UWM Health Sciences Professor Awarded Shaw Grant

MILWAUKEE — An assistant professor of health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has won the Shaw Scientist Award for his research on artherosclerosis, the buildup of fat deposits on the artery walls that causes coronary artery disease.

Anthony Azenabor is one of three people chosen for the $200,000 grant given by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to advance the fields of biochemistry, biological science and cancer research at both UWM and UW-Madison. The other two are assistant professors at UW-Madison.

The award recognizes Azenabor's research into a biochemical link between an infectious bacterium called Chlamydia pneumoniae and the condition often called "hardening of the arteries."

"It's true that developing atherosclerosis does have to do mostly with habits, diet and lifestyles," Azenabor acknowledges. "But there has been evidence of an association between artery blockage and the presence of antibodies to Chlamydia pneumoniae in the blood of patients."

Understanding the nature of that association could lead to preventive measures and therapies that would benefit more than 12 million people in the U.S. and several million worldwide who have some form of coronary artery disease.

There are many different species of Chlamydia, says Azenabor, who joined the UWM faculty in 2001. Chlamydia pneumoniae, first isolated in 1965, is relatively new and causes pneumonia in humans. In addition to finding antibodies for the microorganism in the blood of atherosclerosis patients, scientists have isolated the bacteria at the site of artery blockage and have successfully produced animal models of Chlamydia pneumoniae-induced atherosclerosis. Use of antibiotics has improved the patients' condition, but not cured them.

Azenabor knows why. He is able to show that Chlamydia changes the behavior of the affected artery's immune cells (macrophages). The changes compromise early immune responses to the organism, allowing the bacterial infection to become chronic. He holds a patent on the process of altering the chronic course of the organism.

With the Shaw grant, he will take the research a step further, exploring how the bacteria modify the white blood cells' and macrophages' functions. He hopes to replicate his findings in susceptible laboratory animals. Ultimately he wants to find out whether eliminating the Chlamydia can reverse atherosclerosis.

The Shaw Scientist Award is highly sought after by young researchers because there are no restrictions on the use of the funds. Established 21 years ago with a bequest from the will of Dorothy Shaw, wife of a prominent Milwaukee attorney, the awards have provided more than $8 million to 46 scientists at UWM and UW-Madison.

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