Dr. Liya Qiao
 |
Contact InformationResearch Assistant Professor Department of Physiology and Biophysics Virginia Commonwealth University P.O. Box 980551 Richmond, Virginia 23298-0551 Tel: 804-827-2169 Fax: 804-828-7382 email: lqiao2@vcu.edu |
Liya Qiao completed her BS in Microbiology in 1988 at Nankai University and her Ph.D. in 1996 at Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation before joining VCU in 2004.
Research
The concurrency of urinary and bowel symptoms is evident in many patients. The mechanisms underlying the cross-sensitization between colon and bladder following inflammation of either are unknown, but one might be due to the neuronal interaction and cross talk in the primary afferent pathway at the level of the spinal cord and the DRG.
A principal focus of my research is investigation of neuroplasticity in the afferents following visceral inflammation including colitis and cystitis. The animal models used are trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) – induced bowel inflammation or cyclophosphamide (CYP) –induced bladder inflammation in rat. A group of neurochemicals including neurotrophins, neuropeptides and neurotransmitters are found to be either increased or decreased in inflammatory organ or extrinsic afferents. Neurotrophins and signaling may play a role in organ-neuron interaction, neuron-neuron interaction, and neurochemical (transmitter) expression and/or release due to their retrograde/anterograde transport and/or paracrine/autocrine properties.
Experimental approaches for these studies include: neuronal dye tracing to distinguish bladder afferents, colonic afferents, and convergent afferents; immunohistochemistry to study the distribution of certain neurochemicals in different population of afferents following colon or bladder inflammation; semi-quantitative PCR or real-time PCR, western blot and ELISA for transcription and protein expression; kinase assays for activation of signaling molecules; urodynamic study for bladder function. Whole animals, cultured dorsal root ganglia neurons, spinal cord slices, isolated smooth muscle cells, muscle strips and epithelium cells will be used for these studies.
In addition to being a co-investigator on Dr. Grider’s NIH R01 grant, I have been independently supported by the grants from Interstitial Cystitis Association, AD Williams Research Funds, The Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition, and recently received a notice for a fundable award for my NIH/NIDDK R01 grant.
Teaching
Since joining VCU, I have been teaching graduate courses including Cell Physiology (PHIS 604), Mammalian Physiology (PHIS 502) and Cell Signaling (PHIS 617). I also instruct the M1 lab each year and participate in the laboratory research training of graduate students.
Selected Publications
Qiao LY, Gulick MA, Bowers J, Kuemmerle JF, Grider JR. Differential changes in brain-derived neurotrophic factor and extracellular signal-regulated kinase in rat primary afferent pathways with colitis. Neurogastroenterol Motil. In press, 2008.
Qiao LY and JR Grider. Up-regulation of calcitonin gene-related peptide and receptor tyrosine kinase trkb in rat bladder afferent neurons following TNBS colitis. Exp Neurol 204: 667-679, 2007. PubMed
Qiao LY and Gulick MA. Region-specific changes in the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and ERK5 in rat micturition pathways following cyclophosphamide-induced cystitis. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 292: R1368-1375, 2007.PubMed
Grider JR, Piland BE, Gulick M and Qiao LY. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor augments the peristaltic reflex by augmenting serotonin and calcitonin gene-related peptide release. Gastroenterology 130: 771-780, 2006. PubMed
Qiao LY and Vizzard MA. Spinal cord injury-induced expression of TrkA, TrkB, phosphorylated CREB, and c-Jun in rat lumbosacral dorsal root ganglia. J Comp Neurol 482: 142-154, 2005. PubMed
Qiao LY and Vizzard MA. Upregulation of phosphorylated CREB but not c-Jun in bladder afferent neurons in dorsal root ganglia after cystitis. J Comp Neurol 469: 262-274, 2004. PubMed
Qiao LY and Vizzard MA. Cystitis-induced upregulation of tyrosine kinase (TrkA, TrkB) receptor expression and phosphorylation in rat micturition pathways. J Comp Neurol 454: 200-211, 2002. PubMed
Qiao LY and Vizzard MA. Up-regulation of tyrosine kinase (Trka, Trkb) receptor expression and phosphorylation in lumbosacral dorsal root ganglia after chronic spinal cord (T8-T10) injury. J Comp Neurol 449: 217-230, 2002. PubMed
Qiao LY, Zhande R, Jetton TL, Zhou G and Sun XJ. In vivo phosphorylation of IRS-1 at serine 789 by a novel serine kinase in insulin resistant rodents. J Biol Chem 277: 26530-26539, 2002. PubMed
Qiao LY, Goldberg JL, Russell JC and Sun XJ. Identification of enhanced serine kinase activity in insulin resistance. J Biol Chem 274: 10625-10632, 1999. PubMed