Shuvomoy Banerjee

• PhD FMRC
• Professor (Assistant) at Indian Institute of Advanced Research

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs), also known as carbon nanodots (CNDs), have emerged as a promising nanomaterial with unique optical properties and excellent biocompatibility. These nanoparticles may transform the cancer diagnostic and therapeutic processes. The special optical properties of CNDs, including their fluorescence tunability, high photostabil...

The production of bioelectricity has become an urgent need in the present global context due to its renewable characteristics, sustainability, and potential to alleviate the energy crisis while positively contributing to environmental conservation. The Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology is recognized as a promising method for the production of su...

Probiotics are well known to execute crucial functions in the regulation of the immune system. The combination of probiotics with cancer vaccines has the potential to yield a synergistic outcome. To optimize the effectiveness of probiotics, the utilization of a suitable probiotic formulation becomes imperative. Within this context, the encapsulatio...

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a regulatory process essential for the development and maintenance of multicellular integrity. While the objectives and execution of PCD are somewhat similar between plant and animal cells, there are some significant differences from the mechanistic viewpoints for the executions and regulations to fulfill PCD. In anim...

Different neurological diseases including, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s diseases extant momentous global disease burdens, affecting millions of lives for imposing a heavy disease burden on the healthcare systems. Despite various treatment strategies aimed at alleviating symptoms, treatments remain elusive and ineffective due to the di...

Functional genomics is a rapidly advancing field of research that aims to understand the functions and interactions of genes in the context of disease biology. Epigenomics, metabolomics, and whole-genome sequencing are employed to detect and analyze genes, genetic modifications, mutations, and the corresponding molecular signals involved in the dev...

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) comprise malignancies involving neuroendocrine cells that often lead to fatal pathological conditions. Despite escalating global incidences, NENs still have poor prognoses. Interestingly, research indicates an intricate association of tumor viruses with NENs. However, there is a dearth of comprehension of the complet...

Enteric viruses are the most common cause of gastroenteritis or infectious diarrhea worldwide. The genera Rotavirus (RoV), astrovirus (AstV), and Norovirus(NoV) are predominant viruses causing acute diarrhea in children and inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Apart from the enteric viruses, human papillomavirus (HPV), John Cunningham human...

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection, global public health and the economy have suffered unprecedented damage. Based on the increasing related literatures, the characters and pathogenic mechanisms of the virus, epidemiological and clinical features...

Role of gammaherpes viruses for deregulating cell signaling and immune surveillance in cancers.

Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are essential aids in current agricultural practice to achieve the growing population's need worldwide. Excessive use of these agrochemicals often exerts toxic effects and imposes acute risks on human health and the surrounding environment. Importantly, they have negative impacts on the farmers during agricultura...

Myeloid immune cells, such as dendritic cells, monocytes, and macrophages, play a central role in the generation of immune responses and thus are often either disabled or even hijacked by tumors. These new tolerogenic activities of tumor-associated myeloid cells are controlled by an oncogenic transcription factor, signal transducer and activator of...

Activation of specific sets of protein kinases by intracellular signal molecules has become more and more apparent in the past decade. Phosphorylation, one of key posttranslational modification events, is activated by kinase or regulatory protein and is vital for controlling many physiological functions of eukaryotic cells such as cell proliferatio...

The latent EBV nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA3C) is required for transformation of primary human B lymphocytes. Most mature B-cell malignancies originate from malignant transformation of germinal center (GC) B-cells. The GC reaction appears to have a role in malignant transformation, in which a major player of the GC reaction is Bcl6, a key regulator of...

EBNA3C-mediated inhibition of Bcl6 promoter activity is independent of p53. MEF (p53-/-) and MEF (p53+/+) cells were transfected with wild-type Bcl6 promoter reporter plasmids in the presence of control vector or EBNA3C. At 48 hours post-transfection, luciferase activity was determined. (TIF)

EBNA3C enhances Bcl2 expression through inhibition of Bcl6. A) LCL1 stable cells (sh-Ctrl, sh-Bcl6 1# and sh-E3C) were harvested and extracted total RNA. The levels of Bcl2 mRNA expression was detected with Real-Time PCR. B) Total RNAs from LCL1 stable cells (sh-Ctrl and sh-E3C) were isolated according to the manufacturer’s instructions and the lev...

