Gaurisankar Sa, Ph.D.

Professor
Division of Molecular Medicine

M.Sc. (Biochemistry), Calcutta University (1983)

Ph.D. (Biochemistry): Calcutta University (1990)

Tel: 91-33-2569-3258
Fax:  91-33-2355-3886

E-mail: gauri@ boseinst.ernet.in

              gaurisankarsa@yahoo.com

 

 

Theme of research: Carcinogenesis and its management

 Research Interest

 Cancer Biology

·      Understanding the mechanisms of cell cycle regulation in normal and malignant cells.  

·      Molecular understanding of the role of oncogenic Ras in cancer progression and regression 

·      Targeted alteration of signaling molecules to selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells 

·      Cell cycle phase specific p53 stabilization in normal and malignant cells 

·      Molecular engineering-based therapeutic strategy to regain pro-apoptotic program of cancer cells  

·      Development of anti-cancer drug from natural sources  

·      Genomic and proteomic and system biology analysis to target cancer-specific genes

 Tumor Immunology 

·      Immune evasion by tumors: Immune editing to rejuvenate tumor-induced immunosuppression 

·      Molecular understanding of the mechanisms of tumor-induced type-2 cytokine bias 

·      Role of T-regulatory cells in immune evasion 

·      Involvement of stromal cells in tumor-induced immune dysfunction

 

Name of group members

      ·         Dr. Tanya Das (collaborator)

·         Dr. Dennis W Stacey, USA (Collaborator)

·         Dr. James Finke, USA (Collaborator)

·         Dr. Charles Tannenbaum, USA (collaborator)

·         Dr. Samit Chattopadhyay, NCCS (collaborator)

·         Dr. Kaushik Das

·         Dr. Sankar Bhattacharyya

·         Mr. Gouri Sankar Sen

·         Mr. Subhomay Banerjee

·         Ms. Juni Chakraborty

·         Mr. Pallab Ray

·         Mr. Arghya Adhikari

·         Dewan Md. Sakib Hossain

·         Mr. Samik Das

Editorial Board Member of Scientific Journal   

·           International J Cancer Research

·           J Pharmacology and Toxicology

·           Asian J Biochemistry

·           Asian J Cell Biology

·           Head and Face Medicine (Associate Editor)

·           American J Immunology (Guest Editor)

 

Some Important Publications in Recent Years

 

1.        Chakraborty J, Banerjee S, Ray P, Hossain DMS, Bhattacharyya S, Adhikary A, Chattopadhyay S, Das T & Sa G. Gain of cellular adaptation due to prolong p53 impairment leads to functional switch-over from p53 to p73 during DNA damage in acute myeloid leukemia cells. J. Biol. Chem. (In press), 2010

 

2.        Hossain DMS, Bhattacharyya S, Das T, & Sa G. Curcumin: The multi-targeted therapy for cancer regression. Frontiers in Biosciences (Invited submission), 2010

 

3.        Sa G, Das T, Roy P, Banerjee S & Chakraborty J. Oncogenes as molecular target for curcumin-induced cancer cell apoptosis. Prospective in Cytology & Genetics 14: (In press), 2010

 

4.        Mohanty S, Adhikary A, Chakrabarty S, Sa G & Das T. Operation ‘p53 Hunt’ to combat cancer: Theaflavins in action. Frontiers in Biosciences (Invited submission), 2010

 

5.        Das T, Sa G, Saha S, Mukherjee S, Mazumdar M & Mukherjee S. p53, a tumor suppressor at the crossroads of the oncogenic networks in cancer: Targeting the ‘guardian of the genome’.  Prospective in Cytology & Genetics 14: (In press), 2010 

6.        Bhattacharyya S, Hossain D Md. S, Mohanty S, Sen GS, Chattopadhyay S, Banerjee S, Chakraborty J, Das K, Sarkar D, Das T & Sa G. Curcumin reverses T cell‐mediated adaptive immune dysfunctions in tumor‐bearing host. Cell. Mol. Immunol. 7: 306-315, 2010

 

7.        Lahiry L, Saha B, Chakraborty J, Adhikary A, Banerjee S, Das K, Sa G & Das T. Theaflavins target Fas/caspase-8 and Akt/pBad pathways to induce apoptosis in p53-mutated human breast cancer cells. Carcinogenesis  31:259-68, 2010 

8.        Das T, Sa G, Saha B & Das K. Multifocal signal modulation therapy of cancer: Ancient weapon, modern targets. Mol. Cell. Biochem. 336:85–95, 2010

9.        Chattopadhyay S, Bhattacharyya S, Saha B, Chakrabarty J, Mohanty S, Hossain DMS, Banerjee S, Das K, Sa G & Das T. Tumor-shed PGE2 impairs IL2Rgc-signaling to inhibit CD4+ T cell survival: Regulation by theaflavins. PLoS One 4:e7382, 2009

