Supervisor:
Program of Study:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Pharmacology
Project Title:
Studying Cancer and SARS-CoV-2 Co-Infection with Molecular Imaging
Scholarships and/or Awards:
- Dr. R. Evatt and Rita Mathers Research Fellowship in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Dalhousie University (2021)
- Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship (2018)
- Scotia Scholars Award (Ph.D. level) by Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (2017)
- IWK Graduate Scholarship (2017)
- Thompson Family Scholarship by IWK Health Centre (2016)
- Accepted to the Young Scientist Program (YSP) in the 16th Conference of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) (2016)
- The Beth Gourley Travel Award for Research Excellence, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University (2015)
- Scotia Scholars Award (Master level) by Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (2014)
- Dean’s Scholarship Award by the Faculty of Medicine Research Advisory Committee, Dalhousie University (2013)
Lay Research Summary:
Cancer is a devastating disease, and accurate diagnoses are important for treatment planning. A common test for cancer diagnosis is positron emission tomography (PET). In this test, a chemical substance, fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), is injected into the cancer patient. FDG gets taken up in large amounts by cancer cells, so it can be detected by the PET scanner. This lets doctors know where the cancer is located, and whether it has spread, which is important for treatment planning. While FDG-PET is commonly used for cancer diagnosis, it is not actually specific to cancer. Other diseases can also take up lots of FDG and get confused with cancer. An overwhelming number of the world population has gotten infected with COVID and/or vaccinated against it over the past few years. Infection with the coronavirus can also cause cells to take up FDG, even long after patients were initially sick. So, cancer patients who have gotten infected with COVID are at risk of misdiagnosis of their condition. On top of that, we know that COVID can cause long-term changes to the body known as “long COVID”, but we still do not understand everything about it. Changes to the immune system from COVID could also interfere with how patients respond to cancer. We plan on using imaging and biological tools to study how COVID and cancer interact on a mouse model of breast cancer. Our study will help to distinguish PET signals generated by cancer cells from that of the signals generated due to COVID. We will also combine this with biological tests that will let us study the immune system and see if coronavirus infection changes what is happening in the tumors. This will eventually help doctors give more accurate diagnoses and help develop better treatment plans for cancer patients who have these long-term COVID effects.
Career Aspirations:
I would like to utilize my expertise in immunology and molecular diagnosis to improve cancer diagnosis and staging. I also plan to work on the development of cancer immunotherapies. My long-term career goal is to become a principal investigator at a reputed research/academic institution and train next-generation cancer researchers.
Location:
Dalhousie University
Publications:
(2022). Stefan Hall, Sufyan Faridi, Purvi Trivedi, Saki Sultana, Bithika Ray, Tanya Myers, Irene Euodia, David Vlatten, Mathieu Castonguay, Juan Zhou, Melanie Kelly, Christian Lehmann. Selective CB2 Receptor Agonist, HU-308, Reduces Systemic Inflammation in Endotoxin Model of Pneumonia-Induced Acute Lung Injury. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 23(24): 15857
(2022). Sufia Islam, Nazia Hoque, Nishat Nasrin, Mehnaz Hossain, Farhana Rizwan, Kushal Biswas, Muhammad Asaduzzaman, Sabera Rahman, David W Hoskin, Saki Sultana, Christian Lehmann. Iron Overload and Breast Cancer: Iron Chelation as a Potential Therapeutic Approach. Life. 12(7):963.
(2021). Saki Sultana, Geraint Berger, Christian Lehmann. Components of the Endogenous Cannabinoid System as Potential Biomarkers for Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome. Diagnostics. 12(1):19.
(2021). Saki Sultana, Geraint Berger, Ashley Cox, Melanie EM Kelly, Christian Lehmann. Rodent models of ketamine-induced cystitis. Neurourology and Urodynamics. 40(7):1704-1719.
(2021). Sultana, Saki; Burkovskiy, Ian; Zhou, Juan; Kelly, Melanie; Lehmann, Christian. Effect of cannabinoid 2 receptor modulation on the peripheral immune response in CNS injury-induced immunodeficiency syndrome. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. 6(4):327-339.
(2020). Saki Sultana, Jackie Stewart, and Aarnoud C van der Spoel. Beta-glucosidase 2 (GBA2) harbours an internal mitochondrial targeting sequence. PLoS One. 15(6): 1-19.
(2020). Sufia Islam, Fouzia Mannan, Tahiya Islam, Sabera Rahman, Saki Sultana, Mohammod Jobayer Chisti, Rizwanul Islam. COVID-19 Pandemic: How is Bangladesh coping with the rapid spread of coronavirus infection? The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries. 14(10): 1098-1105.
(2016). Saki Sultana, Nhu Y Truong, Douglas Vieira, Jasper G D Wigger, A Michael Forrester, Chansey J Veinotte, Jason N Berman, and Aarnoud C van der Spoel. Characterization of the zebrafish homolog of Beta-Glucosidase 2, a target of the drug miglustat. Zebrafish. 13(3): 177-87.
(2015). Sultana S, Reichbauer J, Schüle R, Mochel F, Synofzik M, and van der Spoel AC. Lack of enzyme activity in GBA2 mutants associated with hereditary spastic paraplegia/cerebellar ataxia (SPG46). Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 465(1): 35-40.
(2015). Vieira DB, Thur KE, Sultana S, Priestman D, and van der Spoel AC. Verification and refinement of cellular glycosphingolipid profiles using HPLC. Biochemistry and Cell Biology. 93(6): 581-6.