Scientific topics
Keywords
Jean-François Ghersi-Egea PharmD, PhD Pharmacological and biological sciences
Course and current status
Pioneer in the original discovery of the blood-CSF barrier as a detoxifying site for the brain, Dr Jean-François Ghersi-Egea is an INSERM Senior Scientist who graduated from pharmaceutical school and obtained his PhD in Pharmacological Sciences in France. After studying the dynamic of cerebrospinal fluid flow and choroidal transport and metabolism for several years at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, USA and at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, France, Dr Ghersi-Egea is currently leading the blood-brain interface research group at the Neuroscience Research Center in Lyon, France.
Scientific summary
Blood-brain interfaces in the pharmacology and physiopathology of CNS diseases. The brain is protected by different cellular interfaces that regulate the cellular and molecular exchanges between the blood and the cerebral parenchyma or the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The current fields of research and main achievements of Dr Ghersi-Egea are about the characterization of drug transport and neuroprotection mechanisms at the developing and adult blood-brain and blood-CSF barriers, and the implication of the choroid plexus-cerebrospinal fluid system in neuroinflammation.
Ten selected publications:
Strazielle N., Ghersi-Egea J.F. Demonstration of a coupled metabolism-efflux process at the choroid plexus as a mechanism of brain protection toward xenobiotics. J Neurosci, 1999, 19:6275-6289.
Strazielle N., Belin M.F., Ghersi-Egea J.F. Choroid plexus controls brain availability of anti-HIV nucleoside analogs via pharmacologically inhibitable organic anion transporters. AIDS, 2003, 17:1473-1485, and patent N°00 0800421, 07/00.
Strazielle N., Khuth S.T., Ghersi-Egea J.F. Detoxification systems, passive and specific transport for drugs at the blood-CSF barrier in normal and pathological condition. Adv Drug Deliv Rev, 2004, 56:1717-1740.
Khuth S.T., Strazielle N., Giraudon P., Belin M.F., Ghersi-Egea J.F. Impairment of blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier properties by retrovirus-activated T lymphocytes: reduction in cerebrospinal fluid-to-blood efflux of prostaglandin E2. J Neurochem, 2005 94:1580-1593.
Ghersi-Egea J.F., Strazielle N., Murat A., Jouvet A., Buénerd A., Belin M.F. Brain protection at the blood-cerebrospinal fluid interface involves a glutathione-dependent metabolic barrier mechanism. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab, 2006, 26:1165-75.
Nataf S., Strazielle N., Hatterer E., Mouchiroud G., Belin, M.F. Ghersi-Egea J.F. Rat choroid plexuses contain myeloid progenitors capable of differentiation toward macrophage or dendritic cell phenotypes. Glia. 2006, 54:160-71.
Gazzin S, Strazielle N, Schmitt C, Fevre-Montange M, Ostrow JD, Tiribelli C, Ghersi-Egea JF. Differential expression of the multidrug resistance-related proteins ABCb1 and ABCc1 between blood-brain interfaces. J Comp Neurol. 2008; 510:497-507.
Ghersi-Egea JF, Gazzin S, Strazielle N. Blood-brain interfaces and bilirubin-induced neurological diseases. Cur Pharm Des, 2009, 15: 2893-907.
Ginguené C, Champier J, Maallem S, Strazielle S,, Jouvet A, Fèvre-Montange, M, Ghersi-Egea, JF. P-glycoprotein (ABCB1) and breast cancer resistance protein (ABCG2) localize in the microvessels forming the blood-tumor barrier in ependymomas. Brain Pathol, 2010, 5:926-35.
Schmitt C, Strazielle N, Richaud P, Bouron A, Ghersi-Egea JF. Active transport at the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier contributes to manganese influx into the brain. J Neurochem, 2011117:747-56.