 

10.    Chatterjee S, Mookerjee A, Mookerjee Basu J, Chakraborty P, Ganguly A,
Adhikary A, Mukhopadhyay D, Banerjee R, Ashraf M, Biswas J, Das PK, Sa G, Chatterjee M, Das T & Chaudhuri SK. CuNG, a novel copper complex, modulates drug resistant tumor associated macrohages to reprogram T cells to elicit anti-tumor response. PLoS One 4:e7048, 2009 

11.    Sa G, Das T, Moon C, Hilston CM, Rayman PA, Rini BI, Tannenbaum CS & Finke JH. GD3, an Overexpressed Tumor-Derived Ganglioside, Mediates the Apoptosis of Activated but not Resting T Cells. Cancer Res. 69:3095-104, 2009  

12.    Lahiry L, Saha B, Chakraborty J, Bhattacharyya S, Chattopadhyay S, Choudhuri T, Mandal D, Bhattacharyya A, Sa G & Das T. Contribution of p53-mediated transcription-dependent pathway in mammary epithelial carcinoma cell apoptosis by theaflavins. Apoptosis 13:771-81, 2008  

13.    Das T, Sa G, Paszkiewicz-Kozik E, Hilston C, Molto L, Rayman P, Biswas K, Kudo D, Bukowski RM, Finke JH & Tannenbaum C. Tumors Induce T Cell Apoptosis Through Receptor-Dependent and Receptor-Independent Pathways. J. Immunol. 180:4687-96, 2008 [Das T and Sa G both contributed equally to this paper]

14.    Das T, Sa G, Hilston C, Kudo D, Rayman P, Biswas K, Molto L, Bukowski R, Rini B, Finke JH & Tannenbaum C. GM1 and TNFa, overexpressed in renal cell carcinoma, synergize to induce T cell apoptosis. Cancer Research 68:2014-23, 2008 [Das T and Sa G both contributed equally to this paper] 

15.    Sa G & Das T. Anti cancer effects of curcumin: cycle of life and death. Cell Div. 3:14, 2008                           

16.    Bhattacharyya S, Mandal D, Saha B, Sen GS, Das T & Sa G. Curcumin prevents tumor-induced T cell apoptosis through Stat-5a-mediated Bcl-2 induction. J Biol Chem. 282:15954-64, 2007  

17.    Bhattacharyya S, Mandal D, Sen GS, Pal S, Banerjee S, Lahiry L, Finke JH, Tannenbum CS, Das T & Sa G. Tumor-induced oxidative stress perturbs NFkB activity augmenting TNFa-mediated T cell death: Protection by curcumin. Cancer Research. 67:362-70, 2007  

18.    Mandal D, Bhattacharyya S, Lahiry L, Chattopadhyay S, Sa G & Das T. Black tea-induced decrease in IL-10 and TGF-b of tumor cells promotes Th1/Tc1 response in tumor-bearer. Nutrition Cancer 58:213-21, 2007  

19.    Raval G, Biswas S, Rayman P, Biswas K, Sa G, Ghosh S, Thornton M, Hilston C, Das T, Bukowski R, Finke J & Tannenbaum CS.  TNF-α Induction of GM2 Expression on Renal Cell Carcinomas Promotes T cell Dysfunction. J Immunol. 178:6642-522, 2007  

20.    Dasgupta R, Saha I, Pal S, Bhattacharyya A, Sa G, Nag TC, Das T & Maiti BR. Immunosuppression, hepatotoxicity and depression of antioxidant status by arecoline. Toxicology 227:94-104, 2006  

21.    Biswas K, Richmond A , Rayman P, Biswas S, Thornton M, Sa G, Das T, Zhang R, Chahlavi A, Tannenbaum CS, Novick A, Bukowski R & Finke JH. GM2 Expression in renal cell carcinoma: Potential role in tumor-induced immune dysfunction. Cancer Research. 66:6816-25, 2006 

22.    Mookerjee A, Mookerjee Basu J, Dutta P, Majumder S, Bhattacharyya S, Biswas J, Pal S, Mukherjee P, Raha S, Baral RN, Das T, Efferth T, Sa G, Roy S & Choudhuri SK. Overcoming drug resistant cancer by a newly developed copper chelate through host protective cytokine mediated apoptosis. Clinical Cancer Research 12:4339-49, 2006  

23.    Choudhuri T, Pal S, Das T & Sa G. Curcumin selectively induces apoptosis in deregu­lated cyclin D1 expressed cells at G2 phase of cell cycle in a p53-dependent manner. J. Biol. Chem. 280:20059-68, 2005 [with front page cover citing the work]. 

