Hongwei Li, Ph.D.

Bio

Education

Specialization:

Molecular Virology

Professional Memberships

Research Keywords: Dengue virus, pathogenesis, RNAi

Research Overview

Dengue is the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease in humans. The overall objective of our research is to understand the molecular mechanisms of dengue virus-host interactions in both mosquito and human cells. We mainly focus on following research directions:

1. The role of RNAi in dengue virus-infected cells.
2. Host cellular responses to dengue virus infection.
3. Virulence determinants of dengue virus.
4. Molecular mechanism of dengue virus pathogenesis.

Current COBRE research project has two specific aims

The life-threatening forms of dengue diseases, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS), are manifested by increased vascular permeability and plasma leakage. Monocytes and macrophages are considered as the primary target cells of DENV infection, and vascular endothelial cells are the cells for final symptomatic manifestation. One of the major hypotheses for dengue viral pathogenesis is that massive infection of monocytes/macrophages results in a drastic increase in production of cytokines, which act on endothelial cells and cause alteration of endothelial permeability. The objective of our research is to investigate the role of miRNAs, the most abundant small regulatory RNAs in RNAi, in the pathogenesis of dengue infection.

Specific Aim 1

• Functional analysis of miRNAs in DENV-infected human monocytes/macrophages.

Specific Aim 2

• Functional analysis of miRNAs in DENV-infected human vascular endothelial cells.

Selected Publications

• Li Y, Kakinami C, Li Q, Yang B, Li H.

  Human apolipoprotein A-I is associated with dengue virus and enhances virus infection through SR-BI.

  PLoS One 2013 more details...
  
• Yang B, Li H.

  Dicer assay in Drosophila S2 cell extract.

  Methods in Molecular Biology 2011 more details...
  
• Aliyari R, Wu Q, Li HW, Wang XH, Li F, Green LD, Han CS, Li WX, Ding SW.

  Mechanism of induction and suppression of antiviral immunity directed by virus-derived small RNAs in Drosophila.

  Cell Host Microbe 2008 more details...
  
• Wang XH, Aliyari R, Li WX, Li HW, Kim K, Carthew R, Atkinson P, Ding SW.

  RNA interference directs innate immunity against viruses in adult Drosophila.

  Science 2006 more details...
  
• Li HW, Ding SW.

  Antiviral silencing in animals.

  FEBS Letters 2005 more details...
  
• Lu R, Maduro M, Li F, Li HW, Broitman-Maduro G, Li WX, Ding SW.

  Animal virus replication and RNAi-mediated antiviral silencing in Caenorhabditis elegans.

  Nature 2005 more details...
  

Presentations & Talks

• Yang, B., Li, Q., Kakinami, C. and Li, H. RNAi-mediated antiviral immunity is defective in Aedes albopictus C6/36 cells., The 59th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Atlanta, GA., November 2010.
• Yang, B., Li, Q., Cropp, C.B. and Li, H. An RNAi-based forward genetic tool for analysis of mosquito cellular response to dengue virus infection., The 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Washington, DC., November 2009.