A new study says HIV infection has an “early and substantial” impact on the aging process.
The researchers found this negative impact took hold within the first 2-3 years of infection. Even on treatment, those living with the virus could lose up to five years of their lifespan, they warn.
It helps explain why some people with HIV are more prone to heart disease, cancer and other age-related problems.
The study was undertaken by scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). It was published in iScience.
The study looked at blood samples from 102 men before infection, and then 2-3 years after infection. It compared these results with blood samples taken from men over a similar period who had not acquired the virus.
The study looked specifically at changes at the DNA level.
DNA and epigenetic aging
Long chains of proteins make up the DNA found in all human cells. DNA basically programs your cells, coding the functions they carry out.
Over time, as our cells regenerate, these long chains of DNA undergo a process of degradation, known as methylation. It means the cells in our body don’t function as well as when we’re younger. We become more prone to potential diseases or frailties.
Related: CDC says gay and bi men of color still disproportionately impacted by HIV
What biologically constitutes “aging” is complicated. However, it’s known that certain parts of DNA are more prone to this process as the years pass. This is known as epigenetic aging.
In this study, people with HIV showed “significant age acceleration” in these DNA regions. These changes took place, “just before infection and ending two to three years after, in the absence of highly active antiretroviral treatment. Similar age acceleration was not seen in the non-infected participants over the same time interval,” according to a press release about the study.
“Our access to rare, well-characterized samples allowed us to design this study in a way that leaves little doubt about the role of HIV in eliciting biological signatures of early aging,” said senior author Beth Jamieson, a professor in the division of hematology and oncology at the Geffen School.
“Our long-term goal is to determine whether we can use any of these signatures to predict whether an individual is at increased risk for specific aging-related disease outcomes, thus exposing new targets for intervention therapeutics.”
Treatment partly reverses the aging impact
This is not the first research to look at HIV and aging. In May, a study in the Lancet, found that “persistent HIV inflammation” was linked to DNA aging.
In other words, the biological age of those with the virus appeared to be older than their actual age.
This was most marked in those that had gone for some time before starting treatment. When treatment commenced, it took up to a couple of years for the impact to be partially reversed.
That study found the biological age of those with infection to be between 1-3 years older than their actual age.
Queerty reached out to Dr. Jamieson at UCLA to ask her some more about her new study. She said those diagnosed soon after infection and placed quickly on to treatment likely had less to worry about.
“We haven’t directly tested the effects of early treatment for HIV on epigenetic age, but taken together with the results of two of our other studies, I do believe that early treatment is likely to arrest epigenetic aging.”
She believes this latest study is “another strong argument for the early detection of, and treatment for, HIV.”
“This study demonstrates very clearly that HIV itself can change the rate of epigenetic aging, increasing a person’s long-term risk for a shorter health span.
“I also think another important aspect of this work is this study gives us a much clearer picture of the overall effects that HIV infection has on the body. We are in the process of following this up to better understand the relationship between these epigenetic changes and the health outcomes experienced by people living with treated HIV.”
Related: Marjorie Taylor Greene displays complete ignorance around HIV
Avoiding age-related health problems with HIV
As HIV-positive people may be more prone to heart, kidney and liver disease, what advice might Jamieson offer to help avoid tbis? Is it simply a matter of adopting a healthy lifestyle and checking in regularly with your clinician?
“One of the things we know is that our environment and experiences do affect epigenetics, so improving epigenetic aging is not out of the realm of possibility,” she replied.
“The first thing that comes to mind is that people living with HIV should work with their clinicians to ensure they are on medications that keep the virus suppressed.
“Other than that advice, we have to borrow from all the advice given to people living without HIV. That is to do exactly what you proposed. Get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet, stop smoking, exercise and have regular checkups. We know smoking has a large impact on the epigenetic landscape so smokers might want to take that into consideration.”
