Ao. Prof. Dr. Johannes Breuss

work address:

Department of Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research
Center of Physiology and Pharmacology
Schwarzspanierstrasse 17, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Phone: +43 (0)1 40160 - 31115

E-Mail: johannes.breuss@meduniwien.ac.at

Homepage: www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/zpp

Know-how and research interests

The group of Johannes Breuss is interested in the phenomenon of cellular senescence and in identifying substances with senolytic properties enabling the selective elimination of senescent cells.

Cellular senescence describes the state of cells where they have suffered the loss of their ability to divide and moreover, release a flurry of pro-inflammatory factors. This altered state of cells can be induced by various forms of stress such as oxidative stress, high glucose levels, ionizing irradiation, and in general overwhelming DNA damage.

Senescent endothelial cells hamper the function of the endothelial layer by their pro-inflammatory secretions, constituting foci of chronic inflammation in the vasculature, and contribute to vascular disease. Thus, interventions aiming to eliminate senescent cells became a focus of studies to extend health span during aging.

In tight cooperation with Prof. Uhrin and his group, pro-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory plant-derived substances, but also already available drugs, are analyzed for their senolytic properties - the ability to selectively eliminate senescent cells while sparing healthy proliferation competent cells.  

Techniques and infrastructure of the research group

Cell culture of primary human and murine endothelial cells and tumor cell lines, immunohisto- and cytochemistry, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, video-based cell migration and invasion, peptide based assays, Western blotting, ELISA, pathway analysis, real time PCR, in situ hybridization.

5 selected publications:

Khan SY, Awad EM, Oszwald A, Mayr M, Yin X, Waltenberger B, Stuppner H, Lipovac M, Uhrin P, Breuss JM. Premature senescence of endothelial cells upon chronic exposure to TNFα can be prevented by N-acetyl cysteine and plumericin.Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 3;7:39501. doi: 10.1038/srep39501. PMID: 28045034 Free PMC article.

Atanasov AG, Waltenberger B, Pferschy-Wenzig EM, Linder T, Wawrosch C, Uhrin P, Temml V, Wang L, Schwaiger S, Heiss EH, Rollinger JM, Schuster D, Breuss JM, Bochkov V, Mihovilovic MD, Kopp B, Bauer R, Dirsch VM, Stuppner H. Discovery and resupply of pharmacologically active plant-derived natural products: A review. Biotechnol Adv. 2015 Dec;33(8):1582-1614. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2015.08.001. Epub 2015 Aug 15. PMID: 26281720 Free PMC article. Review.

Rüger BM, Buchacher T, Giurea A, Kubista B, Fischer MB, Breuss JM. Vascular Morphogenesis in the Context of Inflammation: Self-Organization in a Fibrin-Based 3D Culture System Front Physiol. 2018 Jun 5;9:679. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.00679. eCollection 2018. PMID: 29922175

Alexander,R.A., Prager,G.W., Mihaly-Bison,J., Uhrin,P., Sunzenauer,S., Binder,B.R., Schutz,G.J., Freissmuth,M., and Breuss,J.M. VEGF-induced endothelial cell migration requires urokinase receptor (uPAR)-dependent integrin redistribution. Cardiovasc. Res. 94, 125-135, 2012.

Breuss,J.M., Cejna,M., Bergmeister,H., Kadl,A., Baumgartl,G., Steurer,S., Xu,Z., Koshelnick,Y., Lipp,J., de,M.R., Losert,U., Lammer,J., and Binder,B.R.. Activation of nuclear factor-kappa B significantly contributes to lumen loss in a rabbit iliac artery balloon angioplasty model. Circulation 105, 633-638. 2002