Lynn Pulliam, PhD

Dr. Pulliam has been interested in peripheral inflammation and how it impacts neurocognitive dysfunction. Her focus has been on the monocyte/macrophage (M/Mf) in HIV infection and its activation and influence in migration to the brain causing neuroinflammation. She has also been interested in finding a biomarker for cognitive impairment and HIV. Biomarkers have included monocyte phenotype and soluble markers such as NFL and cytokines. More recently, she has explored the use of extracellular vesicles (EVs), secreted from cells, as cell free biomarkers. M/Mf EVs can alter adhesion molecules and cytokines on endothelial cells. Neuronal enriched plasma EVs can carry cargo from dying or stressed neurons and be used as biomarkers of neuronal health. Finally, she has engineered monocyte EVs to overexpress an antagomir-155 as a treatment to reduce inflammation in an HIV humanized mouse