Ivona Pandrea, MD, PhD

Professor of Pathology, Division of Experimental Pathology

Dr. Pandrea is a member of Division of Experimental Pathology and the Cellular and Molecular Pathology Graduate Training Program.

Certifications

Board Certified Pathology 1997

Specialties

Pathology, Immunology, Virology

Education & Training
MD - 1992, Grigore T. Popa School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași, Romania, 1992
PhD - 1999, Grigore T. Popa School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași, Romania, 1999
Awards
1995 - 1996 - "Tempus" Fellowship, University Paris-Sud, France
1996 - 1998 - Fellowship from the Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer
2002 - Young Scientist Travel Grant offered by NIH for attending the XIV International AIDS Conference Barcelona, Spain, July 7-12, 2002
2003 - International Award offered by 2nd IAS Conference of HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment
2005 - Promise in Research, Tulane University Award
2005 - Leadership in Research, Tulane University Award
2006 - TUHSC Auxiliary Research Career Development Award
2007 - Louisiana Legislative Women's Caucus Women of Excellence Awards nominee (category Education & Research)
Research Interests

Pandrea’s lab pioneered HIV research in African nonhuman primates to establish the mechanisms responsible for lack of disease progression in these species. Research in Pandrea’s lab investigates the causes and the consequences of the intestinal dysfunction in infectious diseases. Specifically, we are testing the impact of SIV/HIV and SARS-Cov2 infections on gut health and consequent systemic changes, by assessing the impact of these infections on gut integrity, microbiota, microbial translocation, metabolite and lipid profiles and systemic inflammation.

We are also assessing the immunometabolic axes established between the gut and other organ systems, such as heart, liver, kidney and brain, and their impact on development of HIV/SIV-related comorbidities. We are also assessing the role of gut dysfunction and chronic inflammation in accelerating aging in SIV/HIV-infected individuals. Pandrea’s lab is involved in characterization of the role of neglected immune cell subsets, such as neutrophils, in fighting viral infections.

We pioneered studies of the impact of behavioral factors, such as diets and alcohol in infectious diseases. We are testing diverse dietary and alcohol interventions to characterize their role in inducing gut dysfunction, mucosal permeabilization, liver alterations and consequent systemic inflammation. Our goal is to find dietary nonpharmacy adjuvant interventions that may reduce chronic inflammation and comorbidities in people living with HIV.

We also study pathways such increasing adenosine production or excessive NETosis inhibition, as pharmaceutical avenues to reduce chronic inflammation in people living with HIV. We developed numerous nonhuman primate models for AIDS research and more recently we developed nonhuman primate models for inflammatory bowel diseases and myocardial infarction. We are using all these models to establish the determinants of disease progression and the pathways responsible for the development of comorbidities associated with SIV/HIV infection.

NIH Research

View Dr. Pandrea's NIH RePORT on nih.gov.

Representative Publications

View Dr. Pandrea's publications on PubMed.

