Rate My Professor Arthi Kanthasamy

Arthi Kanthasamy serves as the Johnny Isakson Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, where she is affiliated with the Isakson Center for Neurological Disease Research and the Regenerative Bioscience Center. She earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from PSG College of Arts & Sciences, India, in 1990, and her Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry from Purdue University in 2001. Kanthasamy's research investigates the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, with a focus on Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Her early work examined oxidative stress signaling, ubiquitin-proteasome system dysfunction, and apoptotic mechanisms in dopaminergic neurotoxicant-induced injury. Her lab has elucidated the role of protein kinase C delta (PKCδ) in regulating apoptotic cascades, demonstrating its activation via mitochondria-mediated oxidative stress and caspase-3 cleavage, as well as cross-talk with histone hyperacetylation in dopaminergic neuronal death models. Additional studies highlight proteolytic PKCδ activation as a mediator of TNF-α-induced neuronal injury, Fyn kinase's regulation of microglial activation in nigral dopaminergic neurodegeneration, and redox-sensitive autophagy in methamphetamine- and manganese-induced neurotoxicity.

Kanthasamy's contributions extend to neuroinflammation, protein misfolding, and translational therapeutics, including small molecule inhibitors targeting PKCδ, Fyn kinase, and Kv1.3 channels, mitochondria-targeted antioxidants, and engineered L-DOPA-producing gut bacteria for Parkinson's disease. Key publications include 'PKC Delta Activation Promotes Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress (ERS) and NLR Family Pyrin Domain-Containing 3 (NLRP3) Inflammasome Activation Subsequent to α-Synuclein-Induced Microglial Activation: Involvement of Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein (TXNIP)/Thioredoxin (Trx) Redoxisome Pathway' (2021), 'Tumor Necrosis Factor-Like Weak Inducer of Apoptosis (TWEAK) Enhances Activation of STAT3/NLRC4 Inflammasome Signaling Axis through PKCδ in Astrocytes: Implications for Parkinson’s Disease' (2020), 'Environmental neurotoxicant-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration: a potential link to impaired neuroinflammatory mechanisms' (2019), 'Histone hyperacetylation up-regulates protein kinase Cδ in dopaminergic neurons to induce cell death: relevance to epigenetic mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Parkinson disease' (2014), and 'Prokineticin-2 upregulation during neuronal injury mediates a compensatory protective response against dopaminergic neuronal degeneration' (2016). Her research, supported by NIH, DOD, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, holds implications for treating neuroinflammatory disorders.