Zaher ElBeck

Zaher ElBeck

Affiliated to Research
Visiting address: Novum, Blickagången 6, 14157 Huddinge/Stockholm
Postal address: H7 Medicin, Huddinge, H7 Metabolism/ICMC Betsholtz, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • My interest is in redox biology in the cardiovascular system, but from a
    different perspective than the way it has been commonly viewed.
    Oxidative species are a divergent group of cellular metabolites, with a wide
    variety of functions. Together with reductants, they regulate almost all
    cellular functions, from mediating cellular communications, to catalyzing a
    variety of biochemical reactions, and post-translationally modifying
    proteins.
    We demonstrate that in cardiomyocytes mitochondrial isocitrate dehydrogenase
    (IDH2) constitutes a major antioxidant defense mechanism. In both male and
    female mice and humans, the paradoxical reduction in expression of IDH2
    associated with heart failure is compensated for by an increase in the
    enzyme’s activity. We describe extensive mutual regulation of the
    antioxidant activities of IDH2 and NRF2 by a network involving 2-oxoglutarate
    and L2-hydroxyglutarate and mediated in part through unconventional
    hydroxy-methylation of cytosine residues present in introns. We highlight a
    sex difference in cardiac antioxidative capacity, which even
    influences cardiomyocyte morphology
    . Conditional targeting of ROS in a murine model of heart failure improves
    cardiac function in sex- and phenotype-dependent manners.
    To read more about my research, please see our recent manuscript
    (Epigenetic modulators link mitochondrial redox homeostasis to cardiac
    function) in BioRxiv (https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.26.485908).

Articles

All other publications

Employments

  • Affiliated to Research, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 2023-2025

Degrees and Education

  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 2023

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