Is the telomere length associated with neurocognitive disabilities in HIV-1-infected subjects?

• Autor(a) principal: Araújo, Marilia Ladeira de
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Duarte, Wellington, Oliveira, Augusto César Penalva de, Gascón, Maria Rita Polo, Fonseca, Luiz Augusto Marcondes, Paiva, Raquel de Melo Alves, Santana, Bárbara, Calado, Rodrigo Tocantins, Casseb, Jorge
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rimtsp/article/view/146970
• topic: Cell aging; Neurocognitive disorders; Real-time polymerase chain reaction; AIDS; Dementia complex

Objective: We evaluated the association between cognitive deficits and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in HIV-1-infected individuals. Design: 73 HIV-1-infected patients undergoing neuropsychological evaluation and 91 healthy controls were included in this study. Fifteen HIV-1 positive patients did not have cognitive disorders whereas 26 had asymptomatic neurocognitive disorder (ANI), 13 presented mild to moderate neurocognitive disorder (MND), and 10 had HIV-associated dementia (HAD). Methods: DNA from the peripheral blood of HIV-1-infected patients was used for measurement of telomere length by real-time PCR. HIV-1 viral load was determined in blood. Results: LTL decreased with age in healthy controls (p=0.0001). Regardless of the HIV status, age-matched LTL from HIV patients, including those with ANI and MND, were shortened in comparison to the healthy control group (p=0.0073); however, no association was found among the HIV-1-infected individuals with cognitive deficits (p=0.01). In addition, no gender-related association with LTL was observed (p=0.80), smoking, physical exercise, and plasma viral load were not correlated to telomere length (p=0.66). Conclusions: We concluded that leukocyte telomere length may not be a marker of cellular senescence in individuals with HIV infection and neurocognitive disorders.