Dr. Rahul Mainra BSc, MD, MMed, FRCPC, FRACP

Dr. Rahul Mainra is a Transplant Nephrologist at the Saskatchewan Transplant Program. He is Professor of Medicine and Director of Faculty and Clinical Placements for the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program at the University of Saskatchewan. He completed Medical School and Internal Medicine residency training at the University of Saskatchewan, followed by nephrology fellowship at Western University in London and Transplant training in Sydney, Australia. His clinical practice is primarily in kidney transplantation and research interests include education and policy development.

Professional Roles:

• Professor of Medicine
• Director of Faculty and Clinical Placements, Master of Physician Assistant Studies
• Treasurer and Board Member, Canadian Society of Transplant

Education:

• B.Sc. University of Saskatchewan
• MD University of Saskatchewan
• FRCPC (internal medicine) – University of Saskatchewan
• Nephrology- University of Western Ontario
• Nephrology Transplantation- Westmead Hospital. Sydney, Australia
• MMed (clinical epidemiology) University of Sydney, Australia

Grants:

Creation of an evidence-based educational video series for kidney transplantation candidates. Agency: Astellas Pharmaceuticals. Funds granted: $50,000
Effect of immunosuppressive medication use on patient outcomes following kidney transplant failure.  Agency: Canadian Institute of Health Research Funds Granted: $963,864