24.    Sa G, Guo Y & Stacey DW. Regulation of S phase initiation by p27Kip1 in NIH3T3 cells. Cell Cycle 4, 618-627, 2005 [with front page cover citing the work] 

25.    Bhattacharyya A, Lahiry L, Mandal D, Sa G & Das T. Black tea induces tumor cell apoptosis by Bax translocation, loss in mitochondrial transmembrane potential, cytochrome c release and caspase activation. Int. J. Cancer 117:308-15, 2005  

26.    Mandal D, Bhattacharyya A, Lahiry L, Bhattacharyya S, Sa G & Das T. Tumor-induced thymic involution via Inhibition of IL-7Ra and its JAK-STAT signaling pathway: Protection by Black Tea. Int. Immunopharmacol. 6:433-44, 2005  

27.    Pal S, Bhattacharya S, Choudhuri T, Datta GK, Das T & Sa G. Amelioration of immune cell number depletion and potentiation of depressed detoxification system of tumor-bearing mice by curcumin. Cancer Detection Prevention, 29:470-8, 2005  

28.    Mandal D, Bhattacharyya A, Lahiry L, Sa G & Das T. Failure in peripheral immuno-surveillance due to thymic atrophy: Importance of thymocyte maturation and apoptosis in adult tumor-bearer. Life Sci. 77:2703-16, 2005 

29.    Bandyopadhyay S, Bhattacharyya A, Mallick A, Sen AK, Tripathi G, Das T, Sa G, Bhattacharya DK & Mandal C. Over expressed IgG2 antibodies against O-acetylated sialoglycoconjugates incapable of proper effector functioning in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Int. Immunol. 17:177-91, 2005 

30.    Sa G & Stacey DW. (2004) P27 expression is regulated by separate signaling pathways, down­stream of Ras, in each cell cycle phase. Exp Cell Res 300, 427-439, 2004 

31.    Bhattacharyya A, Mandal D, Lahiry L, Sa G & Das T. Black tea protects immunocytes from tumor-induced apoptosis by changing Bcl-2/Bax ratio. Cancer Lett 209: 147-154, 2004  

32.    Bhattacharyya A, Chattopadhyay S, Choudhury T, Banerjee A, Sa G & Das T. Apoptogenic effects of black tea on Ehrlich's ascites carcinoma cell. Carcinogenesis 24: 75-80, 2003  

33.    Sa G, Hitomi M, Harwalkar J, Stacey A, Chen G, & Stacey D. Ras is active through­out the cell cycle, but is able to induce cyclin D1 only during G2 phase. Cell Cycle 1, 50-58, 2003 [with front cover page citing the work along with a View and Commentaries (Cell Cycle 1, 36-38, 2003)]   

34.    Ghosh S, Bhattacharyya S, Sirkar M, Sa G, Das T, Majumdar D, Roy S & Majumdar S. Leishmania donovani suppresses activated protein 1 and NF-kappaB activation in host macrophages via ceramide generation: Involvement of extracellular signal-regulated kinase. Infect Immun 70: 6828-6838, 2002  

35.    Das T, Sa G, Chattopadhyay S & Ray PK. Protein A-induced apoptosis of cancer cells is affected by soluble immune mediators. Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy 51: 376-380, 2002 

36.    Choudhuri T, Pal S, Agwarwal ML, Das T & Sa G. Curcumin induces apoptosis in human breast cancer cells through p53-dependent Bax induction. FEBS Lett 512: 334-340, 2002  

37.    Chattopadhyay S, Das T, Sa G, & Ray PK. Protein A-activated macrophages induce apoptosis in Ehrlich's ascites carcinoma through a nitric oxide-dependent pathway. Apoptosis 7: 49-57, 2002 

38.    Pal S, Choudhuri T, Chattopadhyay S, Bhattacharya A, Datta GK, Das T & Sa G. Mechanisms of curcumin-induced apoptosis of Ehrlich's ascites carcinoma cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 288: 658-665, 2001  

39.    Das T, Sa G, Subbulakshmi V, Subramaniam S, Sen PC, Biswas S & Ray PK. Protein A-acti­vated rat spleenic lymphocyte proliferation involves tyrosine kinase - phospholipase C - protein kinase C pathway. Immunopharmacol. Immunotoxicol. 22: 75-90, 2000

40.    Ray PK, Das T, Sa G, Ghosh AK & Chattopadhyay S. Protec­tion of apoptotic cell death by Protein A. Apoptosis 5: 509-514, 2000                                    

  Patents

1. Sa G & Das T. A process for producing therapeutically active pure curcumin from Curcuma longa Linn. The gazette of India, Part III, Section 2, August 30, 2003 (under process to commercialize by NICCO Biotech Ltd., India).

[Details of Publications]