Owais Mohammad

Owais Mohammad is an Indian immunologist, nano-technologist and a professor at the interdisciplinary biotechnology unit of the Aligarh Muslim University.[2] Known for his studies on nanotechnology-based vaccine and drug delivery, Owais is the author of two books, Trypanothione reductase: a potential anti-leishmanial drug target[3] and Antimicrobial properties of clove oil: clove oils as antimicrobial agent.[4] He has also co-edited two books, Modern Phytomedicine: Turning Medicinal Plants into Drugs[5] and Combating Fungal Infections: Problems and Remedy,[6] and has contributed chapters.[7] His studies have also been documented by way of a number of articles[8][note 1] and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 60 of them.[9] He is a recipient of the Rashtriya Gaurav Award of the India International Friendship Society.[10] The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2007.[11] His work has been displayed on cover pages of FEMS Immunol. Med Microbiology for all the issues of Year 2006 and Molecular Medicine in May–June issue of Year 2007.[2]

Not to be confused with Mohammed Al-Owais, Mohammad Awais, or Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al Owais.

Owais Mohammad
Born
India
NationalityIndian
Known forStudies on nanotechnology-based vaccine and drug delivery
Awards
VIFRA Distinguished Scientist Award-2015 [1]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Education and Career

Owais did his undergraduate and post-graduate studies in Pharmacy from Delhi University, India, after which he pursued his doctoral research from Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), one of premier biotechnology institutes in India and Panjab University, Chandigarh, under the mentorship of Prof. C. M. Gupta. Later, he joined National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA as Fogarty Post Doctoral Fellow, where he worked on HIV. During his stay at NIH, he demonstrated that the introduction of HIV-1 genome into PBMCs blocks the propagation of HIV-2 viruses.[12] His work on the antiviral chemokine, RANTES established that the amino-terminal domain of the chemokine was not essential for its antiviral activity or for its binding to the CCR5 receptor.[13] He is currently serving as a professor of biotechnology at Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Unit, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh,[2] working in the area of drug delivery since his joining in 1998.

Details of the Excellence in Research Work

Besides active involvement in teaching modern biochemistry/biotechnology courses to M.Sc./Ph.D students, Owais has successfully established a small but active research group with focus on nanoparticle-based novel delivery systems including dendrimers/virosomes for gene packaging and liposomes, niosomes, microspheres and solid core lipid nano-particles for vaccine delivery, gene delivery, targeted drug delivery etc.; with a view to increase the efficacy and safety of encapsulated chemotherapeutic agents/subunit vaccines for some important infectious diseases.

The research focus of Dr. Owais’s group has been on:

Nano-carrier based vaccines: prophylactic measures against infectious diseases

Reckoning with the limitations of conventional vaccine, the main focus of Dr. Owais’s research endeavors has been to develop nano-vaccines against various infectious diseases of bacterial (tuberculosis, salmonellosis, listeriosis and brucellosis), protozoan (malaria, leishmaniasis) and fungal (candidasis and cryoptococcosis) origin.

In general, specialized groups of pathogens adapt intra-cellular parasitism as a strategy to avoid antibody onslaught. Keeping into consideration the non-effectiveness of humoral immune response against such intracellular pathogens, Dr. Owais evaluated potential of fusogenic lipid based vaccines as an alternative prophylactic strategy.[14][15] In this regard, he has compared lipid compositions of plasma membranes of both prokaryotic[15] as well as eukaryotic cells.[16] These studies established a correlation between the lipid compositions of plasma membranes of living organisms with evolutionary trend. Lipid isolated from lower organisms possesses strong fusogenic potential.[15] He established that model antigens entrapped in liposomes made up of fusogenic lipids, can be delivered to the target cells including antigen presenting cells (APCs),[16] resulting in both the endo/lysosomal and cytosolic degradation pathways for antigen processing. The dual processing of antigens in the antigen presenting cells activated both the CD4+ T helper as well as CD8+ cytotoxic T cells.[17][18][19] Further, he established that immunization with fusogenic liposomes resulted in expression of both IL-2 and IFN-γ, the two key cytokines that eventually help in protection against intracellular infections.[17]

