ART Could Prevent HIV-Related Cognitive Decline

Middle-aged individuals with human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) who are receiving successful treatment do not have a higher risk of accelerated cognitive decline or aging-related brain changes, a new study showed.

For their study, the researchers assessed 134 virologically-suppressed people living with HIV (median age 56.0 years), as well as 79 HIV-negative controls (median age 57.2 years).
____________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
HIV Patients Have a High Risk for Multimorbidity
New HIV Vaccine Safe, Immunogenic for Prevention
____________________________________________________________________________

Neuropsychological assessments and multi-modality neuroimaging were conducted to assess cognitive performance and brain pathology at baseline and at 2-year follow-up. Linear mixed effects models were used to examine group differences in rates of change.

A total of 123 HIV patients and 78 controls completed longitudinal assessments, with a median interval of 1.97 years. Findings revealed that patients with HIV had poorer cognitive performance, low grey matter volume, high white matter hyperintensity load, abnormal white-matter microstructure, and greater ‘brain-predicted age difference’ at baseline.

However, findings also showed that, over time, there were no significant between-group differences in regard to the rates of change in any neuroimaging measure between groups. The researchers noted that cognitive performance was stable throughout the study in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients.

“Our findings indicate that when receiving successful treatment, middle-aged [people living with HIV] are not at increased risk of accelerated ageing-related brain changes or cognitive decline over 2 years, when compared to closely-matched HIV-negative controls,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Cole JH, Caan MWA, Underwood J, et al; COBRA collaboration. No evidence for accelerated ageing-related brain pathology in treated HIV: longitudinal neuroimaging results from the Comorbidity in Relation to AIDS (COBRA) project [Published online January 4, 2018]. Clin Infect Dis. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix1124.