THE INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT 2025
TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH IN RESPIRATORY DISEASES (RESP) PROGRAM
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS
Young men who vape may be at greater risk for future heart disease
Two new studies examine how vaping during adolescence affects the lungs and heart.
In response to the urgent need to understand the long-term health effects of vaping, researchers at The Institute in collaboration with colleagues at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI), have studied vaping products popular with teenagers and examined their effects in the laboratory. The researchers used mouse models that reflect the types of diseases humans develop over a lifetime and exposed these models to e-cigarette aerosols for different periods. Their findings provide evidence that vaping at a young age may increase the risk of heart disease later in life, especially in men.
The first study, published in BMJ Open Respiratory Research, shows that vaping a popular brand of e-cigarette even for a short time causes significant changes in the lungs that affect important biological pathways, which are a series of molecular events that are necessary for the body to function properly.
The findings of the second study, published in the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, showed that, although the e-cigarette aerosols produced minimal inflammation in the lungs and throughout the body, long-term daily exposure to tobacco-flavoured vape products caused an increase in circulating levels of lipids (fats) and a build-up of plaque in the heart and blood vessels—a phenomenon called atherosclerosis. Learn more
Tuberculosis: A persistent threat, yet clinical trials show promise
Researchers at The Institute advance the search for preventive treatments for multidrug-resistant TB
In Montreal, cases of tuberculosis (TB) have increased by 54% in 2024 compared to the average from 2010 to 2023, according to a recent call for vigilance issued by Montreal’s public health department, reminding us that even in low-incidence countries, the disease remains an important threat, exacerbated by multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB.
The results of the VQUIN MDR clinical trial conducted by a team from the University of Sydney in collaboration with Dr. Dick Menzies, Dr. Marcel Behr, Andrea Benedetti, PhD, and graduate student Ori Solomon from The Institute show that the antibiotic levofloxacin could be used safely to prevent multidrug-resistant TB. These results, recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer a glimmer of hope for reversing the spread of TB worldwide. Learn more
More research highlights from the RESP Program
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Anete Trajman, Jonathon R. Campbell, Tenzin Kunor, Rovina Ruslami, Farhana Amaah, Marcel A. Behr, Menzies Richard (Dick). Tuberculosis. The Lancet 405, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02479-6
Nargis Khan, Kim A. Tran, Raphaël Chèvre, Veronica Locher, Mathis Richter, Sarah J. Sun, Mina Sadeghi, Erwan Pernet, Andrea Herrero-Cervera, Alexandre Grant, Ahmed Saif, Jeffrey Downey, Eva Kaufmann, Shabaana Abdul Khader, Philippe Joubert, Luis B Barreiro, Bryan G Yipp, Oliver Soehnlein, Maziar Divangahi. β-Glucan reprograms neutrophils to promote disease tolerance against influenza A virus. Nature Immunology 26(2): 174-187, 2025: 85217731110: DOI: 10.1038/s41590-024-02041-2
Rovina Ruslami, Federica Fregonese, Lika Apriani, Leila Barss, Nancy Bedingfield, Victor Chiang, Victoria E. Cook, Dina A. Fisher, Eri Flores, Greg J. Fox, James Cameron Johnston, Rachel K.S. Lim, Richard G. Long, Catherine Paulsen, Thu Anh Nguyen, Nguyen Viet Nhung, Diana Gibson, Chantal Valiquette, Andrea Benedetti, Dick Menzies. High-dose, short-duration versus standard rifampicin for tuberculosis preventive treatment: a partially blinded, three-arm, non-inferiority, randomised, controlled trial. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 12(6): 433-443, 2024: 85189007329: DOI: 10.1016/S2213-2600(24)00076-6
