Kamaraj Raju
@prist.ac.in
Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology
PRIST Deemed to be University, Thanjavur
Feb - Sep, 2021 - NSS Programme Officer
2015 - 2017 - Junior Research Fellow (JRF)
2018 - 2020 - Senior Research Fellow (SRF)
2011 - 2015 - Research Technician (HLA typing + Tissue
Cross Matching for Kidney Failure Patients)
EDUCATION
B.Sc - Zoology with Biotechnology
M.Sc - Biotechnology
Ph.D - Immunology
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Immunology
Immunogenetics
Human Population Genetics
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
R. Kamaraj, K. Balakrishnan, M. Dhivakar, C. Rathika, C. Albert, P. Justinkumar, and K. Navaneethakannan
Pleiades Publishing Ltd
The present study was aimed to study HLA-DRB1, -DQB1 alleles and haplotypes of two endogamous groups of South India. PCR-SSP typing of HLA-DRB1, -DQB1 alleles were performed on 63 Mukkuvar, primarily a coastal population and 101 Valayar, a population primarily living on the fringes of forest areas. Genetic distances, neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analysis have been performed. The HLA class II alleles, DRB1*07 (32.5%), DRB1*15 (23.0%), DRB1*13 (11.1%) and DRB1*12 (10.3%) were more frequent among Mukkuvar. Among Valayar, DRB1*12 (18.8%), DRB1*15 (17.3%), DRB1*04 (15.4%), DRB1*07 (13.4%) and DRB1*10 (10.9%) were more frequent. Similarly, DQB1*06 (38.1%), DQB1*02 (26.2%) and DQB1*05 (20.5%) alleles among Mukkuvar and DQB1*06 (40.2%) and DQB1*05 (28.9%) among Valayar were more frequent. We genotyped the two most common South Indian two-locus haplotypes, such as DRB1*15-DQB1*06 and DRB1*07-DQB1*02 for HLA-A, -B and -C alleles to identify the 5-locus extended haplotypes. We identified the presence of a highly unique extended haplotype A*03-B*35-C*12-DRB1*07-DQB1*02 in Valayar (HF: 0.2777) and Mukkuvar (HF: 0.1666) hitherto not reported in any of the world populations. The HLA-DRB1 allele based phylogenetic analysis have demonstrated the unique and distinct phylogenetic relatedness of Mukkuvar and Valayar with other ethnic populations. The coastal population Mukkuvar is more closely related to Hispanic and Guanche populations. However, the Valayar revealed phylogenetic relatedness with Austronesian and Micronesian populations supporting the theory of coastal migrations of Out-of-Africa ancestral founding populations.
Aravind Selvin Kumar Ramanathan, Balakrishnan Karuppiah, M. Vijayan, Kamaraj Raju, Dhivakar Mani, Rathika Chinniah, M. Thirunavukkarasu, Padma Malini Ravi, Jeyaram Illiayaraja Krishnan and P. Senguttuvan
Journal of Biomedical Research
Nephrotic syndrome is one of the most common childhood kidney diseases. It is mostly found in the age group of 2 to 8 years. Around 10%–15% of nephrotic syndrome cases are non-responders of steroid treatment (SRNS). Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) (I/D) gene association studies are important for detecting kidney disease and herein we assessed the association of ACE (I/D) polymorphism with nephrotic syndrome in South Indian children. We recruited 260 nephrotic syndrome (162 boys and 98 girls) and 218 (140 boys and 78 girls) control subjects. ACE I/D polymorphism was analyzed by PCR using genotype allele specific primers. In ACE (I/D), we did not find significant association for the ungrouped data of nephrotic syndrome children and the control subjects. Kidney biopsies were done in 86 nephrotic syndrome cases (minimal change disease, n=51; focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, n=27; diffuse mesangial proliferation, n=8). We segregated them into the minimal change disease / focal segmental glomerulosclerosis groups and observed that the ACE ‘D’ allele was identified with borderline significance in cases of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and the ‘I’ allele was assessed as having very weak association in cases of minimal change disease. ‘II’ genotype was weakly associated with minimal change disease. Gender specific analysis revealed weak association of ‘ID’ genotype with female nephrotic syndrome in females. Dominant expression of DD genotype was observed in males with nephrotic syndrome. Our finding indicated that ACE (I/D) has moderate association with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. However, due to the limited number of biopsy proven focal segmental glomerulosclerosis subjects enrolled, further studies are required to confirm these results.