Keeping in view that sperm-ova fusion during zygote formation is generally facilitated by specific lipid compositions of the two cell populations, he demonstrated the fusogenic attributes of sperm plasma membrane lipids,[14] and established the prophylactic potential of spermatosome based vaccines against various intracellular pathogens.[20] As conventional egg phophatidylcholine (PC) based liposomes are of limlited application in activation of pathogen specific CTL response required for inhibiting intracellular pathogens, he developed non-PC liposome as vehicle for delivery of antigens in prophylactic treatment of experimental leishmaniasis.[18] Further, the liposome/niosome based vaccines were also found to be effective against malaria parasite.[21] In addition, he has prepared archael lipid based liposomes and demonstrated their immunoadjuvant potential in model animals. Of note, the archaeosome based vaccine were used to mount long lasting memory response against experimental listeriosis.[22]

Further, Dr. Owais has highlighted interactions between two mycobacterial proteins viz. Rv3619 (RD9 family) and Rv3620 (CFP-10 analog). He demonstrated that Rv3619 protein disrupted the biomembrane and also evoked a strong immunological response.[23] Moreover, it was revealed that nanoparticle mediated targeting of RD9 gene products to dendritic cells favors Th1 prototype of CD4+ T lymphocytes.[24] He had successfully expressed L7/L12 ribosomal protein, SOD-IL-18 fusion protein of Brucella spp. and trypanothione reductase of Leishmania donavani.[25] The recombinant proteins were used as potent subunit vaccines in protection studies.[26][27] Liposome-based DNA vaccine developed by Dr. Owais has shown remarkable promise against experimental murine brucellosis.[28]

Besides introducing liposome, niosome and microsphere based novel particulate vaccines; Dr. Owais has recently employed an autologous plasma bead based dual antigen delivery system as a prophylactic strategy against intracellular infections.[29] The liposome/microsphere entrapped antigen further co-entrapped in dual core fibrin beads based vaccine was shown to eliminate intracellular pathogens from systemic circulation.[30]

Targeted nano-delivery system

Liposomes have been widely considered useful as drug/enzyme/nucleic acid vehicles in therapy. However, their successful application was limited by their rapid lysis in blood, major uptake by the RES, and lack of availability of simple procedures for specific targeted delivery. The main emphasis of Dr. Owais has been therefore on addressing some of the problems associated with the liposomes as drug delivery systems. He demonstrated that covalent attachment of anti-erythrocyte F(ab')2 to the liposomes surface enables the liposomes to specifically recognize the erythrocytes in vivo and deliver their contents to these cells. It was further demonstrated that the entrapment of anti-malarial drugs like chloroquine (chq), in the antibody-coated liposomes increases the drug efficacy not only against the chq-sensitive but also against the chq-resistant malarial infections. Encouraged by these results, the liposomes were coated with F(ab')2 fragments of a monoclonal antibody which specifically recognized the malaria-infected erythrocytes (Patent No. 182550).[31] The monoclonal antibody bearing liposomes with encapsulated chq were found to be highly effective in the treatment of chq-resistant experimental malaria.[32]

Awards and Honors

He was awarded the Young Scientist Award (MYSA) in Life Sciences in 2002.[2] Aligarh Muslim University bestowed him with Outstanding University Researcher Award in 2008 and again with the Best Teacher Award in 2009.[2] The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2007. In 2013, he received the TATA Innovation Award by DBT, Govt. of India and IIFS-Rashtriya Gaurav Award. Other notable awards include VIFRA Distinguished Research Scientist Award-2015[1] and Indus Research Excellence Award-2015.[2]

Owais is Member of Editorial Boards of various international journals including The open Vaccine Journal (Bentham Press), BioMed Research International (Hindawi Publishing Group), Journal of Clinical Medicine Research (Academic Press), Journal of Chinese Clinical Medicine, Biomedical Research, World Journal of Critical infectious diseases (BPG Press), World Journal of Experimental medicine (BPG Press).[2]

Selected bibliography

Books
  • Iqbal Ahmad, Farrukh Aqil, Mohammad Owais (Editors) (2007). Modern Phytomedicine: Turning Medicinal Plants into Drugs. Wiley-VCH. p. 404. ISBN 978-3527315307.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Mohammad Owais (2009). Trypanothione reductase: a potential anti-leishmanial drug target: Recent trend of development of drug resistant field isolates and usage of alternate strategy for treatment of leishmaniasis. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. p. 144. ISBN 978-3639212440.
  • Iqbal Ahmad, Mohammad Owais Mohammed Shahid, Farrukh Aqil (Editors) (2010). Combating Fungal Infections: Problems and Remedy. Springer. p. 539. ISBN 978-3642446726.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Anis Ahmad, Mohammad Owais, Shailender Singh Gaurav (2013). Antimicrobial properties of clove oil: clove oils as antimicrobial agent. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 978-3659415784.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Selected publications

