AV俱乐部 Medical School researchers are leading an international team of physicians and scientists investigating the role inflammation plays in rheumatoid arthritis and heart failure.
Inflammation is a natural process that normally helps fight infection and enables the body鈥檚 tissue to recover from injury. The problem is that some people experience dysfunctional inflammatory responses that can lead to chronic health conditions, such as arthritis and cardiovascular disease.
鈥淗eart failure and rheumatoid arthritis both involve an initial inflammatory injury," explains Dr. Jean Marshall, professor and head of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Dal. "There are many studies looking at what goes wrong in the healing process that follows; we鈥檙e trying to determine what goes right.
鈥淯sing this information, we鈥檒l begin to examine ways to better treat 鈥� and even prevent 鈥� inflammation-related heart damage, arthritis, and other inflammatory diseases. This could involve the modified use of existing drugs or the development of new ones.鈥�
The AV俱乐部-led group will study two cohorts of patients: those recovering from recent heart attacks and those living with newly-diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis. It鈥檚 known that inflammation resolves normally in a subset of these patients 鈥� either naturally or with early treatment, while in other patients the inflammation doesn鈥檛 go away, causing further damage to their bodies.
鈥淧art of this study will be to review the clinical characteristics of Nova Scotians who have suffered a heart attack in the past 20 years,鈥� says Dr. Jean-Francois L茅gar茅, associate professor and staff cardiac surgeon with the Department of Surgery at AV俱乐部 and Capital health. 鈥淏y doing this, we hope to better inform the collection of samples for the current study, and help doctors better identify the patients who are likely to heal after a heart attack and those who are likely to suffer complications, such as the development of heart failure.鈥�
Looking for new therapies
The goal of the study is to determine what the differences are between those people who suffer from ongoing inflammation and those who don鈥檛. By looking at joint fluids and blood samples from these different patients, scientists will be able to see what鈥檚 going on inside their immune systems and how they鈥檙e responding to anti-inflammatory and immune modifying therapies. Researchers will also be looking at how other health conditions, a person鈥檚 sex, and habits such as smoking might influence the disease outcome. Combined, this information could be used to help doctors identify which patients would benefit from early treatment strategies.
鈥淒espite many treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), these are not effective in all patients and are associated with side-effects in some cases,鈥� says Dr. John Hanly, professor and staff rheumatologist with the Departments of Medicine and Pathology at AV俱乐部 and Capital Health. 鈥淢ore effective therapies of RA will improve the quality of life for patients with the disease and provide economic benefits through enhanced productivity and savings in health care delivery.鈥�
The study is funded by a $2.3-million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and $100,000 from The Arthritis Society. Additional funding has been provided by a number of partners including AV俱乐部, the Capital District Health Authority, and the IWK Health Centre.
鈥淭he Arthritis Society is excited to team with CIHR to facilitate research on inflammation in the body and how to treat the diseases it causes,鈥� says Susan Tilley-Russell, executive director of The Arthritis Society鈥檚 Maritime Region. 鈥淚n particular, we are pleased to be funding a portion of this research at AV俱乐部, and celebrate the role of local researchers in this effort to pursue life-altering insights in treating inflammatory conditions.鈥