Association of Metabolic Syndrome and Oxidative DNA Damage In HIV/AIDS Patients

AIM: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is frequent in human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV) and may be related to antiretroviral therapy (ART). The present study is aimed to determine association of metabolic syndrome with oxidative deoxynucleic acid (DNA) damage in HIV1 infected patients with different ART status. METHODS: We used plasma levels of the oxidized base, 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), as our biomarker of oxidative DNA damage. 8-OHdG was measured with 8-OHdG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. The biomarkers of MS were insulin resistance (IR), Cholesterol/HDL ratio, Waist circumference and Hypertension. RESULTS: All subjects were randomly selected and grouped as HIV-negative (control group) (n= 300), HIV -positive ART naive (n=100), HIV-positive with ART first line (n=100) and HIV-positive with ART second line (n=100). MS and oxidative DNA damage were significantly higher in HIV-positive patients with second line ART and first line ART than ART naive patients. In a logistic regression analysis, increased MS was positively associated with the increased DNA damage (OR: 29.68, 95%: 13.47, CI: 65.40) P=0.0000. CONCLUSIONS: In this case control study, we observed that ART plays a significant role in the development of MS and oxidative DNA damage in HIV-positive patients taking antiretroviral therapy. Awareness and knowledge of MS & DNA damage in HIV/AIDS patients may prove helpful to clinicians to manage non AIDS diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Larger studies are warranted to determine exact role of ART in induction of MS and DNA damage.