Oncogenic RAS is primarily associated with potent mitogenic ability, and RAS mutants also have an apoptogenic activity, which is poorly understood. Therefore, exploring the signaling circuit that shifts RAS-signals from pro-proliferative to death pathways may provide some molecular clues to the missing link between the mitogenic and apoptogenic mec...

Tumor suppressor p53 preserves the genomic integrity by restricting anomaly at the gene level. The hotspots for mutation in half of all colon cancers reside in p53. Hence, in a p53-mutated cellular milieu targeting cancer cells may be achievable by targeting the paralogue(s) of p53. Here we have shown the effectiveness of crocetin, a dietary compon...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is considered a ubiquitous herpesvirus with the ability to cause latent infection in humans worldwide. EBV-association is evidently linked to different types of human malignancies, mainly of epithelial and lymphoid origin. Of interest is the EBV nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA3C) which is critical for EBV-mediated immortalization....

EBNA3C mutants containing E2F6-binding domain are co-localized with E2F6 in human cells. Indicated Myc-tagged EBNA3C mutants were transfected into HEK-293 cells with Flag-tagged E2F6. The cells were then fixed, incubated with appropriated primary and secondary antibodies at 48 hours post-transfection, and visualized using confocal microscopy. (TIF)

Inhibition of EBNA3C-related E2F1 promoter activity is mediated by E2F6. HEK-293 cells were co-transfected with control vector, sh-Ctrl, or sh-E2F6-1 plasmid in the presence of control vector or EBNA3C. After 48 hours post-transfection, cells were collected and lysed, then E2F1 promoter activity was detected. (TIF)

E2F6 knock-down affects EBNA3C-mediated cell proliferation in LCL1 cells. A) Selected E2F6 knock-down stable LCL1 cells with GFP fluorescence were checked with fluorescence microscope. B) 105 E2F6 knock-down (sh-E2F6-1) or control (sh-Ctrl) LCL1 cell lines were cultured in 6-well plate. Then cell numbers were counted at indicated time using trypan...

EBNA3C interacts with E2F6 and increases its stability. A) HEK-293 cells were transfected with Myc-tagged EBNA3C or Flag-tagged E2F6, collected after 48 hours transfection, immune-precipitated with rabbit anti-E2F6 antibody, and detected with western blot. B) 10 million Mutu I or Mutu III were lysed and analyzed with western blot. C) HEK-293 cells...

EBNA3C expression is necessary for E2F6 stability after EBV infection. A) BJAB cells were infected with wild-type EBV-GFP-BAC or ΔEBNA3C BAC-GFP-EBV, respectively. Cells were collected after indicated times and extracted total RNA with Trizol according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The levels of E2F6 were quantified using Real-time PCR with G...

The interaction network among E2F family members. Using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA), the interactions among E2F family members were generated from the common database of molecular interactions in the program. (TIF)

Summary of primers used for Real-time PCR in this study. (DOCX)

Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a tightly regulated process fundamental for cellular development and elimination of damaged or infected cells during the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. It is also an important cellular defense mechanism against viral invasion. In many instances, abnormal regulation of apoptosis has been associated with a...

Worldwide, one fifth of cancers in the population are associated with viral infections. Among them, gammaherpesvirus, specifically HHV4 (EBV) and HHV8 (KSHV), are two oncogenic viral agents associated with a large number of human malignancies. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms related to EBV and KSHV...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an oncogenic gammaherpes virus which is linked to pathogenesis of several human lymphatic malignancies. The EBV essential latent antigen EBNA3C is critical for efficient conversion of primary human B-lymphocytes to lymphoblastic cell lines and for continued LCL growth. EBNA3C, an EBV latent antigen with oncogenic potenti...

Unlabelled: The early period of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) infection involves the dynamic expression of viral genes, which are temporally and epigenetically regulated. KSHV can effectively infect and persist in endothelial as well as human B cells with different gene expression patterns. To understand the temporal epigenetic ch...

