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. 2019 Feb 1;33(2):259-268.
doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000002063.

Do people living with HIV experience greater age advancement than their HIV-negative counterparts?

Davide De Francesco  1 , Ferdinand W Wit  2   3 , Alexander Bürkle  4 , Sebastian Oehlke  4 , Neeltje A Kootstra  5 , Alan Winston  6 , Claudio Franceschi  7 , Paolo Garagnani  7 , Chiara Pirazzini  7 , Claude Libert  8   9 , Tilman Grune  10 , Daniela Weber  10 , Eugène H J M Jansen  11 , Caroline A Sabin  1 , Peter Reiss  2   3 ; the Co-morBidity in Relation to AIDS (COBRA) Collaboration
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Do people living with HIV experience greater age advancement than their HIV-negative counterparts?

Davide De Francesco et al. AIDS. .

Abstract

Objectives: Despite successful antiretroviral therapy, people living with HIV (PLWH) may show signs of premature/accentuated aging. We compared established biomarkers of aging in PLWH, appropriately chosen HIV-negative individuals, and blood donors, and explored factors associated with biological age advancement.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of 134 PLWH on suppressive antiretroviral therapy, 79 lifestyle-comparable HIV-negative controls aged 45 years or older from the Co-morBidity in Relation to AIDS (COBRA) cohort, and 35 age-matched blood donors.

Methods: Biological age was estimated using a validated algorithm based on 10 biomarkers. Associations between 'age advancement' (biological minus chronological age) and HIV status/parameters, lifestyle, cytomegalovirus (CMV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections were investigated using linear regression.

Results: The average (95% CI) age advancement was greater in both HIV-positive [13.2 (11.6-14.9) years] and HIV-negative [5.5 (3.8-7.2) years] COBRA participants compared with blood donors [-7.0 (-4.1 to -9.9) years, both P's < 0.001)], but also in HIV-positive compared with HIV-negative participants (P < 0.001). Chronic HBV, higher anti-CMV IgG titer and CD8 T-cell count were each associated with increased age advancement, independently of HIV-status/group. Among HIV-positive participants, age advancement was increased by 3.5 (0.1-6.8) years among those with nadir CD4+ T-cell count less than 200 cells/μl and by 0.1 (0.06-0.2) years for each additional month of exposure to saquinavir.

Conclusion: Both treated PLWH and lifestyle-comparable HIV-negative individuals show signs of age advancement compared with blood donors, to which persistent CMV, HBV co-infection and CD8+ T-cell activation may have contributed. Age advancement remained greatest in PLWH and was related to prior immunodeficiency and cumulative saquinavir exposure.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(a) Age advancement (biological minus chronological age) in HIV-positive and HIV-negative COBRA participants and blood donors (Ps from linear regression); (b) Correlation between age advancement and chronological age in HIV-positive and HIV-negative COBRA participants and blood donors (no interaction between chronological age and HIV-status/group, P = 0.66).
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