Nanomedicine

  • Khan AA, Jabeen M, Khan AA, Owais M. Anticancer efficacy of a novel propofol–linoleic acid-loaded escheriosomal formulation against murine hepatocellular carcinoma. Nanomedicine. 2013, 8(8):1281-94. doi: 10.2217/nnm.12.166.
  • Alam M, Dwivedi V, Khan AA, Mohammad O. Efficacy of niosomal formulation of diallyl sulfide against experimental candidiasis in Swiss albino mice. Nanomedicine. 2009, 4(7):713-24. doi: 10.2217/nnm.09.60.
  • Chauhan A, Zubair S, Nadeem A, Ansari SA, Ansari MY, Mohammad O. Escheriosome-mediated cytosolic delivery of PLK1-specific siRNA: potential in treatment of liver cancer in BALB/c mice. Nanomedicine,. 2014, 9(4):407-20. doi: 10.2217/NNM.13.21.

J Antimicrob Chemother

Biochim Biophys Acta

  • Ahmad N, Arif K, Faisal SM, Neyaz MK, Tayyab S, Owais M. PLGA-microsphere mediated clearance of bilirubin in temporarily hyperbilirubinemic rats: an alternate strategy for the treatment of experimental jaundice. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2006, 1760(2):227-32.
  • Deeba F, Tahseen HN, Sharad KS, Ahmad N, Akhtar S, Saleemuddin M, Mohammad O. Phospholipid diversity: Correlation with membrane–membrane fusion events. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2005 May 20;1669(2):170-81.
  • Younus H, Owais M, Rao DN, Saleemuddin M. Stabilization of pancreatic ribonuclease A by immobilization on Sepharose-linked antibodies that recognize the labile region of the enzyme. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2001, 9;1548(1):114-20.

Vaccine

Int J Nanomed

  • Farazuddin M, Dua B, Zia Q, Khan AA, Joshi B, Owais M. Chemotherapeutic potential of curcumin-bearing microcells against hepatocellular carcinoma in model animals. Int J Nanomed. 2014, 3;9:1139-52. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S34668.
  • Ansari MA, Zubair S, Tufail S, Ahmad E, Khan MR, Quadri Z, Owais M. Ether lipid vesicle-based antigens impart protection against experimental listeriosis. Int J Nanomed. 2012;7:2433-47. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S25875.
  • Farazuddin M, Sharma B, Khan AA, Joshi B, Owais M. Anticancer efficacy of perillyl alcohol-bearing PLGA microparticles. Int J Nanomed. 2012;7:35-47. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S24920.
  • Chauhan A, Zubair S, Tufail S, Sherwani A, Sajid M, Raman SC, Azam A, Owais M. Fungus-mediated biological synthesis of gold nanoparticles: potential in detection of liver cancer. Int J Nanomed. 2011;6:2305-19. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S23195.

