Vikrant Bhor

Scientist E

Email: bhorv@nirrch.res.in
Phone: +(91-22) 2419-2016
Department: Molecular Immunology and Microbiology

Research Interests

Host-Pathogen Interactions
Microbial Biofilms
Microbiome-Immune Axis
Congenital Infections
RTIs, STIs and HIV

Academic Background

Degree	Academic institute	Year
B. Sc (Microbiology)	University of Mumbai	1996
M. Sc. (Life Science)	University of Mumbai	1998
Ph.D (Life Science)	University of Mumbai	2003

Professional Experience

Post held	Institute/Organization	From	To
Scientist ‘E’	ICMR-NIRRCH	September 2020	Till Date
Scientist ‘D’	ICMR-NIRRCH	September 2015	August 2020
Scientist ‘C’	ICMR-NIRRCH	May 2011	August 2015
Senior Research Scientist	Piramal Life Sciences Limited, Mumbai	February 2008	May 2011
Post-Doctoral Fellow	Curie Institute, Paris, France	October 2006	October 2007
Research Associate	Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc Bangalore	January 2003	September 2006

Awards & Achievements

Publications

Projects

Research Staff

Publications

Mapping the vaginal microbiota variations in women from a community clinic in Mumbai,India.

2023

Tandon D, Shah Nainisha, Goriwale M, Karandikar K, Begum S,Patil AD, Munne K,Kamat S, Aranha C, Bhor VM.

IJMM 2023;45:10393

A Novel Gut Microbiome-Immune Axis influencing pathology in HCMV Infected Infants with Neonatal Cholestasis.

2023

Karandikar K, Bhonde G, Palav H, Padwal V, Velhal S, Pereira J, Meshram H, Goel A, Shah I, Patel V, Bhor VM.

Microbes and Infection

Membrane vesicles of Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC 19992 disrupt biofilms of vaginal pathogens.

2023

Khan S, Shishpal P, Bhor VM.

Anaerobe

The dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated and vaccinated populations in Mumbai, India, between 28 December 2020 and 30 August 2021.

2023

Bhanothu V, Munne K, Pande S, Singh P, Jagtap D, Aranha C, Gogoi D, Bhagat S, Gaonkar R, Kerkar S, Shah K, Mukherjee N, Bhor V, Patel V, Mahale SD, Sachdeva G, Begum S.

Arch Virol (ISSN No. 0304-8608), 2023; 168: 188-201.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 positivity in neonates born to coronavirus disease 2019positive mothers: A retrospective data analysis.

2023

Pande S, Patel V, Munne K, ICMR NIRRCH COVID-19 Working Group - Dr. Bhor VM, Bhanothu V, et al.)

Indian J Public Health (ISSN No: 2229-7693), 2023; 67: 333-34

Cytomegalovirus reactivation in a SARS-CoV-2 infected woman experiencing fetal demise in the first trimester with fetal trisomy 21: A case report.

2023

Pande S, Gandhewar M, Gaikwad P, Shende P, Munne K, Bhor VM, Das D, Bashani D, Bhase M, Rathore A, Shah K, Gawde H, Padwal V, Bhagat S, Menon S, Palav H, Sachdeva G, Patel V.

Indian J Med Microbiol 41: 1-4, 2023

Integrated immune monitoring of HCMV infection in pregnant women with complications and its association with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

2023

Palav HC, Bhonde G, Padwal V, Velhal S, Pereira J, Singh AK, Ghosh S, Karandikar K, Satoskar P, Bhor V, Patel V

Microb Pathog 179: 106109, 2023

Synthesis and biological evaluation of benzamide-chalcone hybrids as potential c-Met kinase and COX-2 inhibitors.

2023

Bhojwani H, Begwani K, Bhor V, Bedi P, Balasinor N, Raut S, Joshi U.

Arch Pharm (Weinheim) 8: e2200405, 2023

Elevated risk of COVID-19 infection among people living with HIV in Mumbai – A retrospective study.

