Petronela Ancuta is passionate about immunology and realized one of her dreams by becoming Director of the Cell Migration and HIV Pathogenesis laboratory at the CRCHUM in 2006. Principal investigator of CIHR’s Canadian HIV Cure Enterprise (CanCURE) since 2014, she aims to deepen the scientific understanding of this virus to improve the quality of life of people living with it.
Although HIV can now be controlled by antiretroviral therapy, its persistence in the body of infected people continues to lead to chronic inflammation, which causes several health problems such as neurodegeneration, cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis.
Identifying the molecules involved
Ancuta and her team succeeded a few years ago in bringing to light the role of TH17 lymphocytes, mainly located in the intestine, in viral persistence in people living with HIV and receiving antiretroviral therapy.
After demonstrating that TH17 cells are very permissive to HIV, she looked at the factors that lead to their infection. Her laboratory then discovered that a molecule facilitates the replication of the virus: the RORC2 protein, for which there are already inhibitors, developed for the purpose of treating autoimmune diseases. Her team also proved that the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) plays a crucial role in the latency of the virus, paving the way for new therapeutic strategies.
Following these major advances, and in partnership with the teams of Dr. Eli Haddad, clinician scientist at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, and Eric Cohen, researcher at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) and director of CanCURE, Ancuta carried out a preclinical study on humanized mice—mice that contain human tissue and are carriers of HIV—to test the antiviral effectiveness of RORC2 inhibitors.
Circadian rhythm under the microscope
By studying how to counteract HIV, Ancuta’s team also found that TH17 cells contained overexpressed molecules involved in the regulation of the immunity clock. “Body activities are governed by a central clock and peripheral clocks, and the immune system also has rhythmic activity, so we find different cells in the blood depending on the time of day. This is called chrono-immunology,” Ancuta explains.
It seems that a deregulation of this clock would have a negative impact in people infected with HIV. With funding from CIHR, her laboratory has therefore started a study to assess the presence of certain immune cells in the blood of infected people throughout the day
Essential collaborations
As part of her projects on cellular immunity mechanisms, Petronela Ancuta’s laboratory uses the flow cytometry core facility located inside a biosafety level 3 laboratory. This state-of-the-art equipment will be used, among other things, to study fetal cells from the placenta of people living with HIV in order to understand its impact on children, even if they are not infected with HIV due to antiretroviral treatment.
“I have had the opportunity to meet remarkable people living with the virus and to understand how the disease affects their daily lives. These people are often stigmatized and isolated, even in Canada, and I hope to make a difference in their lives.”
— Petronela Ancuta
This portrait is taken from our 2023-2024 Activity Report