• Urquhart BL, Freeman DJ, Cutler MJ, Mainra R, Spence JD, House AA. Mesna for treatment of hyperhomocysteinemia in hemodialysis patients: a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial". Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology ,3 ,4, 1041-1047, 2008, LWW
• Mainra R. Early Hospital Readmission: The Canary in the Coal Mine?. Transplantation, 102, 4, 550-551, 2018, LWW
• Mainra, Rahul; Gallo, Kerri; Moist, Louise. Effect of N‐acetylcysteine on renal function in patients with chronic kidney disease. Nephrology, 12, 5, 510-513, 2007, "Blackwell Publishing Asia Melbourne, Australia".
• Moist, Louise; Sontrop, Jessica M; Gallo, Kerri; Mainra, Rahul; Cutler, Murray; Freeman, Dave; House, Andrew A. Effect of N-acetylcysteine on serum creatinine and kidney function: results of a randomized controlled trial. .American journal of kidney diseases, 56, 4, 643-650, 2010, WB Saunders.
• Costain, Willard J; Mainra, Rahul; Desautels, Michel; Sulakhe, Prakash V. Expressed α1-adrenoceptors in adult rat brown adipocytes are primarily of α1A subtype. Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 74, 3, 234-240, 1996, NRC Research Press.
• Knoll, Greg A; Blydt-Hansen, Tom D; Campbell, Patricia; Cantarovich, Marcelo; Cole, Edward; Fairhead, Todd; Gill, John S; Gourishankar, Sita; Hebert, Diane; Hodsman, Anthony. Canadian Society of Transplantation and Canadian Society of Nephrology commentary on the 2009 KDIGO clinical practice guideline for the care of kidney transplant recipients. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 56, 2, 219-246, 2010, WB Saunders.
• Benguzzi, Mowad; Mansell, Holly; Hassan, Abubakar; Elmoselhi, Hamdi; Mainra, Rahul; Shoker, Ahmed. Contribution of impaired renal function to cardiovascular risk prediction models in renal transplant recipients. Clinical Transplantation, 28, 12, 1383-1392, 2014.
• Jones, J; Rosaasen, Nicola; Taylor, Jeff; Mainra, Rahul; Shoker, Ahmed; Blackburn, David; Wilson, Jay; Mansell, Holly. Health literacy, knowledge, and patient satisfaction before kidney transplantation. Transplantation proceedings, 48, 8, 2608-2614, 2016, Elsevier.
• Rangan, Gopala K; Nguyen, Tina; Mainra, Rahul; Succar, Lena; Schwensen, Kristina G; Burgess, Jane S; Ho, Kok On. Therapeutic role of sirolimus in non-transplant kidney disease. Pharmacology & therapeutics, 123, 2, 187-206, 2009, Elsevier.
• Mainra, Rahul; Elder, Grahame. Managing bone complications after kidney transplantation. Nephrology, 14, 4, 437-442, 2009, "Blackwell Publishing Asia Melbourne, Australia".
• Suri, Rita S; Nesrallah, Gihad E; Mainra, Rahul; Garg, Amit X; Lindsay, Robert M; Greene, Tom; Daugirdas, John T. Daily hemodialysis: a systematic review. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 1, 1, 33-42, 2006, LWW.
• Sulakhe, Prakash V; Sandirasegarane, Lakshman; Davis, J Paul; Vo, Xuan T; Costain, Willard J; Mainra, Rahul R. Alterations in inotropy, nitric oxide and cyclic GMP synthesis, protein phosphorylation and ADP-ribosylation in the endotoxin-treated rat myocardium and cardiomyocytes. Molecular and cellular biochemistry, 163, 1, 305-318, 1996, Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht.
• Rosaasen, Nicola; Taylor, Jeff; Blackburn, David; Mainra, Rahul; Shoker, Ahmed; Mansell, Holly. Development and validation of the kidney transplant understanding tool (K-TUT). Transplantation direct, 3, 3, e132, 2017, LWW.
• Mainra, R; Xu, Q; Chibbar, R; Hassan, A; Shoker, A. Severe antibody-mediated rejection following IVIG infusion in a kidney transplant recipient with BK-virus nephropathy. Transplant Immunology, 28, 4, 145-147, 2013, Elsevier
• Rosaasen, Nicola; Mainra, Rahul; Kukha-Bryson, Azaad; Nhin, Victoria; Trivedi, Paraag; Shoker, Ahmed; Wilson, Jay; Padmanabh, Raj; Mansell, Holly. Development of a patient-centered video series to improve education before kidney transplantation. Patient Education and Counseling, 101, 9, 1624-1629, 2018, Elsevier.
• Elmoselhi, Hamdi; Hossain, Mohammad Akhtar; Khamis, Said; Mainra, Rahul; Hassan, Abubaker; Shoker, Ahmed. The practical implications of using estimated GFR as the presumed reference variable to estimate transplant chronic kidney disease. Nephrology Research & Reviews, 3, 1, 12-May, 2011, "SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England".
• Richardson, Robert; Connelly, Maureen; Dipchand, Christine; Garg, Amit X; Ghanekar, Anand; Houde, Isabelle; Johnston, Olwyn; Mainra, Rahul; McCarrell, Ruth; Mueller, Thomas. Kidney paired donation protocol for participating donors 2014. Transplantation, 99, /, S1-S88, 2015, LWW
• Mainra, Rahul; Mulay, Atul; Bell, Robert; Karpinski, Jolanta; Hoar, Stephanie; Knoll, Greg; Robertson, Susan; Wang, Don. Sirolimus use and de novo minimal change nephropathy following renal transplantation. Transplantation, 80, 12, 1816, 2005, LWW.