2022

Jawade K, Singh P, Begum S, Bhagat S, Gaonkar R, Kerkar S, Aranha C, Bhanothu V, Gogoi D, Shah K, Mukherjee N, Munne K, Pande S, Sachdeva G, Mahale SD, Bhor VM, Jagtap D, Patel V

Re:GEN Open 2(1): 72-74, 2022

Opposing roles for sMAdCAM and IL-15 in COVID-19 associated cellular immune pathology

2022

Singh AK, Kasarpalkar N, Bhowmick S, Paradkar G, Talreja M, Shah K, Tiwari A, Palav H, Kaginkar S, Kulkarni R, Patil A, Kalsurkar V, Agrawal S, Shastri J, Dere R, Bharmal R, Mahale SD, Bhor VM, Patel V. Opposing roles for sMAdCAM and IL-15 in COVID-19 associated cellular immune pathology.

J Leukoc Biol 111(6): 1287-1295, 2022

A literature review on correlation between HPV coinfection with C. trachomatis in cervical neoplasia – coinfection mediated cellular transformation.

2022

Kumari S, Bhor VM

Microb Pathog 168: 105587, 2022

Evaluation of cytokine profile in cervicovaginal lavage specimens of women having asymptomatic reproductive tract infections.

2022

Aranha C, Goriwale M, Begum S, Gawade S, Bhor V, Patil AD, Munne K, Bansal V, Tandon D.

J Obstet Gynaecol 42(7): 3106-3111, 2022

Elevated Risk of COVID-19 Infection among People Living with HIV in Mumbai – A Retrospective Study. Re:GEN Open 2022

2022

Ketki Jawade, Priyanka Singh, Shahina Begum, Sharad Bhagat, Reshma Gaonkar, Shilpa Kerkar, Clara Aranha, Venkanna Bhanothu, Dimpu Gogoi, Karan Shah, Nupur Mukherjee, Kiran Munne, Shailesh Pande, Geetanjali Sachdeva, Smita D Mahale, Vikrant M Bhor, Dhanashree Jagtap, Vainav Patel

Re:GEN Open Volume 2, Number 1, 2022 DOI: 10.1089/regen.2022.0017

An Approach to Resolve Uncertainty in COVID-19 Diagnosis due to Inconclusive Results from RT-PCR Test.

2022

Pande S, Bhanothu V, Mayekar A, Birje S, Bhagat S, Bhowmick S, Kerkar S, Gaonkar R, Aranha CC, Patel V, Bhor V.

The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India. 2022 Jun;70(6):11-2.

Cycle threshold values in RT‐PCR to determine dynamics of SARS‐ CoV‐2 viral load: An approach to reduce the isolation period for COVID‐19 patients.

2021

Aranha C, Patel V, Bhor V, Gogoi D.

Journal of Medical Virology

sMAdCAM: IL-6 Ratio Influences Disease Progression and Anti-Viral Responses in SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

2021

Jagtap D, Bhor VM, Bhowmick S, Kasarpalkar N, Sagvekar P, Kulkarni B, Pathak M, Chatterjee N, Dolas P, Palav H, Kaginkar S, Bhagat S, Munshi I, Parikh S, Agrawal S, Pawar C, Kaneria M, Mahale SD, Shastri J, Patel V.

Front Immunol. 2021 Jun 14;12:619906.

A novel ORF1a-based SARS-CoV-2 RT- PCR assay to resolve inconclusive samples.

2021

Jawade K, Sinha AY, Bhagat S, Bhowmick S, Chauhan B, Kaginkar S, Palav H, Kasarpalkar N, Devadiga P, Karandikar K, Agrawal S, Shastri J, Munne K, Bhor VM, Mahale SD, Bhowmik S, Jagtap D, Patel V.

Int J Infect Dis. 2021 May;106:395-400.

Fungal Co-infections in Pregnant Women with COVID-19: A Potential Challenge?

2021

Krishna Chaaithanya Itta and Vikrant M Bhor

Journal of the Association of Physicians of India

pH Stress Mediated Alteration in Protein Composition and Reduction in Cytotoxic Potential of Gardnerella vaginalis Membrane Vesicles.

2021

Shishpal P, Patel V, Singh D, Bhor VM.

Front Microbiol. 2021 Nov 2;12:723909. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.723909. eCollection 2021.PMID: 34795647

Impact of COVID-19 in implementing community research on latent tuberculosis among pediatric population: Challenges and way forward.

