An impact on aging
In the past, studies have suggested that antiretroviral (ARV) treatments are associated with the early onset of comorbidities often linked to aging such as heart and kidney disease or cognitive difficulties in people living with HIV (PLHIV). But what regarding the impact of HIV itself on aging? A new study, led by Elizabeth Crabb Breen, professor at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology (Psychoneuroimmunology) in Los Angeles (USA), looked into the subject. The team of researchers analyzed blood samples collected from 100 men, six months before their HIV infection, then two to three years following infection. They compared these samples with those of another group of 100 men of the same age, HIV-negative, over the same periods of time. The researchers measured four markers of the epigenetic “clock” (the study of changes in gene activity or, to put it simply, four genetic markers of aging). They observed an acceleration of aging that ranged from 1.9 to 4.8 years in the group of PLHIV, which was not observed in the group of HIV-negative people.
HIV has an “early and substantial” impact on aging in infected people and accelerates biological changes in the body only two or three years following infection, the study authors report. “Our work demonstrates that even in the first months and years of living with HIV, the virus has already set in motion a process of accelerating aging at the DNA level,” says Elizabeth Crabb Breen. “This highlights the crucial importance of early HIV diagnosis,” adds the professor.
In the absence of effective treatment
Some nuances and limitations in this study. The researchers point out that these observations were made “in the absence of effective antiretroviral treatment”. “Our access to rare, well-characterized samples allowed us to design this study in a way that leaves little doubt regarding the role of HIV in the biological signs of early aging,” said Beth Jamieson, one of the authors of the study. “Our long-term goal is to determine if we can use one of these signs to predict whether a person is at increased risk for a disease specific to aging and thus explore new therapeutic targets,” adds Beth Jamieson. The researchers pointed out certain limitations in this study, such as the fact that it only included men and the majority were white. Furthermore, the number of participants is too small to take into account the future effects of ARV treatments or to predict future clinical results. Finally, the authors conclude that, to date, there is no consensus on what constitutes natural aging or how to define it.
