Predicting the future of lipid-lowering therapy with drug target Mendelian randomization

Benoit Arsenault, PhD
Principal Investigator
Quebec Heart and Lung Institute

Associate Professor
Department of Medicine
Laval University

Supported by Novartis

This conference is hosted by Myriam Beaudry, PhD candidate. This conference is part of the 2023-2024 IRCM conference calendar.

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In person: 
IRCM Auditorium
110, avenue des Pins O, H2W 1R7 Montreal

Online:
Zoom Link : https://zoom.us/j/95269762104
ID : 952 6976 2104
Code : 476372

IRCM conferences are set to occur under a hybrid format. However, please note that last-minute changes to online-only lectures may occur due to unforeseen circumstances. We invite you to visit this webpage again a few days before attending.

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About this conference
Despite landmark achievements made in the past 50 years to understand, treat and prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD), preventing heart attacks and strokes in high-risk patients still remains very challenging for clinicians. Seminal genetic discoveries made in the past two decades have fostered our understanding of the factors regulating plasma levels of atherogenic lipoprotein levels and have identified a handful of blood proteins that cause ASCVD through the modulation of apolipoprotein B-containing lipoprotein concentrations. RNA therapeutics represent an entirely novel platform to inhibit or “silence” the expression of almost any disease-causing gene. Mendelian randomization (MR) is an epidemiological investigation tool that determines the association between genetic variants robustly associated with an exposure of interest such as liver gene expression levels or blood protein levels and assesses whether these variants are associated with outcomes (i.e. ASCVD). Since genetic variants are naturally and randomly acquired at conception (during meiosis) and are now possible to quantify in large-scale analyses, MR offers unique opportunities to investigate the association between exposures and outcomes in a “natural” randomized trial. Akin to a randomized clinical trial, whereby investigators randomly allocate participants to an experimental treatment or a control group, MR study investigators “randomize” participants based on the presence of one or multiple alleles that influence risk factors of interest and seek to determine whether carriers of genetic variants associated with these risk factors have different disease trajectories compared to non-carriers. The most recent MR and RCTs seeking to determine whether silencing liver expressed genes could influence plasma lipoprotein levels and ASCVD risk will be presented.

About Benoit Arsenault
Professor Benoit Arsenault joined the Department of Medicine of Université Laval in 2013. He is also a Research Scientist in the cardiology axis of the Québec Heart and Lung Institute. 
Pr. Arsenault’s team uses genetic tools such as Mendelian randomization and family studies to investigate the causes and consequences of cardiometabolic diseases, for instance non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. He also leads research programs funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research on the identification of therapeutic targets for cardiometabolic diseases and on the basic and genetic mechanisms through which PCSK9 and Lipoprotein (a) contribute to heart valve disorders such as calcific aortic valve stenosis. 
Pr. Arsenault holds a senior scholar award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS); his research is also funded by the Foundation of the Québec Heart and Lung Institute. He is also the Co-President of the Société Québécoise de lipidologie, de nutrition et de métabolisme (SQLNM). He has authored or co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed manuscripts. 

DISCLOSURES
Pr. Arsenault is a consultant for Novartis, Eli Lilly and Silence Therapeutics and has received research contracts from Pfizer, Eli Lilly Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Silence Therapeutics.
 

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