Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of blood samples from people living with HIV HIV-1 infection impacts biological ageing, and epigenetic clocks highlight epigenetic age acceleration in people with HIV. Despite evidence indicating sex differences in clinical, immunological, and virological measures, females have been underrepresented in most HIV epigenetic studies. Hence, we generated a more representative epigenetic dataset to examine sex differences in epigenetic ageing and relationships to clinical phenotypes.
Project description:In this study we performed data-independet mass-spectrometry analysis of blood plasma collected from a cohort consisting of people living with HIV-1, people living with HIV-2, and HIV seronegative individuals. The data was used to infer signs of damage to a wide array of tissues and cell types.
Project description:Immune activation in people living with HIV on anti-retroviral therapy is associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. To identify whether perturbation of immunological pathways persist at systems level, we compared genome-wide whole blood transcriptomes from 26 people living with HIV on long-term anti-retroviral therapy with 12 HIV-negative healthy controls. All participants were Caucasian male adults recruited from London, UK. People living with HIV were on anti-retroviral therapy for a median of 8.5 years (interquartile range 3-16 years). They had undetectable plasma HIV viral load (<40 copies/ml) and median circulating CD4 counts of 703 cells/µl (interquartile range 491-841 cells/µl).
Project description:The differential expression of metabolic genes between effector and exhausted CD8+ Tcells has been characterized in the people living with HIV (PLWH) using 768 genes from the NanoString Human Metabolic Pathways Panel.
Project description:Myeloid dendritic cells (mDC) were isolated from antiretroviral therapy (ARV)-treated and untreated people living with HIV (PLWH), and from HIV uninfected Individuals. The results indicate that mDC are altered in genes expression from PLWH. Some RNA transcriptional changes are not completely restored by ARV. This provides more data on myeloid cells, an understudied cell type, and alterations in PLWH.
Project description:Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is not curative due to the existence of cellular reservoirs of latent HIV-1 that persist during therapy 1. Current research efforts to cure HIV-1 infection include “shock and kill” strategies to disrupt latency using small molecules or latency-reversing agents (LRAs) to induce expression of HIV-1 enabling cytotoxic immune cells to eliminate infected cells 2. However, the modest success of current LRAs urges the field to identify novel drugs with increased clinical efficacy 3,4. Aminobisphosphonates that include pamidronate, zoledronate, or alendronate, are the first-line treatment of bone-related diseases including osteoporosis and bone malignancies 5. Here, we show the use of aminobisphosphonates as a novel class of LRA: we found in ex vivo assays using primary cells from ART-suppressed people living with HIV-1 that aminobisphosphonates induce HIV-1 from latency to levels that are comparable to the T cell activator phytohemagglutinin. RNA sequencing and mechanistic data suggested that reactivation may occur through activation of the activator protein 1 signaling pathway. Stored samples from a prior clinical trial aimed at analyzing the effect of alendronate on bone mineral density, provided further of alendronate-mediated latency reversal and activation of immune effector cells.Decay of the reservoir measured by IPDA was however not detected. Our results demonstrate the novel use of aminobisphosphonates to reverse HIV-1 latency while inducing immune effector functions. This preliminary evidence merits further investigation in a controlled clinical setting possibly in combination with therapeutic vaccination.
Project description:The aim of this discovery case-control study was to identify patterns of differential expression of microRNAs in people living with HIV (PLWH) and assess their diagnostic value for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NALFD). Cases were defined as patients with severe NAFLD and controls as patients without NAFLD, characterized using the controlled attenuation parameter (CAP). Cases and controls were matched 1:1 for age, sex, body mass index, CD4+ lymphocyte count, active HCV infection, and ART regimen. Serum 2,083 simultaneous microRNA transcripts were analyzed using HTG technology and compared between cases and controls. Forty-five patients, 23 cases, and 22 controls were included in the study. In the analysis of the expression pattern of the 2,083 microRNAs, no differential expression patterns were found between both groups of patients included in the study. Analysis of the microRNA transcriptome profile of nonobese PLWH with severe NAFLD did not appear to differ from that of patients without NAFLD. Thus, microRNA might not serve as a proper biomarker for predicting severe NALFD in this population.
Project description:HIV-related comorbidities appear to be related to chronic inflammation, a condition characterizing people living with HIV (PLWH). Prior work indicates that cannabidiol (CBD) might reduce inflammation; however, the genetics underpinning this effect are not well investigated. Our main objective is to detect gene expression alterations in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from PLWH after at least one month of CBD treatment. We collected PBMCs from three HIV-positive subjects at baseline and after CBD treatment (at least 27 days) via single-cell RNA sequencing. We obtained a coherent signature, characterized by an anti-inflammatory activity, of differentially expressed genes in myeloid cells. Our study shows how CBD is associated with alterations of gene expression in myeloid cells after CBD treatment.