Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 1;10(3):ofad106.
doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofad106. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Coronary Artery Plaque Composition and Severity Relate to the Inflammasome in People With Treated Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Samuel R Schnittman  1   2 , Douglas W Kitch  3 , Talia H Swartz  4 , Tricia H Burdo  5 , Kathleen V Fitch  2 , Sara McCallum  2 , Jacqueline M Flynn  5 , Evelynne S Fulda  2 , Marissa R Diggs  2 , Jack T Stapleton  6 , José L Casado  7 , Jana Taron  8   9 , Judith S Currier  10 , Markella V Zanni  2 , Carlos Malvestutto  11 , Carl J Fichtenbaum  12 , Judith A Aberg  4 , Heather J Ribaudo  3 , Michael T Lu  8 , Pamela S Douglas  13 , Steven K Grinspoon  2
Affiliations

Coronary Artery Plaque Composition and Severity Relate to the Inflammasome in People With Treated Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Samuel R Schnittman et al. Open Forum Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Inflammasome activation is increased in people with human immunodeficiency virus (PWH), but its relationship with coronary plaque is poorly understood in this setting.

Methods: In a large human immunodeficiency virus cardiovascular prevention cohort, relationships between caspase-1, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-18 and coronary plaque indices were assessed by multivariate logistic regression.

Results: Higher IL-18 and IL-1β were associated with Leaman score, an integrative measure of plaque burden and composition.

Conclusions: As Leaman score >5 is associated with cardiovascular events in the general population, future work is needed to determine how the inflammasome relates to events and whether strategies to reduce its activation affect events or plaque progression among PWH.

Keywords: HIV; Leaman score; atherosclerosis; inflammasome.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. SRS reports grant support through his institution from NIH/NIAID. THS reports grant support through her institution from NIH/NIAID and NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases outside the submitted work. THB reports equity in Excision BioTherapeutics and serves on their Scientific Advisory Board, outside the submitted work. JTS reports grant support through his institution from NIH/NIAID, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, HRSA (Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program), and Abbvie, DSMB service for Transposon Therapeutics, Inc., and honoraria for lectures at Iowa State University, all outside the submitted work. JLC reports honoraria for presentations for Gilead, MSD, and Janssen and advisory board membership for ViiV Healthcare and Gilead Sciences, all outside the submitted work. JT reports funding by Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft ([DFG], German Research Foundation), speakers bureau for Siemens Healthcare GmbH and Bayer AG, reviewer for Universimed Cross Media Content GmbH, and consultant for Core Lab Black Forrest GmbH, all outside the submitted work. JSC reports consulting fees from Merck, outside the submitted work. MVZ reports grant support through her institution from NIH/NIAID and Gilead Sciences, Inc. relevant to the conduct of the study, as well as grants from NIH/NIAID and NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) outside the submitted work. CM reports institutional research support by Lilly and honoraria from ViiV Healthcare and Gilead Sciences for advisory board membership, all outside the submitted work. CJF reports grant support through his institution from Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, GSK, Janssen, Abbvie, Merck, Amgen, and Cytodyn; personal fees from Theratechnologies and ViiV for consulting and participation on Advisory Board unrelated to REPRIEVE; and DSMB Chair for Intrepid Study, all outside the submitted work. JAA reports institutional research support for clinical trials from Atea, Emergent Biosolutions, Frontier Technologies, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Merck, Pfizer, Regeneron, and ViiV Healthcare and personal fees for advisory boards from GlaxoSmithKline/ViiV and Merck; and participation on DSMB for Kintor Pharmaceuticals, all outside the submitted work. HJR reports grants from NIH/NHLBI and Kowa Pharmaceuticals during the conduct of the study, as well as grants from NIH/NIAID, NIH/NHLBI, NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and NIH/National Institute on Aging, outside the submitted work. MTL reports grant support through his institution from Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc., for the conduct of the study. He also reports grant support from MedImmune/AstraZeneca and personal fees from PQBypass, outside of the current work. SKG reports grant support through his institution from NIH, Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., and ViiV Healthcare for the conduct of the study; personal fees from Theratechnologies and ViiV; and service on the Scientific Advisory Board of Marathon Asset Management, all outside the submitted work. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

References

    1. Hoffmann U, Lu MT, Foldyna B, et al. . Assessment of coronary artery disease with computed tomography angiography and inflammatory and immune activation biomarkers among adults with HIV eligible for primary cardiovascular prevention. JAMA Netw Open 2021; 4:e2114923. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ridker PM, Everett BM, Thuren T, et al. . Anti-inflammatory therapy with canakinumab for atherosclerotic disease. N Engl J Med 2017; 377:1119–31. - PubMed
    1. Hoel H, Ueland T, Knudsen A, et al. . Soluble markers of interleukin 1 activation as predictors of first-time myocardial infarction in HIV-infected individuals. J Infect Dis 2020; 221:506–9. - PubMed
    1. Kearns AC, Liu F, Dai S, et al. . Caspase-1 activation is related with HIV-associated atherosclerosis in an HIV transgenic mouse model and HIV patient cohort. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2019; 39:1762–75. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hoffmann U, Lu MT, Olalere D, et al. . Rationale and design of the mechanistic substudy of the randomized trial to prevent vascular events in HIV (REPRIEVE): effects of pitavastatin on coronary artery disease and inflammatory biomarkers. Am Heart J 2019; 212:1–12. - PMC - PubMed