• Sulakhe, Prakash V; Vo, Xuan T; Mainra, Rahul R. Differential nature of cross-talk among three G-coupled receptors regulating adenylyl cyclase in rat cardiomyocytes chronically exposed to receptor agonists. Molecular and cellular biochemistry, 176,1, 75-82, 1997, Kluwer Academic Publishers Boston.
• Rosaasen, Nicola; Mainra, Rahul; Shoker, Ahmed; Wilson, Jay; Blackburn, David; Mansell, Holly. Education before kidney transplantation: what do patients need to know?. Progress in Transplantation, 27, 1, 58-64, 2017, "SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA".
• Ledger, Séadna; Mainra, Rahul Rai. Possible doxazosin-induced leukopenia. Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 57, 5, /, 2004.
• Mainra, Rahul; Elder, Grahame J. Individualized therapy to prevent bone mineral density loss after kidney and kidney-pancreas transplantation. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 5, 1, 117-124, 2010, LWW.
• Cujec, Bibiana; Mainra, Rahul; Johnson, David H. Prevention of recurrent cerebral ischemic events in patients with patent foramen ovale and cryptogenic strokes or transient ischemic attacks. The Canadian journal of cardiology, 15, 1, 57-64, 1999.
• Mansell, Holly; Rosaasen, Nicola; West-Thielke, Patricia; Wichart, Jenny; Daley, Christopher; Mainra, Rahul; Shoker, Ahmed; Liu, Juxin; Blackburn, David. Randomised controlled trial of a video intervention and behaviour contract to improve medication adherence after renal transplantation: the VECTOR study protocol. BMJ open, 9, 3, e025495, 2019, British Medical Journal Publishing Group.
• Mainra, Rahul; Wong, Germaine; Pilmore, Helen; Lim, Wai H. Association of prevalent vascular disease with allograft failure and mortality in live‐donor kidney transplant recipients–a retrospective cohort study. Transplant International, 32, 11, 1161-1172, 2019.
• Lam, Ngan N; Dipchand, Christine; Fortin, Marie-Chantal; Foster, Bethany J; Ghanekar, Anand; Houde, Isabelle; Kiberd, Bryce; Klarenbach, Scott; Knoll, Greg A; Landsberg, David. Canadian Society of Transplantation and Canadian Society of nephrology commentary on the 2017 KDIGO clinical practice guideline on the evaluation and care of living kidney donors. Canadian journal of kidney health and disease, 7, /, 2.05436E+15, 2020, "SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA".
• Mainra, Rahul Rai; Card, Sharon E. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole-associated hepatotoxicity-part of a hypersensitivity syndrome. The Canadian journal of clinical pharmacology= Journal canadien de pharmacologie clinique, 10, 4, 175-178, 2003.
• Habbous, Steven; Barnieh, Lianne; Litchfield, Kenneth; McKenzie, Susan; Reich, Marian; Lam, Ngan N; Mucsi, Istvan; Bugeja, Ann; Yohanna, Seychelle; Mainra, Rahul. A RAND-modified Delphi on key indicators to measure the efficiency of living kidney donor candidate evaluations. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 15, 10, 1464-1473, 2020, LWW.
• Weiss, Matthew J; Hornby, Laura; Foroutan, Farid; Belga, Sara; Bernier, Simon; Bhat, Mamatha; Buchan, C Arianne; Gagnon, Michael; Hardman, Gillian; Ibrahim, Maria. Clinical practice guideline for solid organ donation and transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Transplantation Direct, 7, 10, e755, 2021, LWW.
• Mansell, Holly; Rosaasen, Nicola; Wichart, Jenny; Mainra, Rahul; Shoker, Ahmed; Hoffert, Michele; Blackburn, David F; Liu, Juxin; Groot, Brianna; Trivedi, Paraag. A randomized controlled trial of a pretransplant educational intervention in kidney patients. Transplantation Direct, 7, 10, e753, 2021, LWW
• Knoll, Greg; Campbell, Patricia; Chassé, Michaël; Fergusson, Dean; Ramsay, Tim; Karnabi, Priscilla; Perl, Jeffrey; House, Andrew A; Kim, Joseph; Johnston, Olwyn. Immunosuppressant medication use in patients with kidney allograft failure: A prospective multicenter Canadian cohort study. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 33, 6, 1182-1192, 2022, LWW.
• Hall, Victoria G; Al-Alahmadi, Ghadeer; Solera, Javier T; Marinelli, Tina; Cardinal, Heloise; Prasad, GV Ramesh; De Serres, Sacha A; Isaac, Debra; Mainra, Rahul; Lamarche, Caroline. Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated compared with vaccinated solid organ transplant recipients: a propensity matched cohort study. Transplantation, 106, 8, 1622-1628, 2022, LWW.
• Rosaasen, Canute; Rosaasen, Nicola; Mainra, Rahul; Trachtenberg, Aaron; Ho, Julie; Parsons, Christina; Delaney, Sean; Mansell, Holly. Waitlisted and transplant patient perspectives on expanding access to deceased-donor kidney transplant: a qualitative study. Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease, 9, /, 2.05436E+16, 2022, "SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA".
