RI-MUHC Annual Report

RI-MUHC ANNUAL REPORT 2022

YEAR IN REVIEW

INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND IMMUNITY IN GLOBAL HEALTH (IDIGH) PROGRAM

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Self-testing: A tool to accelerate HIV elimination

Implemented in township populations of Western Cape in South Africa with the collaboration of physicians at the University of Cape Town and community healthcare workers, the app-based personalized HIV self-test (HIVST) program HIVSmart! developed by Dr. Nitika Pant Pai not only successfully linked participants to counselling services and care, but also detected new infections and increased referrals to self-test. These findings suggest that self-testing strategies using innovative digital technologies that provide access to care could accelerate progress towards UNAIDS targets for HIV elimination worldwide. (BMJ Global Health)

Researchers from the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program at the RI-MUHC: Drs. Nitika Pant Pai, Don Vinh, Emily McDonald and Todd C. Lee (left to right)
Researchers from the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program at the RI-MUHC: Drs. Nitika Pant Pai, Don Vinh, Emily McDonald and Todd C. Lee (left to right)

COVID-19 vaccine strategies used with older people in Quebec

In winter 2021, fluctuations in COVID-19 vaccine availability led the Quebec government to implement strategies such as delaying the second dose and offering another type of vaccine as a second dose (heterologous vaccination). Led by Dr. Donald Vinh, a research team from the RI-MUHC, University of Ottawa and Université de Montréal conducted a study of serological responses – or antibody responses – in seniors residing in long-term care facilities in Montreal. Their interim report in The Lancet Healthy Longevity revealed the maximum recommended interval between first and second doses of mRNA vaccines and the differences in antibody responses to different vaccine combinations. This work helped guide public health vaccination policies.

Preventing hospitalization following COVID-19 infection in vulnerable populations

A systematic review led by Dr. Todd C. Lee and Dr. Emily McDonald confirms the effectiveness of fluvoxamine in preventing hospitalization following COVID-19 infection. Published in spring 2022, the study has the potential to inform clinical decision-making, policy and guidelines related to the community-based management of patients with COVID-19. “Based on our analysis, and coupled with worldwide accessibility, decades of safety data, and a current price of approximately $1 per day, fluvoxamine may be a reasonable option for high-risk outpatients who do not have access to SARS CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies, direct antivirals, or clinical trials,” write the authors. (JAMA Network Open)

Selected IDIGH Program news links

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Marcel A. Behr, Eva Kaufmann, Jacalyn M. Duffin, Paul H. Edelstein, Lalita Ramakrishnan. Latent Tuberculosis: Two Centuries of Confusion. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, vol. 204, p. 142-148, 2020. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202011-4239PP.

Emily G. McDonald, Peter Eugene Wu, Babak Rashidi, Marnie Goodwin Wilson, Émilie Bortolussi-Courval, Kiran Battu, André Bonnici, Sarah Elsayed, Allison Goodwin Wilson, Louise Papillon-Ferland, Louise Pilote, Sandra Porter, Johanna Murphy,Sydney B Ross, Jennifer Shiu, Robyn Tamblyn, Rachel Whitty, Jieqing Xu, Gabriel Fabreau, Taleen Haddad, Anita Palepu, Nadia Khan, Finlay A McAlister, James Downar, Allen R Huang, Thomas E MacMillan, Rodrigo B Cavalcanti, Todd C Lee. The MedSafer Study-Electronic Decision Support for Deprescribing in Hospitalized Older Adults: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA internal medicine, vol. 182, p. 265-273, 2021. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.7429.

Celline Cardoso Almeida-Brasil, John G. Hanly, Murray B. Urowitz, Ann Elaine Clarke, Guillermo Ruiz-Irastorza, Caroline Gordon, Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, Michelle A. Pétri, Ellen M. Ginzler, Daniel J. Wallace, Sang-cheol Bae, Juanita Romero-Díaz, Mary Anne Dooley,Christine Peschken, David Isenberg, Anisur Rahman, Susan Manzi, Søren Jacobsen, Sam Lim, Ronald F van Vollenhoven, Ola Nived, Andreas Jönsen, Diane L Kamen, Cynthia Aranow, Jorge Sanchez-Guerrero, Dafna D Gladman, Paul R Fortin, Graciela S Alarcón, Joan T Merrill, Kenneth Kalunian, Manuel Ramos-Casals, Kristján Steinsson, Asad Zoma, Anca Askanase, Munther A Khamashta, Ian N Bruce, Murat Inanc, Michal Abrahamowicz, Sasha Bernatsky. Flares after hydroxychloroquine reduction or discontinuation: results from the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) inception cohort. Annals of the rheumatic diseases, vol. 81, p. 370-378, 2022. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-221295