Balakrishnan Karuppiah, Dhivakar Mani, Rathika Chinniah, Padmamalini Ravi, Krishnan Swaminathan, RA Janarthanan, Murali Vijayan, and Kamaraj Raju
Medknow
Background: Worldwide, South Asians contribute to a high proportion of coronary artery disease (CAD) burden, mainly attributed to a high prevalence of diabetes. Early identification of such high-risk individuals would enable aggressive disease modification and prevention of complications. Definition of susceptible genotypes early in the course of disease may be one such avenue for reduction in morbidity and mortality from CAD. Aim: Our study was aimed to investigate the insertion/deletion polymorphism of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE I/D) gene and susceptibility to CAD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in a South Indian population. Subjects and Methods: ACE (I/D) genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction specific primer for 187 CAD patients and 185 age- and sex-matched controls. Results: We observed that the ACE“II” genotype was found to be significantly associated with CAD patients (odds ratio [OR] = 1.689; P = 0.028). However, multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that ACE “DD” genotype was found to be most predominant risk factor for CAD patients with T2DM (OR = 6.118; P = 0.001). Conclusion: Our results showed that ACE (I/D) genotypes and alleles presented functional dimorphism in the development of CAD and CAD with T2DM patients in South India. This finding may be extremely useful in identifying subsets of patients where early aggressive treatment of risk factors is warranted.
Ganesan Govindarajan, Raju Kamaraj, Karuppiah Balakrishnan, Velayudhan Satheeja Santhi, and Solomon Robinson David Jebakumar
Elsevier BV
Ganesan Velmurugan, Tharmarajan Ramprasath, Krishnan Swaminathan, Gilles Mithieux, Jeyaprakash Rajendhran, Mani Dhivakar, Ayothi Parthasarathy, D.D. Venkatesh Babu, Leishman John Thumburaj, Allen J. Freddy,et al.
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
BackgroundOrganophosphates are the most frequently and largely applied insecticide in the world due to their biodegradable nature. Gut microbes were shown to degrade organophosphates and cause intestinal dysfunction. The diabetogenic nature of organophosphates was recently reported but the underlying molecular mechanism is unclear. We aimed to understand the role of gut microbiota in organophosphate-induced hyperglycemia and to unravel the molecular mechanism behind this process.ResultsHere we demonstrate a high prevalence of diabetes among people directly exposed to organophosphates in rural India (n = 3080). Correlation and linear regression analysis reveal a strong association between plasma organophosphate residues and HbA1c but no association with acetylcholine esterase was noticed. Chronic treatment of mice with organophosphate for 180 days confirms the induction of glucose intolerance with no significant change in acetylcholine esterase. Further fecal transplantation and culture transplantation experiments confirm the involvement of gut microbiota in organophosphate-induced glucose intolerance. Intestinal metatranscriptomic and host metabolomic analyses reveal that gut microbial organophosphate degradation produces short chain fatty acids like acetic acid, which induces gluconeogenesis and thereby accounts for glucose intolerance. Plasma organophosphate residues are positively correlated with fecal esterase activity and acetate level of human diabetes.ConclusionCollectively, our results implicate gluconeogenesis as the key mechanism behind organophosphate-induced hyperglycemia, mediated by the organophosphate-degrading potential of gut microbiota. This study reveals the gut microbiome-mediated diabetogenic nature of organophosphates and hence that the usage of these insecticides should be reconsidered.
Aravind Selvin Kumar Ramanathan, Prabha Senguttuvan, Rathika Chinniah, Murali Vijayan, Manikandan Thirunavukkarasu, Kamaraj Raju, Dhivakar Mani, Padma Malini Ravi, Padmaraj Rajendran, Jeyaram Illiayaraja Krishnan,et al.
Wiley
Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is a debilitating renal problem in children resulting from an interaction between environmental and genetic factors including human leukocyte antigen genes (HLA). The aim of this work was to study the probable link between HLA alleles/haplotypes and NS in south India.
Rathika Chinniah, Murali Vijayan, Manikandan Thirunavukkarasu, Dhivakar Mani, Kamaraj Raju, Padma Malini Ravi, Ramgopal Sivanadham, Kandeepan Chithan, Mahalakshmi Nithyanandam, and Balakrishnan Karuppiah
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157468.].
