Anna Allue Guardia, PhD

About

Biography

I am an associate research professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. I’m also a member of the Integrated Research Center for Infectious Diseases (IRCID) and the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI). My research centers on understanding how the composition of the lung mucosa and early host–pathogen interactions play a critical role in determining Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection outcomes. My ultimate goal is to identify bacterial and host determinants that can serve as novel targets for tuberculosis (TB) treatment and diagnostics.

My current work focuses on understanding host–pathogen interactions occurring during the initial stages of M.tb infection. Specifically, I study how M.tb adapts to the lung mucosa (alveolar lining fluid, or ALF), the first lung microenvironment encountered by M.tb in the alveoli upon infection. Our studies show that the M.tb cell envelope adapts to the lung environment in as little as 15 minutes after exposure to ALF, and that the host ALF status (e.g., oxidative stress and inflammation levels), determined by different factors such as age or HIV status, plays an important role in determining infection outcome.

Indeed, we have been able to distinguish two types of ALFs in vitro and in vivo: one group that accelerates M.tb’s growth rate, defined as High-ALF or H-ALF, and a second group that allows the host to control better the infection, defined as Low-ALF or L-ALF. By characterizing these two ALF types and their interactions with M.tb, we aim to uncover bacterial and host determinants critical for clearance, control or establishment of the infection. On the bacterial side, we have observed that different strains of M.tb present different transcriptomic profiles when exposed to human ALF, indicating a strain-specific adaptation and suggesting that M.tb–host interactions depend on both the strain’s genotype and the host lung environment.

Other projects include the use of the Collaborative Cross (CC) mouse model to define key drivers of host susceptibility to M.tb, the development of an index based on ALF measurements to determine a person's susceptibility to developing respiratory diseases, and the use of noninvasive methods such as exhaled breath condensate (EBC) for lung diagnostics.

I have coauthored more than 30 articles published in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Communications, Emerging Microbes & Infections, Frontiers in Immunology, Microbiology Spectrum and Scientific Reports, among others, and have participated in more than 50 national and international conferences and seminars.

Credentials

Research