Publication

Telomere Length Declines In Persons Living With HIV Before Antiretroviral Therapy Start But Not After Viral Suppression: A Longitudinal Study Over >17 Years

Journal Paper/Review - Dec 15, 2021

Units
PubMed
Doi

Citation
Schoepf I, Bernasconi E, Cavassini M, Buvelot H, Arribas J, Kouyos R, Fellay J, Günthard H, Tarr P, Seneghini M, Marzolini C, Thurnheer C, Thorball C, Ledergerber B, Kootstra N, Reiss P, Raffenberg M, Engel T, Braun D, Hasse B, Swiss HIV Cohort Study. Telomere Length Declines In Persons Living With HIV Before Antiretroviral Therapy Start But Not After Viral Suppression: A Longitudinal Study Over >17 Years. J Infect Dis 2021
Type
Journal Paper/Review (English)
Journal
J Infect Dis 2021
Publication Date
Dec 15, 2021
Issn Electronic
1537-6613
Brief description/objective

BACKGROUND
In people living with HIV (PWH), long-term telomere length (TL) change without/with suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART) and the contribution of genetic background to TL are incompletely understood.

METHODS
We measured TL change in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by quantitative PCR in 107 Swiss HIV Cohort Study participants with longitudinal samples available both before and during suppressive ART. We applied mixed effects multi-level regression to obtain uni-/multivariable estimates for longitudinal TL dynamics including age, sex, and CD4:CD8 ratio. We assessed the effect of individual antiretrovirals and of an individual TL-polygenic risk score (TL-PRS; based on 239 single nucleotide polymorphisms) on TL in 798 additional participants from our previous longitudinal studies.

RESULTS
During untreated HIV infection (median observation, 7.7 [interquartile range, IQR, 4.7-11] years), TL declined significantly (median -2.12%/year; IQR, -3.48% to -0.76%/year; p=0.002). During suppressive ART (median observation, 9.8 [IQR, 7.1-11.1] years), there was no evidence of TL decline or increase (median +0.54%/year; IQR, -0.55% to +1.63%/year; p=0.329). TL-PRS contributed to TL change (global p=0.019) but particular antiretrovirals did not (all p>0.15).

DISCUSSION
In PWH, TL is associated with an individual polygenic risk score. TL declined significantly during untreated chronic HIV infection but no TL change occurred during suppressive ART.