Metastasis is the most common cause of cancer mortality. To increase the survival of patients, it is necessary to develop more effective methods for treating as well as preventing metastatic diseases. Recent advancement of knowledge in cancer metastasis provides the basis for devel-opment of targeted molecular therapeutics aimed at the tumor cell o...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a ubiquitous human herpesvirus, can latently infect the human population. EBV is associated with several types of malignancies originating from lymphoid and epithelial cell types. EBV latent antigen 3C (EBNA3C) is essential for EBV-induced immortalization of B-cells. The Moloney murine leukemia provirus integration site (P...

Unlabelled: Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) has a significant contributory role in the development of three major human neoplastic or lymphoproliferative diseases: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), and multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD). These diseases are associated with chromosomal instability, a hallmark...

Unlabelled: Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) has been frequently implicated in many cancers as well as viral pathogenesis. Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is linked to several human malignancies. It can stabilize HIF-1α during latent infection and undergoes lytic replication in response to hypoxic stress. However, the mechanism...

Unlabelled: Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a human gammaherpesvirus casually linked to Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD), and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). Previously, we showed that LANA encoded by KSHV upregulates expression of survivin, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family. This l...

EBV latent antigen EBNA3C is implicated in B-cell immortalization and linked to several B-cell malignancies. Deregulation of H2AX can induce genomic instability with increased chromosomal aberrations which ultimately leads to tumorigenesis. Here we demonstrated that EBNA3C can attenuate H2AX expression at the transcript and protein levels. A reduct...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an oncogenic gammaherpesvirus implicated in several human malignancies including Burkitt's (BL), post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and AIDS-associated lymphomas. Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA3C) one of the essential EBV latent antigens can induce mammalian cell cy...

Peptides presentation to T cells by MHC class II molecules is of importance in initiation of immune response to a pathogen. The level of MHC II expression directly influences T lymphocyte activation and is often targeted by various viruses. Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) encoded LANA is known to evade MHC class I peptide processing,...

LMP-1 independent induction of IRF4 protein expression in EBV-positive Burkitt 's lymphoma cell lines. 50 million P3HR1, Jijoye cells were subjected to Western blot analysis using A10, S12, IRF4, GAPDH antibodies. The IRF4 protein expression level was found similar in these two cell lines. (TIF)

IRF4 knockdown enhances apoptosis in EBV transformed cells treated with etoposide. EBV transformed LCL1 cells were subjected to lentivirus mediated stable transduction by introducing short hairpin RNA (sh-RNA) to knockdown Irf4. Sh-Ctrl RNA also transduced for control set. Stable knockdown cells were treated with etoposide drug for different time p...

EBNA3C and IRF4 silencing promotes apoptotic induction in EBV transformed Lymphoblastoid cells. Apoptosis is potentially involved in regulation of cellular proliferation under a wide range of virus-induced pathogenic activities. Importantly, DNA fragmentation is one of the hallmarks of apoptosis [80]. In order to determine if apoptotic events contr...

EBNA3C binds with IRF4 and IRF8 through its N-terminal domain. A) The schematic diagram represents various structural and interactive domains of EBAN3C and summarizes the binding affinities between different domains of EBNA3C with IRF4 and 8. +, binding; −, no binding. B) The schematic shows the alignment of EBNA3A, EBNA3B and EBNA3C 130–159 amino...

IRF4 knockdown in EBV transformed LCL1 cells. A) Lentivirus mediated delivery of short hairpin RNA (sh-RNA) vectors knock down IRF4 in EBV transformed LCL1 cells. Knocked down cells were selected with puromycin to make stable cell line expressing specific si-RNA against IRF4 along with control vector. The GFP fluorescence of selected cells was obse...

EBV transformed and EBNA3C expressing B cells are resistant to etoposide induced cell killing. 1×106 EBV negative BJAB, DG75, EBV transformed LCL1, LCL2, EBNA3C expressing BJAB7, BJAB10, Sh-Ctrl, Sh-EBNA3C transfected stable LCL1 cells were treated with or without etoposide (10 µM) and allowed to grow in RPMI media. Viable cells were counted in dif...

