Monocyte and T cell immune phenotypic profiles associated with age advancement differ between people with HIV, lifestyle-comparable controls and blood donors.
Monocyte and T cell immune phenotypic profiles associated with age advancement differ between people with HIV, lifestyle-comparable controls and blood donors.
Publication
Lay summary
People with HIV who are successfully treated show some signs of premature aging and may be more likely to experience clinical conditions. It has been suggested that HIV may contribute to this through the immune dysfunction and inflammation that it causes. In a previous study we used a set of markers in the blood to generate an aging score for each person. In this study, we studied associations between these scores and several immunological markers among participants in the COBRA cohort. We found that ‘age advancement’ (a score that would predict an older age than someone’s true age) was associated with distinct patterns of blood markers, some of which were also seen in blood donors who were uninfected with HIV. Among people with HIV, associations with age advancement were also seen with immune recovery after antiretroviral treatment. The findings suggested, however, that a range of factors (including some unrelated to HIV) may contribute to the ageing process in people with HIV.