Education

Medical School, M.D.
IM Sechenov, First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
Post-Doc, Vascular Biology
John Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Residency, Internal Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York
Postgraduate Training, Pulmonary- Critical Care Medicine
John Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Assistant Professor, Pulmonary- Critical Care- Sleep Medicine
休斯顿Uthealth的McGovern医学院

Areas of Interest

Clinical Interests

高斯tam Sikka is an Assistant Professor in medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and has completed his training in fields of Internal Medicine, Critical-care Medicine, and Pulmonary Medicine. While perusing Pulmonary and Intensive care training at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore-Maryland, he spent additional time learning about pathophysiology of sarcoidosis and applied his training in patient care at the Johns Hopkins sarcoidosis clinics.

After completing training, he joined as faculty at the Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep medicine at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston with a focus to be part of the Clinics of Sarcoidosis and build a multi-disciplinary team around the patients who live with sarcoidosis.

Research Interests

Dr. Sikka’s research interests include, studying pulmonary diseases, especially the role of opsin biology in pulmonary vascular diseases, such as pulmonary hypertension (PH), a disease with unacceptably high mortality and morbidity. PH which is seen in some patients with sarcoidosis, is characterized by impaired pulmonary vascular dilation and dysregulation of cell death and turnover, leading to extreme vascular remodeling. His research and clinical interests are aligned, allowing him to bring questions that arise in the clinic or hospital, back to the bench. Having serendipitously discovered photoreceptors in blood vessels, he studied these novel physiologic pathways and their relevance in health and disease. In the last few years, his focus on these pathways helped identify the photoreceptor subtypes (opsins) expressed in pulmonary arteries and elucidate that these opsins mediate wavelength-specific (blue light), light- dependent vascular responses

Research Information

Dr. Sikka studied leptin signaling in small vessel regulation and its role in maintaining normal vascular compliance. Using in vivo and ex vivo experiments, we demonstrated that leptin plays a vital role in preserving normal vascular compliance, independent of its effects on body mass and that it reverses Hyperlipidemia and Vascular Dysfunction in mice exposed to intermittent hypoxia.

  • Sikka G, Yang R, Reid S, Benjo A, Koitabashi N, Camara A, et al. Leptin is essential in maintaining normal vascular compliance independent of body weight. Int J Obes. 2010;34(1):203.
  • Yang R*, Sikka G*, Larson J, Watts VL, Niu X, Ellis CL, et al. Restoring leptin signaling reduces hyperlipidemia and improves vascular stiffness induced by chronic intermittent hypoxia. Am J Physiol – Heart Circ Physiol. 2011 Apr;300(4):H1467–76. (* indicates co-first author)

随着阿西夫•穆斯塔法,丹伯科威茨和所罗门Snyder, he evaluated the properties of endogenous hydrogen sulfide as an endothelial-derived hyperpolarization factor, which mediates its effects via a novel, redox-sensitive, post- translational modification called sulfhydration. This work has been well cited by others (~500 citations). During this time, He developed charge dye imaging protocols to estimate changes in membrane potential in the vessels. While exploring the role of hydrogen sulfide in septic shock, he also discovered that interleukin-10 knockout mice, a model of frailty, not only are prone to sepsis due to lack of immune response, but also develop cardiac and vascular dysfunction with increased ageing due to increased production of eicosanoids, specifically via COX-2 activity and resultant thromboxane A2 receptor activation.

  • Sikka G, Mustafa AK, et al. Hydrogen sulfide as endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor sulfhydrates potassium channels. Circ Res. 2011 Nov 11;109(11):1259–68.
  • Sikka G, Steppan J, McNelis D et al. P68 Role of endothelial H2S in the pathogenesis of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats. Nitric Oxide [Abstract]. 2012 Sep 15;27:S41.
  • Sikka G, Miller KL, Steppan J, Pandey D, Jung SM, Fraser CD, et al. Interleukin 10 knockout frail mice develop cardiac and vascular dysfunction with increased age. Exp Gerontol. 2013;48(2):128–35.

