Henry G Leong Professorship in Neurology

Professor Chan Koon-Ho received his training in internal medicine and neurology in the Department of Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He obtained his fellowship in neurology in 2001 and after staying one year of elective research on neuroimmunological disorders and related neuroimmunology focusing on neuronal and muscle autoantibodies in paraneoplastic neurological disorders and autoimmune myasthenia gravis under the mentorship of Professor Vanda Lennon in Mayo Clinic Rochester in 2000. He obtained his MD in 2007 and PhD in 2012 from HKU, and joined HKU as Clinical Assistant Professor in 2008, became Clinical Associate Professor in 2013 and was promoted to Clinical Professor in 2024.

His research interests include autoimmune neurological disorders and related neuroimmunology, and neuroinflammation of Alzheimer’s disease. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an important inflammatory demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) with uncertain pathogenesis. Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) cause severe acute myelitis, optic neuritis and encephalitis especially brainstem encephalitis, and can be misdiagnosed as MS. Detection of aquaporin-4 autoantibodies (AQP4-IgG) in serum of NMOSD patients greatly facilitate the diagnosis of NMOSD and its differentiation from MS. APQ4 is the most abundant water channel protein in mammalian CNS, which is expressed abundantly in astrocytic end feet processes. NMOSD are more common among Asians with long-term treatments different from that of MS.

Professor Chan’s current research focuses on 1) clinical and radiological features of local MS and NMOSD patients, 2) immunopathogenesis of MS and NMOSD, 3) development of novel immunotherapies for MS and NMOSD, 4) understanding the pathogenetic mechanisms/pathophysiologies of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 5) development of novel personalised therapeutics for AD and other neurodegenerative diseases causing cognitive impairment and dementia. He is particularly interested in the role of B lymphocytes in MS and NMOSD. He participates in international multi-centre trial on new disease modifying therapies for MS and NMOSD. His team first reported that brainstem encephalitis is common among Hong Kong Chinese NMOSD patients (Arch Neurol 2010). He is actively researching on the pathogenetic mechanisms/pathophysiologies of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) focusing on microglia-mediated neuroinflammation triggered by beta-amyloid (Aβ) and tau, and dysfunction of the glymphatic system. He is exploring the potential neuroprotective effects of adiponectin (an adipokine with anti-inflammatory and insulin-sensitizing properties) and measures to improve glymphatic system functions as strategies to prevent and treat AD.

Professor Chan’s laboratory discovered the role of adiponectin in cognition of the mammalian brain (Mol Neurodegener 2016) and that microglia express adiponectin receptors with adiponectin signaling activity leading to anti-inflammatory effects in microglia (J Neuroinflam 2019). He is currently Chief of Neurology, Department of Medicine. He was awarded Gold Badge Award for combating against SARS (Hospital Authority), Faculty Teaching Medal and Long Service Award (HKU).