PLOS One

See also

Notes
  1. Please see Selected bibliography section

References
  1. "Venus International Foundation - Research Awards 2015". Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  2. "Aligarh Muslim University - Department Page". www.amu.ac.in. 27 December 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  3. Mohammad Owais (2009). Trypanothione reductase: a potential anti-leishmanial drug target: Recent trend of development of drug resistant field isolates and usage of alternate strategy for treatment of leishmaniasis. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. p. 144. ISBN 978-3639212440.
  4. Anis Ahmad, Mohammad Owais, Shailender Singh Gaurav (2013). Antimicrobial properties of clove oil: clove oils as antimicrobial agent. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 978-3659415784.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Iqbal Ahmad, Farrukh Aqil, Mohammad Owais (Editors) (2007). Modern Phytomedicine: Turning Medicinal Plants into Drugs. Wiley-VCH. p. 404. ISBN 978-3527315307.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  6. Iqbal Ahmad, Mohammad Owais Mohammed Shahid, Farrukh Aqil (Editors) (2010). Combating Fungal Infections: Problems and Remedy. Springer. p. 539. ISBN 978-3642446726.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  7. Iqbal Ahmad, Mohammad Owais; Mohammed Shahid, Farrukh Aqil (Eds.); Qamar Shia, Nishat Fathima, Maroof Alam, Deepa Bisht, Prashant Yadav, Iqbal Ahmad, Farooq Aqil, Mohammed Owais (chapter authors) (3 August 2010). "Immunomodulators: Potential in Treatment of Systemic Fungal Infections". Combating Fungal Infections: Problems and Remedy. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 397–. ISBN 978-3-642-12173-9.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "On Google Scholar". Google Scholar. 23 November 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  9. "On ResearchGate". On ResearchGate. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  10. "Faculty profile - AMU" (PDF). Aligarh Muslim University. 27 December 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  11. "Awardees of National Bioscience Awards for Career Development" (PDF). Department of Biotechnology. 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  12. Al-Harthi, Lena; Owais, Mohammad; Arya, Suresh K. (1 January 1998). "Short Communication: Molecular Inhibition of HIV Type 1 by HIV Type 2: Effectiveness in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells". AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. 14 (1): 59–64. doi:10.1089/aid.1998.14.59. ISSN 0889-2229. PMID 9453252.
  13. Owais, M.; Arya, S. K. (September 1999). "Antiviral chemokines: intracellular life of recombinant C-C chemokine RANTES". Journal of Human Virology. 2 (5): 270–282. ISSN 1090-9508. PMID 10551733.
  14. Atif, Shaikh Muhammad; Hasan, Imtaiyaz; Ahmad, Nadeem; Khan, Umber; Owais, Mohammad (17 April 2006). "Fusogenic potential of sperm membrane lipids: Nature's wisdom to accomplish targeted gene delivery". FEBS Letters. 580 (9): 2183–2190. doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2006.03.015. ISSN 1873-3468. PMID 16580670.
  15. Ahmad, N.; Masood, A. K.; Owais, M. (15 November 2001). "Fusogenic potential of prokaryotic membrane lipids". European Journal of Biochemistry. 268 (22): 5667–5675. doi:10.1046/j.0014-2956.2001.02507.x. ISSN 1432-1033. PMID 11722550.
  16. Owais, M.; Gupta, C. M. (1 July 2000). "Liposome-mediated cytosolic delivery of macromolecules and its possible use in vaccine development". European Journal of Biochemistry. 267 (13): 3946–3956. doi:10.1046/j.1432-1327.2000.01447.x. ISSN 1432-1033. PMID 10866793.
  17. Syed, Faisal M.; Khan, Masood A.; Nasti, Tahseen H.; Ahmad, Nadeem; Mohammad, Owais (2 June 2003). "Antigen entrapped in the escheriosomes leads to the generation of CD4+ helper and CD8+ cytotoxic T cell response". Vaccine. 21 (19–20): 2383–2393. doi:10.1016/S0264-410X(03)00106-3. ISSN 0264-410X. PMID 12744869.
  18. Sharma, Sharad Kumar; Dube, Anuradha; Nadeem, Ahmad; Khan, Shazia; Saleem, Iram; Garg, Ravendra; Mohammad, Owais (10 March 2006). "Non PC liposome entrapped promastigote antigens elicit parasite specific CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell immune response and protect hamsters against visceral leishmaniasis". Vaccine. 24 (11): 1800–1810. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2005.10.025. ISSN 0264-410X. PMID 16310900.
  19. Dwivedi, Varun; Vasco, Azevedo; Vedi, Satish; Dangi, Anil; Arif, Khan; Bhattacharya, Shailja Mishra; Owais, Mohammad (14 January 2009). "Adjuvanticity and protective immunity of Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis blood-stage soluble antigens encapsulated in fusogenic liposome". Vaccine. 27 (3): 473–482. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.10.054. ISSN 0264-410X. PMID 18996429.