在进行内科培训期间，他还参与了一项非随机研究，以检查脊髓损伤患者的一种新型药物输送途径，离子噬菌体，并在国际会议上介绍了他的临床工作。

  • Korsten MA, Lyons BL, Radulovic M, Cummings TM, Sikka G, Singh K, et al. Delivery of neostigmine and glycopyrrolate by iontophoresis: a nonrandomized study in individuals with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord. 2018;56(3):212.
  • Sikka G，Khan Z，BachanM。数字血压监测层的意外意识和陷阱是收缩压> 300 mmHg的病例[摘要]。重症监护医学。2016; 44（12）：489。

Having serendipitously discovered “photorelaxation”，他是血管的光依赖性松弛，他开始研究其机制，发现这种波长特异性的，蓝光活化的分子开关由非图像形成的Opsins（光感受器）组成，似乎涉及CGMP的产生激活K+通道，导致超极化和松弛。在全身和肺血管中都观察到了这些反应。

  • Sikka G, Hussmann GP, Pandey D, Cao S, Hori D, Park JT, et al. Melanopsin mediates light-dependent relaxation in blood vessels. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2014;111(50):17977–82.
  • Barreto Ortiz S, Hori D, Sikka G, et al. Opsin 3 and 4 mediate light-induced pulmonary vasorelaxation that is potentiated by G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 inhibition. Am J Physiol-Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2017;314(1):L93–106.

During Pulmonary and Critical Care training at Johns Hopkins University, he began exploring the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Along with Dr. Shimoda, he wrote invited review article on role of hypoxia-inducible factors in pulmonary hypertension. He elected to test the hypothesis that photoreceptors play a role in regulating apoptosis, particularly in smooth muscle cells in the context of PH; work was funded by National Institute of Health (NIH)

  • Shimoda LA, Yun X and Sikka G. Revisiting the role of hypoxia-inducible factors in pulmonary hypertension. Current Opinion in Physiology (Accepted for print; November 2018).
  • Vickram Tejwani, Xin Yun, Gautam Sikka, Larissa Shimoda, and Karthik Suresh. Airway Epithelial Genomic Signatures in Steroid-Resistant COPD; Role for SMAD3 in Vascular Remodeling in Pulmonary Hypertension; Regulation of Lung Endothelial Cell Function by VEGFR3; AM J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2019 Sep;61(3):392-394.
  • Sikka G, Yun X, Tejwani V, D’Alessio FR, Damarla M, Huetsch J, Berkowitz DE, Shimoda LA; Non-visual opsins mediate light-dependent apoptosis of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells in a rat model of pulmonary arterial hypertension. ATS International Conference, 2019.

Complete List of Published Work in My Bibliography:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=gautam+sikka

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7jadNGoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Research Support

完全的：

Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)

Principle Investigator: Gautam Sikka, MD Type: F32HL149163-01

角色：首席研究员

Agency: NIH

“肺部疾病的多学科培训计划”

Principle Investigator: Robert Wise, MD and Larissa Shimoda, PhD Type: T32HL007534-36

Role: Trainee

Agency: NIH

“Cystathionine Gamma Lyase: A Target for Septic Shock”

Principle Investigator: Gautam Sikka, MD Agency: American Heart Association

Type: 10POST4010028. Period: July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2012

Honors

  • 2019 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) National Institute of Health 2019 Fellow Boot Camp 1000$ Travel Award, American Thoracic Society
  • 2018年年轻调查员奖，第七届年度中大西洋肺动脉高压研讨会2017年居民训练营500美元旅行奖；美国胸腔学会
  • 2016 First Prize Original Research, NCBH Resident Research Day
  • 2016 First Place Winner, First Annual PAGNY Research Day, NY
  • 2016 Fourth Prize Case Report 13th Annual Doctors’ Recognition Day Symposium, NY
  • 2016年原始研究，第13届年度医生认可日研讨会，纽beplay苹果手机能用吗约
  • 2015 First Prize, Case Report, 5th Annual Dr. Milford Fulop Competition, Jacobi Med. Center, NY 2014 First Prize DOM Annual Research Retreat, Johns Hopkins University
  • 2011 Gold Medal, 13th Annual Research Day, ACCM, Johns Hopkins University
  • 2010-2012 American Heart Association Postdoctoral Grant
  • 2009 Silver Medal, 11th Annual Research Day, ACCM, Johns Hopkins University
  • 2009 Pat Simons Travel Award, Research Excellence by Young Investigator; Obesity Society 2009 The Postdoctoral Basic Research Fellow Award; Johns Hopkins University
  • 2002年学生卓越奖，组织学，细胞学和胚胎学，莫斯科医学院
  • Contributions to Science