A Memorial researcher is studying multiple sclerosis at the molecular level
One in an ongoing series of Gazette stories celebrating researchers who received support as part of a major investment by the federal government for health-care solutions and treatments on March 13.
Despite the availability of treatments to manage symptoms and slow the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), a critical gap remains in understanding the chronic autoimmune disease at a molecular level.
Thanks to a recent grant of $1,155,150 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), a Memorial University researcher will continue his work unravelling the key mechanisms driving the disease’s progression.
“With MS, your own immune system is attacking your body,” said Dr. Deepak Kaushik, an assistant professor of immunology in the Faculty of Medicine. “These immune cells take up a lot of sugar, such as glucose, for energy and secrete certain chemicals which cause inflammation. That increases MS pathology and progression, making the disease worse over time.”
This area of research, which studies how immune cells use and manage energy, is called immunometabolism.
“In our early research with animal models, we found that by adjusting how immune cells use glucose — essentially modifying their immunometabolism — we could reduce inflammation. This also led to less brain damage, which decreases MS-like pathology.”
The CIHR grant will allow Dr. Kaushik to study a particular protein to determine if deleting it from monocytes, immune cells in the blood, and from microglia, immune cells in the brain, has any effect on MS pathogenesis in general, at the onset of the disease, or during its progression.
He says he and his team will also study the markers of the proteins on immune cells in post-mortem human brain samples. They want to see if therapies targeting the proteins could have merit.
“Ultimately, the goal is to have translational research wherein findings from the bench would lead to something bedside.”
Women vs. men
Another important question Dr. Kaushik is trying to answer is: why does MS affect more women than men?
“About three times as many women get MS compared to men,” he notes. “But when men do get it, the disease tends to be more severe.”
To explore this, Dr. Kaushik’s team is comparing male and female mice, as well as samples from male and female MS patients.
They want to know if there are sex-based differences in how immune cells rely on glucose for energy — a key part of their work in immunometabolism.
Significant milestone
Dr. Kaushik joined Memorial University in 2021. In a short time, he’s made significant strides in MS research.
His work has attracted funding from major organizations, including MS Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the U.S. Department of Defense and Brain Canada. He has also contributed to institutional research collaborations supported by CIHR.
“There’s an opportunity to attract people we might not get here otherwise.”
Dr. Kaushik credits much of this success to his team of young, enthusiastic trainees who are helping drive the research forward.
Securing his own lab’s CIHR funding is a significant milestone.
“It means a lot as it will set the foundation of our future programs,” he said. “It’s over $1 million, which will provide us the ability to hire new personnel and carry out the high-throughput experiments we have always wanted to do, as some of them are very, very expensive.
“The more you learn, the more questions are raised and that can lead us to new directions. It’s pretty exciting,” he added.
Dr. Kaushik sees the grant as a boost to Memorial’s research reputation and as a catalyst for training the next generation of scientists. His grant was one of two Memorial MS research grants funded during this round of competition.
“Given how competitive CIHR grants are, this really puts us on the map,” he said. “It’s a significant boost for the entire Division of BioMedical Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine in general. It strengthens our reputation and draws attention to our work. There’s an opportunity to attract people we might not get here otherwise. Success breeds more success.”
You can read about more of Memorial University’s multiple sclerosis research advances here.