Rathika Chinniah, Murali Vijayan, Manikandan Thirunavukkarasu, Dhivakar Mani, Kamaraj Raju, Padma Malini Ravi, Ramgopal Sivanadham, Kandeepan C, Mahalakshmi N, and Balakrishnan Karuppiah
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Seven human-specific Alu markers were studied in 574 unrelated individuals from 10 endogamous groups and 2 hill tribes of Tamil Nadu and Kerala states. DNA was isolated, amplified by PCR-SSP, and subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis, and genotypes were assigned for various Alu loci. Average heterozygosity among caste populations was in the range of 0.292–0.468. Among tribes, the average heterozygosity was higher for Paliyan (0.3759) than for Kani (0.2915). Frequency differences were prominent in all loci studied except Alu CD4. For Alu CD4, the frequency was 0.0363 in Yadavas, a traditional pastoral and herd maintaining population, and 0.2439 in Narikuravars, a nomadic gypsy population. The overall genetic difference (Gst) of 12 populations (castes and tribes) studied was 3.6%, which corresponds to the Gst values of 3.6% recorded earlier for Western Asian populations. Thus, our study confirms the genetic similarities between West Asian populations and South Indian castes and tribes and supported the large scale coastal migrations from Africa into India through West Asia. However, the average genetic difference (Gst) of Kani and Paliyan tribes with other South Indian tribes studied earlier was 8.3%. The average Gst of combined South and North Indian Tribes (CSNIT) was 9.5%. Neighbor joining tree constructed showed close proximity of Kani and Paliyan tribal groups to the other two South Indian tribes, Toda and Irula of Nilgiri hills studied earlier. Further, the analysis revealed the affinities among populations and confirmed the presence of North and South India specific lineages. Our findings have documented the highly diverse (micro differentiated) nature of South Indian tribes, predominantly due to isolation, than the endogamous population groups of South India. Thus, our study firmly established the genetic relationship of South Indian castes and tribes and supported the proposed large scale ancestral migrations from Africa, particularly into South India through West Asian corridor.
K. Balakrishnan, C. Rathika, R. Kamaraj, R. Subashini, M.P. Saravanan, K.V. Asha, M. Kananan, R. VinothKumar, T. Manikandan, M. Dhivakar,et al.
Kamla Raj Enterprises
Abstract In the present study 520 individuals comprising eleven different populations (castes and tribes) from the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, South India were genotyped for HLA-DRB1* allele profile by PCR-SSP method. HLA DRB1*15 (subtype of DR2) was the allele consistently showing higher frequency in all populations studied. HLA DRB1*15 revealed a highest frequency in Kani tribe (45.19%) and the lowest frequency in Narikkuravars (Gypsies) (1.02%). The other predominant alleles based on their order of frequencies observed in each population were DRB1*10, 07 and 15 among Iyers; DRB1*07, 04, 15 and 08 among Kallars; DRB1*03 and 10 among Vanniyars and Vettuva Gounders; DRB1* 07 and 10 among Sourashtrans; DRB1*07 and 04 among Pallars; DRB1*04, 03, 07 and 11 among Narikkuravars; DRB1*03 among Paliyar and Kani tribes; DRB1*13, 10, 04, 14 among Nairs; DRB1*10, 01, 13 and 11 among Namboothiris of Kerala. Alleles such as DRB1*01, 08, 09, 11, 12, 14 and 16 were either present in low frequencies or completely absent in many of the south Indian populations studied. Predominantly Caucasian allele DRB1*01 was present in higher frequencies in Namboothiris (12.85%) and Narikkuravars (8.53%) only. Allele DRB1*01 frequency in all other populations is significantly low. However, alleles DRB1*07 was present in many populations with higher frequencies (highest in Kallars with 23.58%). This could have been due to the higher prevalence of HIV/TB infectious and the presence of ancestral haplotype 57.1 in Indian populations. Implications of this differential distribution of these HLA-DRB1*alleles in different castes and tribes of South India are discussed in the context of high prevalence of infectious diseases such as AIDS and TB.
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
GRANT DETAILS
🔵 (2015-2020) - UGC - BSR - Meritorious Fellow
CONSULTANCY
HLA typing / Tissue Cross Matching Services from various hospitals of Tamilnadu (during 2011-2015)
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, or ACADEMIC BENEFITS
🔴 (2017-2018) - Tamilnadu State Co-ordinator and Thanjavur District President of Citizen First Human Rights Association.