PhD
Azam Bolhassani is a Professor at Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran. Her special topic focused on vaccine development against viral diseases (e.g., HPV, HIV and HCV infections) such as DNA vaccine, protein/peptide vaccine, live vaccine, VLP vaccine, cell-based vaccine (tumor-based, Dendritic cell-based vaccine) and exosome. The use of immunotherapy and chemotherapy against HPV-related cancer or other viral infections, and also improvement of vaccination strategies using different adjuvants and delivery systems especially heat shock proteins, nuclear proteins and cell penetrating peptides are her interests and activities in recent years. She has over 190 peer-reviewed publications
Extensive research on vaccine development against viral diseases including HPV, HIV, and HCV infections.
Expertise in designing and developing multiple vaccine platforms:
DNA vaccines
Protein/peptide vaccines
Live vaccines
Virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines
Cell-based vaccines (tumor-based and dendritic cell-based)
Exosome-based vaccines
Active involvement in the application of immunotherapy and chemotherapy for HPV-related cancers and other viral infections.
Improvement of vaccination strategies using advanced adjuvants and delivery systems, particularly:
Heat shock proteins
Nuclear proteins
Cell-penetrating peptides
1. An efficient delivery system for enhancing the potency of DNA vaccine expressing HPV16E7. Vaccine
2. Physicochemical properties of polymers: An important system to overcome the cell barriers in gene transfection. Biopolymers
3. Immunostimulant Properties of Chemical Delivery Systems in Vaccine Development. Curr Drug Deliv.
4. Cancer chemoprevention by natural carotenoids as an efficient strategy. Anticancer Agents Med Chem.
5. Chemo-immunotherapy using saffron and its ingredients followed by E7-NT (gp96) DNA vaccine generates different anti-tumor effects against tumors expressing the E7 protein of human papillomavirus.
6. Induction of Strong and Specific Humoral and T-helper 1 Cellular Responses by HBsAg Entrapped in the Methanobrevibacter smithii Archaeosomes. Avicenna J Med Biotechnol.
7. Whole recombinant Pichia pastoris expressing HPV16 L1 antigen is superior in inducing protection against tumor growth as compared to killed transgenic Leishmania. Hum Vaccin Immunother.
8. Retinoids and their biological effects against cancer. Int Immunopharmacol.
9. Saffron and natural carotenoids: Biochemical activities and anti-tumor effects. Biochim Biophys Acta: Reviews on Cancer
10. Development of novel prime-boost strategies based on a tri-gene fusion recombinant L. tarentolae vaccine against experimental murine visceral leishmaniasis.
11. non-pathogenic live vector as an efficient delivery system in vaccine design for the prevention of HPV16 E7-overexpressing cancers.
12. Recombinant nonstructural 3 protein, rNS3, of Hepatitis C virus along with recombinant GP96 induce IL-12, TNFα and α5 integrin expression in antigen presenting cells.
13. Polymeric nanoparticles: Potent vectors for vaccine delivery targeting cancer and infectious diseases. Hum Vaccin Immunother.
14. Recombinant Leishmania tarentolae encoding the HPV type 16 E7 gene in tumor mice model, Immunotherapy
15. Therapeutic live vaccines as a potential anti-cancer strategy