Wilian Correa-Macedo, Vinicius M. Fava, Marianna Orlova, Pauline Cassart, Ron Olivenstein, Joaquín Sanz, Yong Zhong Xu, Anne Dumaine, Renata H.M. Sindeaux, Vania Yotova, Alain Pacis, Josée Girouard, Barbara Kalsdorf, Christoph Lange, Jean-Pierre Routy, Luis B. Barreiro, Erwin Schurr. Alveolar macrophages from persons living with HIV show impaired epigenetic response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Journal of clinical investigation, vol. 131, 2021. doi: 10.1172/JCI148013.

Nadine Kronfli, Camille Dussault, Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, Alexandros Halavrezos, Sylvie Chalifoux, Jessica Sherman, Hyejin Park, Lina Del Balso, Matthew P. Cheng, Sébastien Poulin, Joseph Cox. Seroprevalence and risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 among incarcerated adult men in Quebec, Canada (2021). Clinical infectious diseases. 2022 doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac031

Casey G. Cohen, Wei W. Zhao, Danbing Ke, Liane Beaudette, Duncan Lejtenyi, Christine T. McCusker, Xun Zhang, Edmond S. Chan, Julia Elizabeth Mainwaring Upton, Eyal Grunebaum, Ann Elaine Clarke, Bruce D. Mazer, Moshe Ben-Shoshan. Elevated Cow's Milk-Specific IgE Levels Prior to Oral Immunotherapy Decrease the Likelihood of Reaching the Maintenance Dose. The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice. vol. 10, p. 215-221.e2. 2021 doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2021.11.005.

Jesse Papenburg, Jonathon R. Campbell, Chelsea Caya, Cynthia Dion, Rachel Corsini, Matthew P. Cheng, Dick Menzies, Cédric P. Yansouni. Adequacy of Serial Self-performed SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Detection Testing for Longitudinal Mass Screening in the Workplace. JAMA Network Open. vol. 5, p. e2210559, 2022. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.10559

Giorgia Sulis, Brice Batomen, Anita Kotwani, Madhukar Pai, Sumanth Gandra. Sales of antibiotics and hydroxychloroquine in India during the COVID-19 epidemic: An interrupted time series analysis. PLoS medicine. vol. 18, p. e1003682. 2022. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003682.

Nadine Kronfli, James Young, Shouao Wang, Joseph J. Cox, Sharon Walmsley, Mark W. Hull, Curtis L. Cooper, Valérie Martel-Laferrière, Alexander Wong, Neora Pick, Marina Barbara Klein, Canadian Coinfection Cohort Study Investigators. Liver Fibrosis in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Coinfection Before and After Sustained Virologic Response: What Is the Best Noninvasive Marker for Monitoring Regression? Clinical infectious diseases. vol. 73, p. 468-477, 2021. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa702.

Christina Santella, Alain Bitton, Christopher Filliter, Talat Bessissow, Maria Vutcovici, Peter L. Lakatos, Paul Brassard. Anti-TNF Therapy and the Risk of Herpes Zoster Among Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. vol. 28, p. 176-182, 2022. doi: 10.1093/ibd/izab092.

Hanna Ostapska, Deepa Raju, Mélanie Lehoux, Ira Lacdao, Stephanie Gilbert, Piyanka Sivarajah, Natalie C. Bamford, Perrin Baker, Thi Tuyet Mai Nguyen, Caitlin A. Zacharias, Fabrice N. Gravelat, P. Lynne Howell, Donald C. Sheppard. Preclinical Evaluation of Recombinant Microbial Glycoside Hydrolases in the Prevention of Experimental Invasive Aspergillosis. mBio, vol. 12, p. e0244621, 2021. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02446-21.

Pilar Domenech, Esma Mouhoub, Michael B. Reed. Experimental confirmation that an uncommon rrs gene mutation (g878a) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis confers resistance to streptomycin. Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, p. AAC0191521, 2022. doi: 10.1128/aac.01915-21

Natalia Regine de França, Henri André Ménard, Maximilien Lora, Zhijie Zhou, Joyce Rauch, Carol Hitchon, Luís Eduardo Coelho Andrade, Inés Colmegna. Characterization and use of the ECV304 autoantigenic citrullinome to understand anti-citrullinated protein/peptide autoantibodies in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis research, therapy, 2022. vol. 24, p. 23. doi: 10.1186/s13075-021-02698-2

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