Associations of inflammation-related proteome with demographic and clinical characteristics of people with HIV in South Africa.

Purpose: Elevated levels of inflammation associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are one of the primary causes for the burden of age-related diseases among people with HIV (PWH). Circulating proteins can be used to investigate pathways to inflammation among PWH.

Experimental design: We profiled 73 inflammation-related protein markers and assessed their associations with chronological age, sex, and CD4⁺ cell count among 87 black South African PWH before antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Results: We identified 1, 1, and 14 inflammatory proteins significantly associated with sex, CD4⁺ cell count, and age respectively. Twelve out of 14 age-associated proteins have been reported to be associated with age in the general population, and 4 have previously shown significant associations with age for PWH. Furthermore, many of the age-associated proteins such as CST5, CCL23, SLAMF1, MMP-1, MCP-1, and CDCP1 have been linked to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and neurocognitive decline in the general population. We also found a synergistic interaction between male and older age accounting for excessive expression of CST5.

Conclusions and clinical relevance: We found that advanced age may lead to the elevation of multiple inflammatory proteins among PWH. We also demonstrated the potential utility of proteomics for evaluating and characterizing the inflammatory status of PWH.