  20. Atif, S.M.; Salam, N.; Ahmad, N.; Hasan, I.M.; Jamal, H.S.; Sudhanshu, A.; Azevedo, V.; Owais, M. (2008). "Sperm membrane lipid liposomes can evoke an effective immune response against encapsulated antigen in BALB/c mice". Vaccine. 26 (46): 5874–5882. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.08.013. PMID 18789993.
  21. Dwivedi, Varun; Vasco, Azevedo; Vedi, Satish; Dangi, Anil; Arif, Khan; Bhattacharya, Shailja Mishra; Owais, Mohammad (2009). "Adjuvanticity and protective immunity of Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis blood-stage soluble antigens encapsulated in fusogenic liposome". Vaccine. 27 (3): 473–482. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.10.054. PMID 18996429.
  22. Ansari, Mairaj Ahmed; Zubair, Swaleha; Tufail, Saba; Ahmed, Ejaj; Khan, Mohsin Raza; Qadari, Zainuddin; Owais, Mohammad (6 June 2012). "Ether lipid vesicle-based antigens impart protection against experimental listeriosis". International Journal of Nanomedicine. 7: 2433–2447. doi:10.2147/IJN.S25875. PMC 3383290. PMID 22745536.
  23. Mahmood, Anjum; Srivastava, Shubhra; Tripathi, Sarita; Ansari, Mairaj Ahmed; Owais, Mohammad; Arora, Ashish (1 January 2011). "Molecular characterization of secretory proteins Rv3619c and Rv3620c from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv". FEBS Journal. 278 (2): 341–353. doi:10.1111/j.1742-4658.2010.07958.x. ISSN 1742-4658. PMID 21134129.
  24. Ansari, Mairaj Ahmed; Zubair, Swaleha; Mahmood, Anjum; Gupta, Pushpa; Khan, Aijaz A.; Gupta, Umesh D.; Arora, Ashish; Owais, Mohammad (2011). "RD antigen based nanovaccine imparts long term protection by inducing memory response against experimental murine tuberculosis". PLOS One. 6 (8): e22889. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022889. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3154911. PMID 21853054.
  25. Mittal, Mukul K.; Misra, Smita; Owais, Mohammad; Goyal, Neena (2005). "Expression, purification, and characterization of Leishmania donovani trypanothione reductase in Escherichia coli". Protein Expression and Purification. 40 (2): 279–286. doi:10.1016/j.pep.2004.12.012. PMID 15766869.
  26. Mallick, A. I.; Singha, H.; Khan, S.; Anwar, T.; Ansari, M. A.; Khalid, R.; Chaudhuri, P.; Owais, M. (14 November 2007). "Escheriosome-mediated delivery of recombinant ribosomal L7/L12 protein confers protection against murine brucellosis". Vaccine. 25 (46): 7873–7884. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2007.09.008. ISSN 0264-410X. PMID 17931756.
  27. Singha, Harisankar; Mallick, Amirul Islam; Jana, Chandrakanta; Fatima, Nishat; Owais, Mohammad; Chaudhuri, Pallab (24 June 2011). "Co-immunization with interlukin-18 enhances the protective efficacy of liposomes encapsulated recombinant Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase protein against Brucella abortus". Vaccine. 29 (29–30): 4720–4727. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.04.088. ISSN 1873-2518. PMID 21565241.
  28. SINGHA, H; MALLICK, A; JANA, C; ISORE, D; GOSWAMI, T; SRIVASTAVA, S; AZEVEDO, V; CHAUDHURI, P; OWAIS, M (2008). "Escheriosomes entrapped DNA vaccine co-expressing Cu–Zn superoxide dismutase and IL-18 confers protection against Brucella abortus". Microbes and Infection. 10 (10–11): 1089–1096. doi:10.1016/j.micinf.2008.05.007. PMID 18602490.
  29. Ahmad, Ejaj; Fatima, Munazza T.; Saleemuddin, M.; Owais, M. (6 November 2012). "Plasma beads loaded with Candida albicans cytosolic proteins impart protection against the fungal infection in BALB/c mice". Vaccine. 30 (48): 6851–6858. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2012.09.010. ISSN 1873-2518. PMID 23044405.
  30. Khan, Azmat Ali; Jabeen, Mumtaz; Chauhan, Arun; Owais, Mohammad (June 2012). "Vaccine potential of cytosolic proteins loaded fibrin microspheres of Cryptococcus neoformans in BALB/c mice". Journal of Drug Targeting. 20 (5): 453–466. doi:10.3109/1061186X.2012.685474. ISSN 1029-2330. PMID 22553959.
  31. Gupta, C.M.; Owais, M. and Varshney, G.C. A process for the preparation of drug encapsulated target specific immunoliposomes for the treatment of drug resistant diseases. (Indian Patent No: 182550)
  32. Owais, M.; Varshney, G. C.; Choudhury, A.; Chandra, S.; Gupta, C. M. (1 January 1995). "Chloroquine encapsulated in malaria-infected erythrocyte-specific antibody-bearing liposomes effectively controls chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium berghei infections in mice". Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 39 (1): 180–184. doi:10.1128/AAC.39.1.180. ISSN 0066-4804. PMC 162506. PMID 7695303.
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