. doi: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2021.158982. Epub 2021 May 29. PMID: 34062254
  10. Friedland RP, Haribabu B.  Neurodegenerative diseases: from gut-brain axis to brain microbiome. Front Aging Neurosci. 2023 May 19;15:1171955. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1171955. eCollection 2023.PMID: 3727365