RI-MUHC Annual Report

RI-MUHC ANNUAL REPORT 2021

YEAR IN REVIEW

METABOLIC DISORDERS AND COMPLICATIONS (MeDiC) PROGRAM

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Understanding the health impact of inactivity for the benefit of older adults—and astronauts!

Directed by Dr. José A. Morais at the Centre for Innovative Medicine, a study was launched this year using bedrest as an analog to microgravity to provide data for eight Canadian research projects. Funding: CIHR.

Strategies to reduce breast cancer growth and related skeletal lesions

With international partners, Dr. Shafaat Rabbani’s team presented a novel approach to target both tumour growth and the skeletal lesions caused by breast cancer-induced bone disease. First author: doctoral student Niaz Mahmoud, Bone Research. Funding: CIHR.

Morais team (on left): Vita Sonjak, project manager, Guy Hajj-Boutros, research coordinator, and Dr. José Morais; Rabbani team (on right, fall 2019): lab supervisor Ani Arakelian, Dr. Shafaat Rabbani, and doctoral student Niaz Mahmood

Vaccine efficacy and hemodialysis

Dr. Rita Suri showed that most dialysis patients do not develop adequate antibodies with one dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Her study in CMAJ advised that patients receiving hemodialysis be prioritized for a second BNT162b2 [Pfizer] dose at the recommended three-week interval.

Selected MeDiC Program news links

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Emilie Palisaitis, Anas El-Fathi, Julia Elisabeth von Oettingen, Ahmad Haidar, Laurent Legault. A Meal Detection Algorithm for the Artificial Pancreas: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial in Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes Care 44(2):604-606, 2021. doi: 10.2337/dc20-1232.

Raymond Milan, Jacques LeLorier, Ivan V. Litvinov, Kaberi Dasgupta, Elham Rahme. Sex differences in the risk of diabetes mellitus among individuals with psoriasis: A retrospective cohort study in Quebec, Canada. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 85(1):213-215, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2020.07.082.

Liliia I. Butiaeva, Tal Slutzki, Hannah E. Swick, Clément Bourguignon, Sarah C. Robins, Xiaohong Liu, Kai-Florian Storch, Maia V. Kokoeva. Leptin receptor-expressing pericytes mediate access of hypothalamic feeding centers to circulating leptin. Cell Metabolism 33(7): 1433-1448.e5, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2021.05.017.

José Refugio Navarro-Betancourt, Joan Papillon, Julie Guillemette, Takao Iwawaki, Chenfang Chung, Andrey V.E. Cybulsky. Role of IRE1α in podocyte proteostasis and mitochondrial health. Cell Death Discovery 6(1) 128, 2020. doi: 10.1038/s41420-020-00361-4.

Yubo Cao, Sahil Kumar, Yoon Namkung, Laurence Gagnon, Aaron Cho, Stéphane A. Laporte. Angiotensin II type 1 receptor variants alter endosomal receptor–b-arrestin complex stability and MAPK activation. Journal of Biological Chemistry 295(38): 13169-13180, 2020. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA120.014330.

Ali Mehdi, Mikhaël Attias, Niaz Mahmood, Ani Arakelian, Catalin Mihalcioiu, Ciriaco A. Piccirillo, Moshe Szyf, Shafaat Ahmed Rabbani. Enhanced Anticancer Effect of a Combination of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor (ICPi) in a Syngeneic Mouse Model of Advanced Melanoma. Frontiers in Oncology 10:1361, 2020. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.01361.

Nancy Wu, Anne Sophie Brazeau, Meranda M. Nakhla, Deborah Chan, Deborah Da Costa, Geetha Mukerji, Sonia Butalia, Daniele Le Pacaud, Mélanie Henderson, Constadina Panagiotopoulos, Elham Rahme, Kaberi Dasgupta. Type 1 diabetes mellitus virtual patient network as a peer support community: Protocol for social network analysis and content analysis. JMIR Research Protocols 9(8):e18714, 2020. doi: 10.2196/18714.

Sandrine Major, Anas El-Fathi, Emilie Palisaitis, Robert E. Kearney, Julia Elisabeth von Oettingen, Preetha Krishnamoorthy, Laurent Legault, Ahmad Haidar. Postprandial hyperglycaemia following insulin suspensions by the artificial pancreas: Implications for bolus calculators Diabetes. Obesity and Metabolism 22(8): 1474-1477, 2020. doi: 10.1111/dom.14044.

Niaz Mahmood, Ani Arakelian, David D. Cheishvili, Moshe Szyf, Shafaat Ahmed Rabbani. S-adenosylmethionine in combination with decitabine shows enhanced anti-cancer effects in repressing breast cancer growth and metastasis. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 24(18): 10322-10337, 2020. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.15642.

Ronnie Aronson, Ruth E. Brown, Alexander Abitbol, Ronald Goldenberg, Zeina Yared, Buki Ajala, Jean François Yale. The Canadian LMC Diabetes Registry: A Profile of the Demographics, Management, and Outcomes of Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics 23(1): 31-40, 2021. doi: 10.1089/dia.2020.0204.