The Cellular Role of Double-Stranded Break Repair Protein, Endo-exonuclease (Trmt2a,b), in Cancer Therapy and in Inflammatory Response

This project aims at understanding the role at a cellular level, of a protein called Trmt2a,b in the repair of DNA in the context of cancer and inflammation. We will study a particular set of blood samples obtained from a cohort of patients affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a form of blood cancer, where some of these patients will also develop a complication in the form of bone death, called osteonecrosis (inflammation). We are interested to see if this protein could reduce inflammation in the context of this particular cancer and its current therapy (chemotherapy and high dose GC) using a ALL cell line and replicating the inflammatory response in vitro using high dose glucocorticoids. We hypothesize that the protein (Trmt2a,b) will be synergistic in reducing the inflammatory response in this cohort therefore reducing the risk of osteonecrosis development in this particular population of patients. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Chantal Seguin

Student:

Vahideh Rahmanighalehzo

Partner:

Montdorex Pharma

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

University:

McGill University

Program: