Karima Habbout

2019 Mohammed Family PH Research Scholarship

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Research Group, Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, Laval University, Québec City, QC

Under the supervision of: Dr. Olivier Boucherat

About Karima Habbout

Throughout her university studies, Habbout specialized in the field of human pathophysiology. After a bachelor’s degree in general physiology, she oriented her master’s degree in this field.

Understanding the mechanisms that cause pathologies in humans has always intrigued her. To be able to understand what is not working and then be able to find a solution is a stimulating challenge in which she wanted to be involved.

To date, she has had the opportunity to learn more about pulmonary arterial hypertension in order to be able to advance research and find treatments that will allow to treat patients. The understanding of this disease and the need to develop new therapeutic strategies are a source of motivation for her.

Project:

Implications of EZH2 in PAH

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease affecting the lungs and hearts of patients and can often lead to heart failure. Inside the arteries of the lungs, vessels undergo a deep remodeling that obstructs the arteries, preventing proper blood flow from the heart to the lungs.

PAH is similar to cancer, in that the cells inside the pulmonary arteries continue to multiply due to a resistance to cell death. This similarity makes it possible to observe that some molecules involved in cancer are also involved in PAH. This is the case of a protein called EZH2, which is involved in cancer and is documented as promoting the multiplication of cancer cells.

We found that EZH2was more abundant in the pulmonary arteries of PAH patients than in healthy people. In addition, it appears that when EZH2 is inhibited, cells stop multiplying uncontrollably. These preliminary results show that the EZH2 protein is most certainly involved in the development of the disease. Our project here is to understand how EZH2 influences cell multiplication and how it may be possible to develop a treatment on animal models of the disease. The goal of our study is to try to discover treatments that could cure patients with the disease. 

Indeed, current treatments do not stop or reverse the disease, they only relieve patients. This underlines the need to develop new therapeutic strategies.