It’s the middle of the night. You’re at home, fast asleep, when suddenly, there’s a loud banging at the door. It’s the police — somehow, they have mistaken you for a criminal and have come to arrest you!
According to Dr. Brent Johnston, this scenario is analogous to the action of the body’s white blood cell “police” in inflammatory diseases like asthma and arthritis. Dr. Johnston, Canada Research Chair in Inflammation and Immunity, studies inflammatory diseases and the mechanisms that activate and regulate white blood cells. Having come to Halifax in January 2004 to join Dalhousie’s research community, it’s a fortunate coincidence that he conducts research in the province with some of the highest rates of arthritis, childhood asthma, and cancer in Canada.
Inflammatory diseases involve white blood cells, the body’s police. Normally, they patrol the bloodstream looking for criminals like bacteria and other foreign pathogens; when there’s a problem, the white blood cells receive the “address” of the crime scene, and go to it immediately to apprehend the criminal. Arthritis, a primary focus of Johnston’s research, typically involves pain and swelling in the body’s joints. It happens when white blood cells receive the wrong address, and attack otherwise healthy joint tissue.
A fascination with the body’s innate ability to identify and deal with foreign pathogens inspired Dr. Johnston to pursue this research area. Along with two Masters students employed in his lab, he's improving health and quality of life by learning more about the mechanisms that trigger white blood cells to target an injury, a foreign pathogen, or healthy tissue. The knowledge gathered through this research has applications for other diseases, like asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases, and even cancer.
The connection between arthritis and cancer may not be immediately apparent, however, Dr. Johnston says, “If you want to kill a cancer cell, you’ve got to get white blood cells to recognize and destroy the cancer cells. By understanding how white blood cells work, or don’t work, in the case of arthritis, we can use this knowledge to enhance the body’s own immune response and attack cancer cells more effectively.” He’s currently ramping up a new research project to investigate white blood cell populations and their response to cancer cells.
Dr. Johnston works closely with other researchers in the Dalhousie Inflammation Group and doctors at Halifax’s IWK Health Centre. He’s also building partnerships with researchers at Stanford University, where he completed a post-doctoral fellowship, and New York University.