Immune regulation research group

Dr Nicodemus Tedla

The main focus of this research is to define the functional properties and the regulation of a new class of immuno-regulatory receptors termed the Leucocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors (LILRs). In addition, the research aims to identify the, as yet unknown, ligands for these molecules (Fig 1).

Several high impact papers have demonstrated that LILRs modulate cellular responses through immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs, or via association with the Fc receptor chain that contain immuno-receptor tyrosine-based activation motifs. We have demonstrated that an imbalance in the expression of activating and inhibitory LILRs on leucocytes might be a key mechanism in the development of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis in humans. We have recently developed a new ELISA method to determine the levels of soluble LILR receptors in serum and synovial fluid of patients with autoimmune diseases and have identified two novel candidate ligand(s) for activating LILRA1 and soluble LILRA3. We are currently investigating the functions of LILRs in inflammatory arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases. We have an international patent to develop LILR antagonists/agonists for treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions. We have one previous and two current NHMRC project grants to pursue these studies.