• Hall, Victoria G; Solera, Javier T; Al-Alahmadi, Ghadeer; Marinelli, Tina; Cardinal, Heloise; Poirier, Charles; Huard, Geneviève; Prasad, GV Ramesh; De Serres, Sacha A; Isaac, Debra. Severity of COVID-19 among solid organ transplant recipients in Canada, 2020–2021: a prospective, multicentre cohort study. Cmaj, 194, 33, E1155-E1163, 2022, CMAJ.
• Hall, Victoria GG; Solera, Javier TT; Al-Alahmadi, Ghadeer; Marinelli, Tina; Cardinal, Heloise; Poirier, Charles; Huard, Genevieve; Prasad, GV; De Serres, Sacha AA; Isaac, Debra. Severity of COVID-19 in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients in Canada, 2020-2021: Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 194, 46, E1578-E1586, 2022, CMAJ.
• Vinson, AJ; Cardinal, H; Parsons, C; Tennankore, KK; Mainra, R; Maru, K; Treleaven, D; Gill, J. Disparities in deceased donor kidney offer acceptance: a survey of Canadian transplant nephrologists, general surgeons and urologists. Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease, 10, /, 2.05436E+16, 2023, "SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA".
• Ruderman, Irene; Holt, Stephen G; Kirkland, Geoffrey S; Maslen, Sophie; Hawley, Carmel M; Oliver, Veronica; Krishnasamy, Rathika; Gray, Nicholas A; Talaulikar, Girish S; Nelson, Craig L. Outcomes of cinacalcet withdrawal in Australian dialysis patients. Internal Medicine Journal, 49, 1, 48-54, 2019, "John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Melbourne".
• Mansell, Holly; Rosaasen, Nicola; Wichart, Jenny; West-Thielke, Patricia; Blackburn, David; Liu, Juxin; Mainra, Rahul; Shoker, Ahmed; Groot, Brianna; Wen, Kevin. Video education and behavior contract to improve outcomes after renal transplantation (VECTOR): a randomized controlled trial. Patient preference and adherence, /, /, 1589-1602, 2024, Taylor & Francis.
• Slominska, Anita; Gaudio, Kathleen; Shamseddin, M Khaled; Lam, Ngan N; Ho, Julie; Vinson, Amanda; Mainra, Rahul; Hoar, Stephanie; Fortin, Marie-Chantal; Kim, S Joseph. An environmental scan of Canadian kidney transplant programs for the management of patients with graft failure: a research letter. Canadian journal of kidney health and disease, 11, /, 2.05436E+16, 2024, "SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA".
• Shamseddin, M Khaled; Paraskevas, Steven; Mainra, Rahul; Maru, Kyle; Piggott, Bailey; Jagusic, Darlene; Yetzer, Kathy; Gunaratnam, Lakshman; Ribic, Christine; Kim, Joseph. Canadian Highly Sensitized Patient Program Report: A 1000 Kidney Transplants Story. Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease, 11, /, 2.05436E+16, 2024, "SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA".
• Loban, Katya; Trinh, Emilie; Gaudio, Kathleen; Nijjar, Diya; Robert, Jorane‐Tiana; Lam, Ngan; McKay, Scott; Badenoch, Heather; Fortin, Marie‐Chantal; Bugeja, Ann. Identifying the Views and Needs of Family Physicians on Providing Care to Living Kidney Donors: A Cross‐Sectional Survey. Clinical Transplantation, 39, 2, e70085, 2025.
• Kakodkar, Pramath; Shekari, Nooshin; Mainra, Rahul; Webster, Destinie; Pearce, Twyla; Wu, Fang; Mostafa, Ahmed. Vaccine-induced donor-specific HLA antibodies: a case report highlighting sensitization risks in renal transplant waitlisted patients. Frontiers in Immunology, 16, /,1567377, 2025, Frontiers Media SA.
• Fortin, Marie-Chantal; Ballesteros Gallego, Fabian; Cardinal, Héloise; Kaur, Manpreet; Mainra, Rahul; Patoine, Sylvain; Rosaasen, Nicola; Mansell, Holly. Patient and Caregiver Perceptions on the Allocation Process and Waitlist, and Accepting a Less-Than-Ideal Kidney: A Canadian Survey. Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease, 12, /, 2.05436E+16, 2025, "SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA".
• Dionne, Joanna C; Campbell, Patricia; Cardinal, Héloïse; Giannidis, Tatiana; Goldberg, Aviva; Kim, S Joseph; Knoll, Greg; Pâquet, Michel; Parsons, Christina; Yuan, Yuhong. Optimizing the Use of Deceased Donor Kidneys at Risk of Discard: A Clinical Practice Guideline. Transplant International, 38, /, 14596, 2025, Frontiers Media SA.
• Sulakhe, Prakash V; Vo, Xuan T; Mainra, Rahul R. Rat cardiomyocytes chronically exposed to receptor. The Cellular Basis of Cardiovascular Function in Health and Disease, 22, /, 75-82, 2012, Springer Science & Business Media.
• Sulakhe, Prakash V; Sandirasegarane, Lakshman; Davis, J Paul; Vo, Xuan T; Costain, Willard J; Mainra, Rahul R. Alterations in inotropy, nitric oxide and cyclic GMP synthesis, protein phosphorylation and…. Biochemical Regulation of Myocardium, 19, 164, 305-318, 2012, Springer Science & Business Media.