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TomG
And here I thought they were going to say that it makes you look older before your time. I am incorrect I presume.
chase_lounger
If HIV did make you look older before ‘their’ time, I guarantee everyone would be on PREP and practicing safe sex. Religiously.
still_onthemark
Smoking really DOES make you look older before your time, but gay men STILL smoke at about twice the rate straight men do.
winemaker
Not surprising sad to say. That being said, what’s this new trend called barebacking all about? Really have we learned nothing over the past 40 years, yes that’s 40 years that barebacking is russian roulette and besides hiv there a lot of other nasties going around. . Some gay men seem to think they’re invincible and this disease is just a matter of taking a pill daily or whatever, not thinking of the long term damage the disease and drugs do to the body and the long term consequences
Bromancer7
These drugs have been around literally for decades, and newer ones are approved all the time. What exactly are these long-term effects you’re prattling on about?
Sit down, clown.
Kangol2
“New trend”? Did you sleep through the last two decades? You mean you’re just now realizing raw sex is a thing? You’re supposedly out in the Bay Area too; do you have no contact with other gay or bi men out there?
Den
Kangol: Whinemaker claims to be in SF, but I suspect he actually resides in some Napa Valley “age stratified community.”
He seems totally unaware of the research that those with an undetectable viral load essentially cannot spread the virus, and those on PrEP are extremely unlikely to get it. But then he seems unaware of a lot of things.
That stated, he is correct that the spread of other STDs is increasing with drug resistant varieties becoming more common. And of course there is now Monkey pox, not an STD but certainly spread by prolonged contact with skin or bedding (and increasingly other forms of contagion not yet understood). Additionally polio is spreading in New York State, which as an enterovirus can easily be spread through rimming or any other act that possibly involves oral fecal contact, even secondarily. There are more and more people who were not vaccinated against it as children since it was considered eradicated by 1979.
Condom use and other safe sex measures are, sadly, no less important than they were 20 years ago.
Den
Bromancer7:
AZT was first approved for use against HIV only 35 years ago. So “a few decades might be a more accurate statement. And it was fraught with side effects for many users. Many of its successors have similarly had side effects or not been tolerated by many who attempted to use them. Lymphoma, physical disfigurement, chronic dysentery, neuropathy and more continue to be problems for some users of antiretroviral, and long term effects are still not known for the newer ones. I have friends who cannot leave the house for days on end sometimes because of side effects from antiretrovirals, but the alternative of uncontrolled HIV is worse. You really should not buy into the happy picture the drug companies paint. Nor should you forget that the typical reference to HIV as “a manageable illness like diabetes” does not mention that diabetes almost always shortens lives and even with the best management techniques can lead to blindness, amputations, chronic sores, neuropathy and more. And there remain around 15,000 deaths per year in the US from AIDS related conditions. Not a huge number, but certainly worth noting as most of them are still among gay and bi men.
I hate to lend support to a post by Whinemaker, but you should sit down as you might just be a little more clownish than you realize. It makes sense to take pains to avoid seroconversion now just as much as it always did.
CityguyUSA
Seems ridiculous that they’ll spend all this money on one drug that who knoes if it even does what it says yet won’t spend $2 on a condom that will protect them from most STDs including AIDS. I just don’t undrrstand what the hell they ate thinking. No common sense. It’s almost like these drugs are some type of status symbol.
CityguyUSA
@bromancer they’ve been out for just 10 years clown.
Bromancer7
Truvada has been on the market since 2004. That’s :checks notes: 18 years. Clown.
BigDaddy
@Bromancer & @CityguyUSA Your both clowns….lmfao and both partly right and wrong. The PReP trial showed definitively, after prospective (ITT) analysis in late 2008 that it met primary end points of reduced transmission. a retrospective adherence analysis of the same date data looking at patients who actually took the drug as prescribed 80% of the time showed an almost 100% (99.6%) success rate in preventing infection. It was Gilead who “drug” their feet on secondary approval as a PrEP agent that lead to the 5 year delay. You see Gilead wanted the base of infections to go up and deliberately, in collusion with the FDA & CDC, withheld PrEP as long as they possibly could. The truth of these crimes is about to come out.