Wen S Sheng, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine

As a team member of the Neuroimmunopharmacology program, Dr. Sheng has had a long-term interest in the expression of opioid and cannabinoid receptors in glial cells (microglia and astrocytes). Recently, she has expanded the focus of her work to neural precursor cells. She leads investigations into the effects of opioids and synthetic cannabinoids on functional responses of these brain cells that aim to find new therapies of HIV-1 dementia. The effects of opioids and cannabinoids on cytokine/chemokine and free radical production by glial cells, and the signal transduction mechanisms involved in responses to these agents, have been a major theme of her research program.

Selected publications:

Sheng WS, Hu S, Herr G, Ni HT, Rock RB, Gekker G, Lokensgard JR, Peterson PK. Human Neural Precursor Cells Express Functional Kappa Opioid Receptors. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2007 May 30; [Epub ahead of print].

Sheng WS, Hu S, Ni HT, Rowen TN, Lokensgard JR, Peterson PK. TNF-alpha-induced chemokine production and apoptosis in human neural precursor cells. J Leukoc Biol. 2005, 78(6):1233-41.

Sheng WS, Hu S, Min X, Cabral GA, Lokensgard JR, Peterson PK. Synthetic cannabinoid WIN55,212-2 inhibits generation of inflammatory mediators by IL-1 beta-stimulated human astrocytes. Glia. 2005, 49(2):211-9.

Other links

http://www.med.umn.edu/idim/faculty/resfac/sheng.html
http://www.virology.umn.edu/virology/Investigators/sheng.html