Kandy Velazquez
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Physiology
Many people with advanced cancer lose weight and muscle that they cannot regain by eating more. This wasting syndrome, called cancer cachexia, weakens muscles and lowers quality of life.
- Fields
Physiology
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
cancer cachexia
muscle wasting
skeletal muscle
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Determine how TGFβ2, a signaling protein, starts fibrosis (scar-like tissue buildup) and activates M2 macrophages in the skeletal muscle of cancer cachectic mice.
- Test the hypothesis that M2 macrophages, repair-associated immune cells, are the key transition point driving progression from cachexia to severe cancer cachexia in mice.
- Deplete platelets in mice at pre-cachectic stages to test whether these blood cell fragments drive inflammation, immune cell recruitment and muscle wasting.
- Examine how activated platelets affect muscle wasting in mouse models of both cancer-induced and chemotherapy-induced cachexia.
More about the research
It also makes patients less able to tolerate treatment and raises their risk of death, yet its causes remain unclear. This work asks which parts of the body's immune and blood systems drive muscle wasting in cancer, studied in mice with cachexia. Two projects examine different players: macrophages, immune cells that clean up and remodel tissue, and platelets, small blood cell fragments involved in clotting and inflammation.
Why it matters
Cachexia contributes to many deaths among people with cancer, and no reliable way exists to stop the muscle loss. By identifying immune and blood-cell drivers of wasting, such as TGFβ2, M2 macrophages and platelets, this work could point to new targets for treatments that preserve muscle mass and function. Platelet measures could also serve as prognostic markers to flag patients at risk before severe wasting sets in.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Bumsoo Ahn
Wake Forest University, NC·Physiology·Early-career
Test whether unacylated ghrelin (UnAG) combined with endurance exercise boosts mitochondrial energy production and lowers oxidative stress in skeletal muscle of older mice, compared with either treatment alone.
Sham Kakar
University of Louisville, KY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine the safety, tolerability and maximum tolerated dose of withaferin A, given as oral ashwagandha capsules at 2, 4 and 8 g twice daily, combined with standard liposomal doxorubicin (DOXIL) in 18 patients with platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer.
Sruti Shiva
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Physiology
Determine how increased mitofusin-1 (MFN1) in platelet mitochondria activates the NLRP3 inflammasome, an inflammation switch, using PAH patient platelets, platelet-specific knockout mice and lipidomics.
The school
University of South Carolina-Columbia: 22 labs on PI Pages, $277M a year on research, 425 research doctorates a year.
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