DISPARITIES IN IMMUNE FITNESS IN HIV+ SUBJECTS WITH AGING

HIV has become a chronic disease due to efficient virus control by antiretroviral therapy. With that, people over 50 with controlled HIV already number >600,000 (and growing) in the US. With age these individuals experience multiple comorbidities that appear independent of HIV itself, and anecdotally this appears as pronounced/accelerated aging. Inflammation and a decline in immunity accompany both HIV and aging, suggesting that both could potentiate aspects of exacerbated aging in HIV+ subjects. Persistent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was implicated in immune aging and age-related inflammation too, but there is an incomplete understanding of CMV control with aging. Limited data suggests that the premature “aging” phenotype seen in HIV+ patients is only found in those co-infected with CMV, and based on our preliminary data, we hypothesized that Hispanic Americans with HIV may experience a disproportional rate of immune aging and loss owf CMV control. We present data testing this hypothesis.