Ageing with HIV: is the virus or the treatment guilty?

People living with HIV endure diverse age-related comorbidities at a higher prevalence than do the general population, including cardiometabolic, bone, liver, and kidney diseases and some cancers. 1 Guaraldi G Orlando G Zona S et al. Premature age-related comorbidities among HIV-infected persons compared with the general population. Clin Infect Dis. 2011; 53: 1120-1126 Crossref PubMed Scopus (781) Google Scholar , 2 Schouten J Wit FW Stolte IG et al. Cross-sectional comparison of the prevalence of age-associated comorbidities and their risk factors between HIV-infected and uninfected individuals: the AGEhIV cohort study. Clin Infect Dis. 2014; 59: 1787-1797 Crossref PubMed Scopus (438) Google Scholar This observation has led to the hypothesis that people living with HIV might have premature ageing, 1 Guaraldi G Orlando G Zona S et al. Premature age-related comorbidities among HIV-infected persons compared with the general population. Clin Infect Dis. 2011; 53: 1120-1126 Crossref PubMed Scopus (781) Google Scholar meaning that their so called biological age is higher than their numerical age. Epigenetic age acceleration changes 2 years after antiretroviral therapy initiation in adults with HIV: a substudy of the NEAT001/ANRS143 randomised trialART initiation partly reversed epigenetic ageing associated with untreated HIV infection. Further studies are needed to understand the long-term dynamics and clinical relevance of epigenetic ageing biomarkers in people with HIV. Full-Text PDF