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September 2003 Inside this issue... New Research New Treatment Strikes at SARS A Healthy Body Weight is Key to Treatment Success Too Much Iron Can be Bad For Your Heart New Role for an Old Molecule Breaking News Six UHN Scientists Win PREA Awards TWRI/TWH Parkinson’s Researchers Win Two of Five Awards OCI/PMH Researchers Win Multiple Awards From the NCIC Updates New Director of AARC Appointed Visit us at... UHN's Research Internet Site |
New Research Breakthroughs at UHN New Treatment Strikes at SARS
During Toronto's second SARS outbreak, the new treatment was administered to 19 patients with
the help of Dr. Mona Loutfy at North York General Hospital. Only the four most critically ill died - suggesting that early treatment may be the key to its effectiveness. “Although our findings are still preliminary, they are extremely encouraging. A global strategy for SARS preparedness is being developed, and it includes further examination of the potential therapeutic benefit of early treatment with interferon,” says Dr. Fish. These findings were recently presented in Chicago at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) meeting.
A Healthy Body Weight is Key to Treatment Success A new study by Drs. Jenny Heathcote and Brian Bressler (TWRI/TWH), and Dr. George Tomlinson (TGRI/TGH), shows that a person’s body mass index (BMI)—a measurement that describes a person’s weight relative to their height—may be a risk factor for determining their degree of responsiveness to antiviral treatment for hepatitis C infection. A total of 253 hepatitis C patients were treated with antiviral therapies between 1989 and 2000. At six months post-therapy, their conditions were assessed to determine
if the medications had been effective. “This research shows how important it is to maintain a healthy body weight,” says Dr. Heathcote, “and we are currently investigating how weight-based dosing
may optimize treatment success.” Hepatology. 2003 Sep;38(3):639-44 Too Much Iron Can be Bad For Your Heart Inherited iron disorders are becoming a major health problem, according to a recent WHO publication. Approximately 1M Americans suffer from these disorders which can
lead to a condition called “iron overload” in which the body absorbs more iron than it needs. If not caught early enough, the iron can build up in
various tissues of the body and cause death (primarily due to heart problems). Recently, Dr. Peter Backx and Gavin Oudit, along with Dr. Peter Liu (TGRI/TGH and the University of Toronto's Heart & Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Research), devised a novel treatment for this condition. In an animal model with iron overload, the investigators showed that treatment with drugs designed to block calcium currents prevented iron from entering heart cells. The treated animals had better heart function and survival rates than did those that did not receive the treatment. “Now that we have uncovered how iron enters heart cells, we can design therapies that block iron from entering cells and thereby prevent the heart failure associated with iron overload,” says Dr. Backx. Nat Med. 2003 Sep;9(9):1187-94. Epub 2003 Aug 24 New Role for an Old Molecule A team of UHN researchers including Drs. Minna Woo and Christopher Paige
(OCI/PMH) and Razq Hakem and
Tak Mak (AMDI/OCI/PMH), have discovered that caspase-3—a
molecule known to be important in helping the body rid itself of aging or diseased cells—is also critical for ensuring that certain types of cells divide and develop normally. This finding may pinpoint how this family of molecules "knows" which role to play at different stages in the lives of different cells. “This research shows why it is important to elucidate the many different functions of these important molecules,” says Dr. Woo. “We need to be sure we fully understand the multiple roles of important molecules, since any one of them may offer a clue for the treatment of cancers and disorders of the immune system.” Nat Immunol. 2003 Sep 14 [Epub ahead of print] Breaking News from UHN Research Six UHN Scientists Win PREA Awards UHN research extends its congratulations to Drs. Avi Chakrabartty, David Jaffray, Gil Privé, Alex Vitkin (OCI/PMH), Mansoor Husain and Andras Kapus (TGRI/TGH), recent winners of the Premier’s Research Excellence Award (PREA). This award is given to gifted researchers to help them attract talented students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates to their research teams. TWRI/TWH Parkinson’s Researchers Win Two of Five Awards The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research recently announced $1M in new funding that will go to five groups worldwide. Impressively, UHN is home to two of these groups, including a collaboration involving Drs. Peter Carlen, Jonathan Brotchie and Anthony Lang, and a project led by Dr. Robert Chen. Both groups will investigate a side effect of Parkinson’s treatment known as dyskinesia, which is the loss of ability to control movement. OCI/PMH Researchers Win Multiple Awards From the NCIC
Congratulations also to Drs. Wey Liang Leong and Linda Penn
(OCI/PMH), who also led successful proposals to the CBCRA; and to Drs.
Neil Fleshner, Paul Ritvo, John Trachtenberg and Mark Gertner (OCI/PMH) who led
successful proposals to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Research Initiative (also of the NCIC). New Director of AARC Appointed 
Congratulations to Dr. Eleanor Fish who was
recently appointed the new Director of the UHN Arthritis and Autoimmunity Research Centre (AARC).
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A new treatment devised by Dr.
In recent funding announced by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC), Dr.