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RESEARCH KREMBIL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Homing in on a Target

An international collaboration reveals a disease mechanism

underlying axial spondyloarthritis

ABOUT THE RESEARCH TEAM contributes to axial spondyloarthritis, a
The team, led by Dr. Nigil Haroon, comprised debilitating form of arthritis. Their previous work
more than 20 individuals from 14 research institutes showed that levels of MIF are higher in patients
located in Canada, Italy, South Korea, Slovakia, with the disease and correlate with disease severity.
Belgium and the United States. “In translational The new findings reveal that MIF increases
research, there are significant benefits to working levels of a type of T cell—an immune cell that
as part of an interdisciplinary team. For one, the causes inflammation—in experimental models
pooled expertise enables you to speed up the pace of the disease and in the clinic. By defining the
of the research and overcome hurdles faster. Also, underlying drivers of inflammation, the study lays
working with other clinical centres connects the foundation for new therapies that target MIF.
you with more patient collaborators, increasing
participant diversity. This makes your findings Sci Transl Med. 2021 Oct 20. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.
more meaningful and enables you to validate your abg1210. Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health
results in other settings,” says Dr. Haroon. Research, the Arthritis Society Canada, the American College
of Rheumatology Research, the National Institutes of Health
(USA), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
KEY FINDINGS of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the
The team examined how a protein called Ontario Research Fund, IBM, the Ian Lawson Van Toch Cancer
macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) Informatics Fund and UHN Foundation. M Kapoor holds a Tier
1 Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Joint Degeneration.
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