2021

Surve SV, Naukariya KR, Begum S, Shah I, Bhor VM, Munne KR, Jaiswal AA, Tipre PM, Sutar N, Dalvi RR, Tryambake VH, Kamat SS, Shikhare MK, Kamble RS, Chauhan SL.

Indian J Community Med [serial online] 2021 [cited 022 Jan 14];46:759-61. Available from: https://www.ijcm.org.in/text.asp?2021/46/4/759/331966

Discordance between TST and QFT-TBGold Plus for Latent Tuberculosis Screening among Under-Five Children: An Interim Analysis.

2021

Surve S, Bhor V, Naukariya K, Begum S, Munne K, Tipre P, Sutar N, Jaiswal A, Bhonde G, Chauhan S, Shah I.

J Trop Pediatr. 2021 Dec 8;67(6):fmab103. doi: 10.1093/tropej/fmab103. PMID: 34904674.

A novel ORF-1a based SARS- CoV- 2 RT-PCR assay to resolve inconclusive samples.

2021

Ketki Jawade, Akhauri Yash Sinha, Kiran Munne, Vikrant M Bhor, Smita D Mahale, Subhanjan Bhowmik, Dhanashree Jagtap, Vainav Patel.

International Journal of Infectious Diseases

Frequency of effector memory cells expressing integrin α4β7 is associated with TGF-β1 levels in therapy naïve HIV infected women with low CD4+ T cell count.

2021

Kasarpalkar N, Bhowmick S, Patel V, Savardekar L, Agrawal S, Shastri J and Bhor VM

Frontiers in Immunology

Association of cervicovaginal dysbiosis mediated HPV infection with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

2021

Kumari S and Bhor V M

Microbial Pathogenesis

Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the first trimester placenta leading to vertical transmission and fetal demise from an asymptomatic mother

2020

Shende P, Gaikwad P, Gandhewar M, Ukey P, Bhide A, Patel V, Bhagat S, Bhor V, Mahale S, Gajbhiye R, Modi DN

Human Reproduction

Hepatic interferon γ and tumor necrosis factor α expression in infants with neonatal cholestasis and cytomegalovirus infection.

2020

Meshram H, Velhal S, Padwal V, Sutar J, Kadam R, Pereira J, Bhonde G, Karandikar K, Bhor V, Patel V, Shetty NS, Shah I.

Clin Exp Hepatol 6(4): 367-373, 2020.

The role of integrin α4β7 signaling in human immunodeficiency virus-1 pathogenesis and viral entry in primary CD4 + T cells as revealed by comparative phosphoproteomic signatures.

2020

Kasarpalkar N, Deb B, Kumar P, Bhor VM.

OMICS 24(7): 437-450, 2020.

Characterization of Gardnerella vaginalis membrane vesicles reveals a role in inducing cytotoxicity in vaginal epithelial cells.

2019

Shishpal P, Kasarpalkar N, Singh D, Bhor VM.

Anaerobe, (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.anaerobe

Detection of Cytomegalovirus in Liver Tissue by Polymerase Chain Reaction in Infants With Neonatal Cholestasis

2018

Goel A, Chaudhari A, Sutar J, Bhonde G, Bhatnagar S, Patel V, Bhor V and Shah I.

Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal

Name	Designation
Ms. Kalyani Karandikar	PhD student (SRF-Lady Tata Memorial Trust)
Mr. Pratik Devadiga	PhD student (SRF-Lady Tata Memorial Trust)
Ms. Jytoti Batgire	PhD student (SRF-ICMR)
Mr. Rohan Pawar	PhD student
Ms. Sindoora Balan	Research Assistant (Project)
Ms. Hajra Ansari	Technician-III (Project)

Name	Designation	From	To
Ms. Aparna Dongre	JRF (Project)	2012	2013
Mr. Paras Kundalia	JRF(Project)	2014	2015
Mr. Abhishek Kulkarni	JRF(Project)	2015	2015
Mr. Bharat Kharat	JRF(Project)	2013	2014
Dr. Rajiv Kulkarni	Scientist-B (Project)	2020	2021
Dr. Karan Shah	Scientist-B (Project)	2021	2021
Mr. Mayur Talreja	Research Assistant (Project)	2020	2021
Mr. Omkar Arekar	Data entry operator (Project)	2020	2021
Ms. Varsha Kalsurkar	Technician-III (Project)	2020	2021
Ms. Ashwini Patil	Technician-III (Project)	2020	2021
Ms. Nandini Kasarpalkar	PhD student (SRF-UGC)
Mr. Parul Shishpal	PhD student (SRF-UGC)

Name of Award	Awarding agency	Year
Rapid Grant for Young Investigators	DBT	2013
Post-doctoral Fellowship	Curie Institute	2006

Scientist E

Research Interests

Academic Background

Professional Experience

Present

Past

Awards & Achievements

Publications

Mapping the vaginal microbiota variations in women from a community clinic in Mumbai,India.

