Infection Medicine
Infection Medicine
Edinburgh Medical School
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Abdelazeem Elhabyan

The functional role of cyclophilins and the effect of cyclophilin inhibitors in coronavirus infection.

Dr Abdelazeem Elhabyan

PhD student - Haas Group

  • Infection Medicine
  • Deanery of Biomedical Sciences
  • Edinburgh Medical School

Contact details

Personal Profile

  • Medical doctor at the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
  • Research and teaching assistant at Medical Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University.
  • M.Sc of biomedical diagnostics Arizona State University.

Research theme

Infection Medicine 

Host viral interactions

Research

The aim of this project is to investigate the molecular role of cyclophilins in virus replication, to develop cyclophilin inhibitors that block SARS-CoV2 and other human and animal coronaviruses in vitro. In particular, we will investigate (i) whether and how SARS-CoV2 proteins interact with cyclophilins, (ii) the effect of these interactions on viral replication and the innate and adaptive immune response, (iii) the molecular mechanisms and cellular pathways involved in them, (iv) whether more potent, non-immunosuppressive cyclophilin inhibitors can be identified that block SARS-CoV2, other coronaviruses and members of other virus families. This multi-disciplinary project involves a broad range of different cutting-edge molecular, cellular, biochemical and biophysical technologies including for example siRNA knockdown, CRISPR gene editing and SPR.

Recent Publications 

 

Elhabyan, A., Elyaacoub, S., Sanad, E., Abukhadra, A., Elhabyan, A., & Dinu, V. (2020). The role of host genetics in susceptibility to severe viral infections in humans and insights into host genetics of severe COVID-19: A systematic review. Virus research, 289, 198163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2020.198163

Elhabyan, A. (2021). Review 1: “Host genome analysis of structural variations by Optical Genome Mapping provides clinically valuable insights into genes implicated in critical immune, viral infection, and viral replication pathways in patients with severe COVID-19.” Rapid Reviews COVID-19. https://doi.org/10.1162/2e3983f5.cd2cdb3d

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