Quantitation of Irf4 and Irf8 mRNA expression in EBV positive and EBNA3C expressing cells. Total RNA was isolated from BAC-GFP EBV infected PBMC cells (at different time intervals), DG75, BJAB, LCL1, LCL2, stable EBNA3C expressing BJAB cells (BJAB7, BJAB10) and subjected to quantitative real-time PCR analysis to detect EBNA3C, IRF4, IRF8 mRNA level...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is linked to a broad spectrum of B-cell malignancies. EBV nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA3C) is an encoded latent antigen required for growth transformation of primary human B-lymphocytes. Interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) and 8 (IRF8) are transcription factors of the IRF family that regulate diverse functions in B cell develo...

Mutations in REarranged during Transfection (RET) receptor tyrosine, followed by the oncogenic activation of RET kinase is responsible for the development of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) that responds poorly to conventional chemotherapy. Targeting RET, therefore, might be useful in tailoring surveillance of MTC patients. Here we showed that th...

Denis Burkitt identified the existence of a highly aggressive lymphoproliferative disorder, Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL), which was highly prevalent in young children in the equatorial belt of Africa. Burrkitt’s lymphoma can also be seen in children as well as immunocompromised individuals in other areas with endemic malaria. Burkitt’s lymphoma was the...

Breast cancer cells often develop multiple mechanisms of drug resistance during tumor progression, which is the major reason for the failure of breast cancer therapy. High constitutive activation of NFκB has been found in different cancers, creating an environment conducive for chemotherapeutic resistance. Here we report that doxorubicin-induced SM...

The Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA3C), one of the essential latent antigens for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-induced immortalization of primary human B lymphocytes in vitro, has been implicated in regulating cell proliferation and anti-apoptosis via interaction with several cellular and viral factors. Gemin3 (also named DDX20 or DP103) is a memb...

Tumor suppressor p53 plays the central role in regulating apoptosis in response to genotoxic stress. From an evolutionary perspective, the activity of p53 has to be backed up by other protein(s) in case of any functional impairment of this protein, to trigger DNA damage-induced apoptosis in cancer cells. We adopted multiple experimental approaches...

Immune dysfunction is well documented during tumor progression and likely contributes to tumor immune evasion. CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are involved in antigen-specific tumor destruction and CD4(+) T cells are essential for helping this CD8(+) T cell-dependent tumor eradication. Tumors often target and inhibit T-cell function to escape...

Inhibition of defined molecular steps of tumourigenesis by natural non-toxic compounds may be an efficient means to tackle the population cancer burden. Extensive research has addressed the chemotherapeutic potential of curcumin (diferuloylmethane), a relatively non-toxic plant derived polyphenol. Curcumin is used for centuries in cuisine and indig...

The most common alterations found in breast cancer are inactivation or mutation of tumor suppressor gene p53. The present study revealed that theaflavins induced p53-mutated human breast cancer cell apoptosis. Pharmacological inhibition of caspase-8 or expression of dominant-negative (Dn)-caspase-8/Fas-associated death domain (FADD) partially inhib...

Background: Many tumors are associated with decreased cellular immunity and elevated levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a known inhibitor of CD4+ T cell activation and inducer of type-2 cytokine bias. However, the role of this immunomodulator in the survival of T helper cells remained unclear. Since CD4+ T cells play critical roles in cell-mediate...

Theaflavins, the bioactive flavonoids of black tea, have been demonstrated to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells. However, the contribution of p53 in mammary epithelial carcinoma cell apoptosis by theaflavins remains unclear. It has been reported that p53 triggers apoptosis by inducing mitochondrial outer membra...

Cancer patients often exhibit loss of proper cell-mediated immunity and reduced effector T-cell population in the circulation. Thymus is a major site of T-cell maturation, and tumors induce thymic atrophy to evade cellular immune response. Here, we report severe thymic hypocellularity along with decreased thymic integrity in tumor bearer. In an eff...