Inflammation in HIV/AIDS-InflammAIDS

Plain-language summary

The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic still represents a major public health problem with 41 million people currently living with HIV worldwide. Indeed, the advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has largely decreased morbidity and mortality associated with HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, ART is not able to eradicate the virus and, therefore, the management of HIV/AIDS involves a long-term treatment. The persistence of an HIV reservoir is associated with a chronic status of immune activation and inflammation, exacerbating damage in tissues. Consequently, the immunological status of people living with HIV (PLWH) is reminiscent to what is observed in immunosenescence, predisposing them to the development of the so-called non-AIDS defining diseases (NADE), which correspond to conditions commonly observed in aging such as metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neurocognitive disorders, and non-HIV associated cancers, amongst others. The investigators estimate that more than a half of Chilean patients present metabolic syndrome, a well characterized risk factor including cardiovascular disease , type 2 diabetes and death in the general population but especially in PLWH. The Anillo Inflammation in HIV/AIDS (InflammAIDS) brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from life and medical sciences working at public universities and hospitals with the aim of investigating the immune, inflammatory and virological signatures of PLWH with and without metabolic syndrome in Chile and how they influence the clinical outcome of the patients. To accomplish our objectives, the researchers group will first establish a prospective cohort of PLWH, with and without metabolic syndrome, across relevant lifetime periods (childhood, adulthood, and elderly) and will generate the first Chilean collection of samples from the participants of this clinical cohort with Biobank standards, generation standardized and high-quality sample and data collection. These cohorts will be analyzed combining state-of-the-art methodologies such as single-cell RNA sequencing, multiparametric flow cytometry, xMap® Luminex, mass spectrometry and Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing together with classical biochemical, molecular, and cellular biology, virological and immunological analyses, determining the immune, inflammatory and virological state associated to the clinical condition of our patients.

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