John G. Muscedere, Sean M. Bagshaw, Michelle E. Kho, Sangeeta K. Mehta, Deborah J. Cook, John Gordon Boyd, Stephanie R. Sibley, Hanting Wang, Patrick Michel Archambault, Martin Albert, Oleksa G. Rewa, Ian Michael Ball, Patrick A. Norman, Andrew George Day, Miranda Hunt, Osama M. Loubani, Tina S. Mele, Aimée J. Sarti, Jason Shahin. Frailty, Outcomes, Recovery and Care Steps of Critically Ill Patients (FORECAST): a prospective, multi-centre, cohort study. Intensive Care Medicine 50(7): 164-174, 2024. DOI: 10.1007/s00134-024-07404-9
Julia Chronopoulos, Erwan Pernet, Kim A. Tran, Toby K. McGovern, Arina Morozan, Sadie Wang, Oscar Tsai, Kousuke Makita, Maziar Divangahi, James G. Martin Pregnancy enhances antiviral immunity independent of type I IFN but dependent on IL-17--producing γδ+ T cells in the nasal mucosa. Science Advances 10(39), 2024: 85205275516: DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado7087
Menzies Richard (Dick), Joseph Obeng, Panji Fortuna Hadisoemarto, Rovina Ruslami, Mênonli Adjobimey, Dina A. Fisher, Leila Barss, Nancy Bedingfield, Richard G. Long, Catherine Paulsen, James Cameron Johnston, Kamila Romanowski, Victoria E. Cook, Greg J. Fox, Thu Anh Nguyen, Chantal Valiquette, Olivia Oxlade, Federica Fregonese, Andrea L. Benedetti. Sustainability and impact of an intervention to improve initiation of tuberculosis preventive treatment: results from a follow-up study of the ACT4 randomized trial. eClinicalMedicine 71, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102546
Félix Antoine Coutu, Olivia C. Iorio, Seyedfakhreddin Koorosh Nabavi, Amir Hadid, Dennis Jensen, Sushmita Pamidi, Jianguo Xia, Bryan A. Ross. Continuous characterisation of exacerbation pathophysiology using wearable technologies in free-living outpatients with COPD: a prospective observational cohort study. eBioMedicine 110, 2024: 85209660442: DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105472
Catherine L. Debban, Amirthagowri Ambalavanan, Auyon J. Ghosh, Zhonglin Li, Kristina L. Buschur, Yanlin Ma, Elizabeth George, Carrie L. Pistenmaa, Alain Gerald Bertoni, Elizabeth C. Oelsner, Erin D. Michos, Theo J. Moraes, David R. Jacobs, Stephanie Christenson, Surya P Bhatt, Robert J Kaner, Elinor Simons, Stuart E Turvey, Motahareh Vameghestahbanati, James C Engert, Miranda Kirby, Jean Bourbeau, Wan C Tan, Stacey B Gabriel, Namrata Gupta, Prescott G Woodruff, Padmaja Subbarao, Victor E Ortega, Eugene R Bleecker, Deborah A Meyers, Stephen S Rich, Eric A Hoffman, R Graham Barr, Michael H Cho, Yohan Bossé, Qingling Duan, Ani Manichaikul, Benjamin M Smith. Dysanapsis Genetic Risk Predicts Lung Function Across the Lifespan. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 210(12): 1421-1431, 2024: 85212324777: DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202401-0011OC
Jingtao Wang, Gregory Joseph Fonseca, Jun Ding. scSemiProfiler: Advancing large-scale single-cell studies through semi-profiling with deep generative models and active learning. Nature Communications 15(1), 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50150-1
Ruohan Wang, Yumin Zheng, Zijian Zhang, Kailu Song, Erxi Wu, Xiaopeng Zhu, Tao P. Wu, Jun Ding. MATES: a deep learning-based model for locus-specific quantification of transposable elements in single cell. Nature Communications 15(1), 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53114-7
Karim Malet, Emmanuel Faure, Damien Adam, Jannik Donner, Lin Liu, Sarah-Jeanne Pilon, Richard Fraser, Peter Jorth, Dianne K Newman, Emmanuelle Brochiero, Simon Rousseau, Dao Nguyen. Intracellular Pseudomonas aeruginosa within the Airway Epithelium of Cystic Fibrosis Lung Tissues. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 Jun 15;209(12):1453-1462. DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202308-1451OC
Joshua Smocot, Andrea Benedetti, Raphieal Newbold, Sara Meltzer, R John Kimoff, Natasha Garfield, Evelyne Rey, Kaberi Dasgupta, Robert Gagnon, Sushmita Pamidi. Impact of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure on Glucose Profiles in Gestational Diabetes: A Pilot Randomized-Controlled Trial. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 May 31. DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202401-0099LE
