Through the Catalyst Grant: Innovative Technologies and Next Generation Interventions for Biomedical Research in HIV/AIDS and STBBI competition, Petronela Ancuta, a researcher at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM), receives $200,000 in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Her project, titled “Metformin and Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies to Accelerate HIV-1 Reservoir Decay During ART,” is one of a small cohort of seven funded studies in Canada.

Combining different approaches

As it stands, the persistence of viral reservoirs in CD4+ T lymphocytes, immune cells, is the main obstacle to curing HIV. Trends in current HIV interventions underline the importance of combining several approaches to achieve synergistic results.

In her recent research project, Ancuta and her team show that metformin—a drug typically used to treat type 2 diabetes—reduces chronic inflammation, increases immune function and reduces viral reservoir size in people with HIV receiving triple therapy.

With this new funding, the researcher hopes to determine whether metformin could be used in combination with broad-spectrum neutralizing antibodies to increase the depletion of viral reservoirs through triple therapy and slowing down viral rebound after treatment interruption.

This approach makes reference to the tests, conducted with Andrés Finzi, Ancuta’s colleague, that showed that some of these antibodies are able to recognize the virus and trigger the destruction of infected cells through a process of cellular cytotoxicity.

Ancuta’s new research project can expect support from the complementary expertise of her partners, notably, those in immunology, HIV transcription, preclinical models and HIV clinical care: Andrés Finzi (CRCHUM), Carine Van Lint (Université libre de Bruxelles), Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy (McGill University) and Priti Kumar (Yale University).