Anita Koshy, MD

Associate Professor

Contact:

University of Arizona
Keating Research Building, Rm 229
Department of Neurology
1657 E Helen Street
Tucson, AZ 85721-0240

Dr. Koshy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Department of Immunobiology. Dr. Koshy’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that allow a common parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to persist in the brain of people and rodents. By understanding the mechanisms by which the parasite avoids the brain’s inflammatory response, the Koshy lab hopes to improve treatments for toxoplasmosis as well as open new avenues for treating disorders of the brain in which brain inflammation plays a major role. These disorders range from Multiple Sclerosis to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease to stroke.  Her lab website can be found at: http://koshylab.arizona.edu/

Dr. Koshy is certified in: 

  • Neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Education

Degrees: 
MD: Duke University, Durham, NC
Residency: 
University of California, San Francisco, CA
Fellowship: 
Infectious Disease, Stanford, University, Stanford, CA

Selected Publications

Hid

  • Hidano S, Randall L, Dawson L, Dietrich HK, Konradt C, Klover PJ, John B, Harris TH, Fang Q, Turek B, Kobayashi T, Hennighausen L, Beiting DP, Koshy AA, Hunter CA. 2016. STAT1 signaling in astrocytes is essential for control of infection in the central nervous system. mBio 7(6): e01881-16. PMID: 27834206
  • Cabral CM*, Tuladhar S*, Dietrich HK, Nguyen E, MacDonald WR, Trivedi T, Devineni A, Koshy AA. 2016. Neurons are the primary target cell for the brain-tropic intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Plos Pathog 12(2): e1005447. PMID: 26895155. (*equal contributors and listed alphabetically)
  • Konradt C, Ueno N, Christian DA, Delong J, Harms-Pritchard G, Herz J, Bzik DJ, Koshy AA, McGavern DB, Lodoen MB, Hunter CA. 2016. Endothelial cells as a replicative niche for pathway entry to the CNS. Nature Microbiology 1(3):16001, doi:10.1038/NMicrobiol.2016.1
  • Han SJ, Melichar HJ, Coombes JL, Chan SW, Koshy AA, Boothroyd JC, Barton GM, Robey EA. 2014. Internalization and TLR-dependent type I interferon production by monocytes in response to Toxoplasma gondii. Immunol Cell Biol 92(10): 872-81. Epub 2014 Aug 26. PMID: 25155465.
  • Christian DA, Koshy AA, Reuter MA, Betts MR, Boothroyd JC, Hunter CA. 2014. The use of transgenic parasites and host reporters to dissect the events that promote IL-12 production during toxoplasmosis. Infect Immun 82(10): 4056-67. Epub 2014 Jul 14. PMID: 25024368.
  • Lopez J, Lomen-Hoerth C, Deutsch G, Kerchner GA*, Koshy A*.  Influenza-associated global amnesia and hippocampal imaging abnormality. 2014.  Neurocase PMID: 23697757. (*equal contributors)
  • Cabral CM, Koshy AA. 2014. 3-D imaging and analysis of Toxoplasma gondii infected neurons. J Vis Exp (94), e52237, doi:10.3791/52237. (*See erratum- original author order was incorrect)    
  • Cekanaviciute E, Dietrich HK, Axtell RC, Williams AM, EgusquizaR, Wai KM,  Koshy AA*, Buckwalter MS*. 2014. Astrocytic TGF-β signaling limits inflammation and reduces neuronal damage during central nervous system Toxoplasma infection. J Immunology 293:139-49. PMID: 24860191. (*equal contributors and co-corresponding authors)
  • Blader IJ*, Koshy AA*. 2014. Toxoplasma development of its replicative niche: in its host cell and beyond. Eukaryotic Cell 13(8):965-76. PMID: 24951442. (*Co-corresponding authors)
  • Dupont CD, Christian DA, Selleck EM, Pepper M, Leney-Greene M, Harms-Pritchard G, Koshy AA, Wagage S, Reuter MA, Sibley LD, Betts MR, Hunter CA. 2014. Parasite fate and involvement of infected cells in the induction of CD4 and CD8 T cell responses to Toxoplasma gondii”. Plos Pathog 10(4): e1004047. PMID: 24722202.
  • Coombes JL, Charsar BA, Han S-J, Halkias J, Chan SW, Koshy AA, Striepen B, Robey EA. Motile invaded neutrophils in the small intestine of Toxoplasma gondii-infected mice reveal a potential mechanism for parasite spread. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2013;110:E1913–1922.
  • Caffaro CE, Koshy AA, Liu L, Zeiner GM, Hirschberg CB, Boothroyd JC. A nucleotide sugar transporter involved in glycosylation of the Toxoplasma tissue cyst wall is required for efficient persistence of bradyzoites. PLoS Pathog. 2013;9:e1003331.
  • Koshy AA, Dietrich HK, Christian DA, Melehani JH, Shastri AJ, Hunter CA, Boothroyd JC. Toxoplasma co-opts host cells it does not invade. PLoS Pathog. 2012;8:e1002825.
  • Koshy AA, Fouts AE, Lodoen MB, Alkan O, Blau HM, Boothroyd JC. Toxoplasma secreting Cre recombinase for analysis of host-parasite interactions. Nat. Methods. 2010;7:307–309.
  • Chiu CY, Rouskin S, Koshy AA, Urisman A, Fischer K, Yagi S, Schnurr D, Eckburg PB, Tompkins LS, Blackburn BG, Merker JD, Patterson BK, Ganem D, DeRisi JL. Microarray detection of human parainfluenzavirus 4 infection associated with respiratory failure in an immunocompetent adult. Clin. Infect. Dis. Off. Publ. Infect. Dis. Soc. Am. 2006;43:e71–76.
  • Jiang X, Mu D, Manabat C, Koshy AA, Christen S, Täuber MG, Vexler ZS, Ferriero DM. Differential vulnerability of immature murine neurons to oxygen-glucose deprivation. Exp. Neurol. 2004;190:224–232.
  • Almli LM, Hamrick SE, Koshy AA, Täuber MG, Ferriero DM. Multiple pathways of neuroprotection against oxidative stress and excitotoxic injury in immature primary hippocampal neurons. Brain Res. Dev. Brain Res. 2001;132:121–129.
 
Chapters
  • Koshy A.  Fever and Headache.  Emergency Management of Infectious Diseases, RL Chin, MS Diamond, and TA Reynolds, Eds.  (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp 221 – 231.
  • Koshy AA, Jay CA.  Infections of the Nervous System.  Clinical Adult Neurology, 3rd Edition, J Corey-Bloom and R David, Eds.  (New York: Demos Medical Publishing, 2009), pp 335 – 361.
  • Koshy AA, Blackburn BG, Singh U.  Free-Living Amebas.  Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, 7th Edition, G Mandell, J Bennett, and R Dolin, Eds. (Oxford: Churchill Livingstone) pp 3427– 3436.   8th Edition, in press (September 2014) 
  • Koshy AA, Roos K.  Infections of the Nervous System: Bacterial and Fungal.  Neurology in Clinical Practice, 6th Edition, WG Bradley, RB Daroff, G Fenichel, and J Jankovic, Eds. (Philadelphia: Elsevier) pp 1259 – 1267.