  1. He T, Brocca-Cofano E, Gillespie D, Xu C, Stock J, Ma D, Policicchio BB, Raehtz K, Rinaldo CR, Apetrei C, Jackson EK, Macatangay BJC, & Pandrea I: Critical role for the adenosine pathway in controlling SIV-related immune activation and inflammation in gut mucosal tissues. J Virol. 2015; 89: 9616-30.
  2. Hao XP, Lucero CM, Turkbey B, Bernardo ML, Morcock DL, Deleage C, Trubey CM, Smedley J, Klatt NR, Giavedoni LD, Del Prete GQ, Keele BF, Rao SS, Gregory Alvord L, Choyke PL, Lifson JD, Brenchley JM, Apetrei C, Pandrea I, & Estes JD: Experimental colitis in SIV-uninfected rhesus macaques recapitulates the microbial translocation and systemic immune activation of SIV infection. Nat Commun. 2015; 18: 8020.
  3. Pandrea I, Xu C, Stock JL, Frank DN, Ma D, Policicchio BB, He T, Kristoff J, Cornell E, Haret-Richter GS, Trichel A, Ribeiro RM, Tracy R, Wilson C, Landay AL, & Apetrei C: Antibiotic and Antiinflammatory Therapy Transiently Reduces Inflammation and Hypercoagulation in Acutely SIV-Infected Pigtailed Macaques. PLoS Pathog. 2016; 14: e1005384.
  4. Brocca-Cofano E, Siewe B, Kuhrt D, Xu C, Ma D, Haret-Richter GS, Craigo J, Montefiori DC, Landay A, Apetrei C & Pandrea I: Pathogenic correlates of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-associated B cell dysfunction. J Virol. 2017; 91: e01051-17
  5. Schechter ME, Andrade BB, He T, Haret Richter G, Tosh KW, Policicchio BB, Singh A, Raehtz KD, Sheikh V, Ma D, Brocca-Cofano E, Apetrei C, Tracy R, Ribeiro RM, Sher A, Francischetti IMB, Pandrea I & Sereti I: Inflammatory monocytes expressing tissue factor 1 drive SIV and HIV-coagulopathy. Sci. Transl. Med. 2017; 9: 405.
  6. Sivanandham R, Brocca-Cofano E, Krampe N, Falwell E, Venkatraman SMK, Ribeiro RM, Apetrei C, Pandrea I. Neutrophil extracellular trap production contributes to pathogenesis in SIV-infected non-human primates. J Clin Invest. 2018; 128: 5178-5183.
  7. Hao XP, Lucero CM, Turkbey B, Bernardo ML, Morcock DL, Deleage C, […], Apetrei C, Pandrea I, & Estes JD: Experimental colitis in SIV-uninfected rhesus macaques recapitulates the microbial translocation and systemic immune activation of SIV infection. Nature Communications 2015; 6: 8020.
  8. Brocca-Cofano E, Xu C, Wetzel KS, Cottrell ML, Policicchio BB, Raehtz KD, Ma D, Dunsmore T, Haret-Richter GS, Musaitif K, Keele BF, Kashuba AD, Collman RG, Pandrea I, Apetrei C. Marginal Effects of Systemic CCR5 Blockade with Maraviroc on Oral Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission to Infant Macaques. J Virol. 2018; 92: e00576-18.
  9. He T, Xu C, Krampe N, Dillon SM, Sette P, Falwell E, Haret-Richter GS, Butterfield T, Dunsmore TL, McFadden Jr WM, Martin KJ, Policicchio BB, Raehtz KD, Penn EP, Tracy RP, Ribeiro RM, Frank DN, Wilson CC, Landay AL, Apetrei C, & Pandrea I: High fat diet exacerbates SIV pathogenesis and accelerates disease progression. J Clin Invest. 2019; 129: 5474-5488.
  10. Barrenas CF, Raehtz KD, Law L, Green RR, Silvestri G, Bosinger S, Nishida A, Li Q, Lu X, Thomas MJ, Chang J, Smith E, Peng X, Weiss JM, Dawoud R, Haret-Richter G, Trichel A, Ma D, Apetrei C, Pandrea I, Gale M: African green monkeys control SIV pathogenesis through macrophage associated wound healing. Nat Communications 2019; 10: 5101.
  11. Raehtz KD, Barrenäs KF, Xu C, […] Gale Jr. M, Keele BF, Estes JD, Apetrei C, & Pandrea I: African green monkeys avoid SIV disease progression by preventing intestinal dysfunction and maintaining mucosal barrier integrity. PLosPathogens 2020; 16: e1008333.
  12. Jasinska AJ, Dong TS, Lagishetty V, […] Freimer N, Pandrea I, & Apetrei C: Shifts in microbial diversity, composition and functionality in the gut and genital microbiome during a natural SIV infection in vervet monkeys. Microbiome 2020; 8: 154.
  13. Jasinska AJ, Pandrea I, He T, Benjamin C, Newton M, Lee JC, Freimer NB, Coppola G, Jentsch JD: Immunosuppressive effect and global dysregulation of blood transcriptome in response to psychosocial stress in vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus). Sci Rep. 2020; 10: 3459.
  14. Francischetti IMB, Alejo JC, Sivanandham R, Davies-Hill T, Fetsch P, Pandrea I, Jaffe ES, Pittaluga S: Neutrophil and Eosinophil Extracellular Traps in Hodgkin Lymphoma. Hemasphere; 2021; 5: e633.
  15. Li H, Wang S, Lee F-H, Roark RS, Murphy AI, Smith J, Zhao C, Rando J, Chohan N, Ding Y, Kim E, Lindemuth E, Pandrea I, Apetrei C, Keele BF, Lifson JD, Lewis MG, Denny TN, Haynes BF, Hahn BH, Shaw GM: New SHIVs and improved design strategy for modeling HIV-1 transmission, immunopathogenesis, prevention and cure. J Virol 2021; 95: e00071-21.
  16. Le Hingrat Q, Sette P, Xu C, Rahmberg AR, Tarnus L, Annapureddy H, […],Apetrei C, Pandrea I: Prolonged Experimental CD4+ T-Cell Depletion Does Not Cause Disease Progression in SIV-infected African Green Monkeys. Nat Communication. 2023; 14: 979.
  17. Apetrei C, Gaufin T, Brocca-Cofano E, Sivanandham R, Sette P, He T, […] Lackner AA, Landay AL, Ribeiro RM, & Pandrea I: T cell activation is insufficient to drive SIV disease progression. JCI Insight 2023; 8: e161111.