A Novel Gut Microbiome-Immune Axis influencing pathology in HCMV Infected Infants with Neonatal Cholestasis.

Membrane vesicles of Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC 19992 disrupt biofilms of vaginal pathogens.

The dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated and vaccinated populations in Mumbai, India, between 28 December 2020 and 30 August 2021.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 positivity in neonates born to coronavirus disease 2019positive mothers: A retrospective data analysis.

Cytomegalovirus reactivation in a SARS-CoV-2 infected woman experiencing fetal demise in the first trimester with fetal trisomy 21: A case report.

Integrated immune monitoring of HCMV infection in pregnant women with complications and its association with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of benzamide-chalcone hybrids as potential c-Met kinase and COX-2 inhibitors.

Elevated risk of COVID-19 infection among people living with HIV in Mumbai – A retrospective study.

Opposing roles for sMAdCAM and IL-15 in COVID-19 associated cellular immune pathology

A literature review on correlation between HPV coinfection with C. trachomatis in cervical neoplasia – coinfection mediated cellular transformation.

Evaluation of cytokine profile in cervicovaginal lavage specimens of women having asymptomatic reproductive tract infections.

Elevated Risk of COVID-19 Infection among People Living with HIV in Mumbai – A Retrospective Study. Re:GEN Open 2022

An Approach to Resolve Uncertainty in COVID-19 Diagnosis due to Inconclusive Results from RT-PCR Test.

Cycle threshold values in RT‐PCR to determine dynamics of SARS‐ CoV‐2 viral load: An approach to reduce the isolation period for COVID‐19 patients.

sMAdCAM: IL-6 Ratio Influences Disease Progression and Anti-Viral Responses in SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

A novel ORF1a-based SARS-CoV-2 RT- PCR assay to resolve inconclusive samples.

Fungal Co-infections in Pregnant Women with COVID-19: A Potential Challenge?

pH Stress Mediated Alteration in Protein Composition and Reduction in Cytotoxic Potential of Gardnerella vaginalis Membrane Vesicles.

Impact of COVID-19 in implementing community research on latent tuberculosis among pediatric population: Challenges and way forward.

Discordance between TST and QFT-TBGold Plus for Latent Tuberculosis Screening among Under-Five Children: An Interim Analysis.

A novel ORF-1a based SARS- CoV- 2 RT-PCR assay to resolve inconclusive samples.

Frequency of effector memory cells expressing integrin α4β7 is associated with TGF-β1 levels in therapy naïve HIV infected women with low CD4+ T cell count.

Association of cervicovaginal dysbiosis mediated HPV infection with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the first trimester placenta leading to vertical transmission and fetal demise from an asymptomatic mother

Hepatic interferon γ and tumor necrosis factor α expression in infants with neonatal cholestasis and cytomegalovirus infection.

The role of integrin α4β7 signaling in human immunodeficiency virus-1 pathogenesis and viral entry in primary CD4 + T cells as revealed by comparative phosphoproteomic signatures.

Characterization of Gardnerella vaginalis membrane vesicles reveals a role in inducing cytotoxicity in vaginal epithelial cells.

Detection of Cytomegalovirus in Liver Tissue by Polymerase Chain Reaction in Infants With Neonatal Cholestasis

Projects Ongoing

Projects Completed

Project title	Funding agency	From	To
Longitudinal cohort study of lactating women to assess the impact of SARS-CoV- 2 exposure and vaccination on systemic and vertically transferred SARS-CoV-2 specific immunity in the mother-infant dyad.	ICMR	2023	2025
Intranasal Mucosal Vaccine for COVID-19	DBT	2020	2023