Sean Xiao Leng, MD, PhD

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Medicine

Background

Centers and Institutes

Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program

Research Interests

Aging of the innate and adaptive immune system, Chronic inflammation, immune activation, and their role in the pathogenesis of frailty, Cytokinology: IL-6 and other cytokine dysregulations in frail older adults, Immune response to and protection from influenza immunization in frail elderly, International collaborative development of geriatrics and aging research programs, Molecular virology: assessment of chronic cytomegalovirus infection and its contribution to chronic inflammation and immunosenescence in older adults

Lab Website

Sean Leng Lab

• The Sean Leng Lab studies the biology of healthy aging. Specific projects focus on chronic inflammation in late-life decline; immunosenescence and its relationship to the basic biological and physiological changes related to aging and frailty in the human immune system; and T-cell repertoire analysis.

Research Summary

Dr. Leng's research has focused on the following three areas:

1. Key components of senescent immune dysregulation in frail older adults, such as chronic inflammation and immune activation, and their adverse health consequences
2. Factors and mechanisms that contribute to immune functional decline in older adults, such as chronic CMV infection
3. Strategies to strengthen the aging immune system, such as influenza immunization in frail older adults, and promote healthy aging.

PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/sean.leng.1/bibliography/41155562/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending

Selected Publications

• Leng SX, Dandorf S, LI HF, Carlson, J, Hui J, Mehta SH, Piggott DA, Islam S, Manwani B, and Kirk GD. Associations of Circulating Soluble Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Receptors 1 and 2 with Interleukin-6 Levels in an Aging Cohort of Injection Drug Users with or at high risk for HIV infection. AIDS Res. Human Retroviruses 2015 Dec; 31(12):1257-64.

• Li HF, Mao GX, Carlson J, and Leng SX. A novel flow cytometry-based tool for determining the efficiency of human cytomegalovirus infection in THP-1 derived macrophages. J. Virological Methods 2015; 221:127-30.

• Mao GX, Li HF, Wang GF, and Leng SX. Sirtinol suppresses human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) infection and hCMV-induced cellular senescence and production of reactive oxygen species in human fibroblasts. Mechanisms Ageing Development 2016 (in press)

• Ning XX, Ouyang M, and Leng SX. The geriatric syndrome of frailty: role of inflammation and immune activation. Chin. J. Geri. (in press)

• Piggott DA, Varadhan R, Mehta SH, Brown TT, Li H, Walston JD, Leng SX, Kirk GD. Frailty, Inflammation, and Mortality Among Persons Aging With HIV Infection and Injection Drug Use. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2015 Dec; 70(12):1542-7.

Honors

Paul Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research, 1/1/06

Professional Activities

• Johns Hopkins University, Faculty Development Program, 1/1/02 - 1/1/03
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Faculty leadership training, 1/1/06 - 1/1/07
• National Institute on Aging, Special Volunteer, 1/1/01 - 1/1/02

Additional Training

• Texas A&M University / Ph.D. (1995)