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Thwarting a protein in the hope of a better
quality of life: fostemsavir gp120 aging study
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Montreal, December 1, 2023-To mark the occasion of World AIDS Day, find out how Dr. Madeleine Durand and Andrés Finzi are working to reduce chronic inflammation and the risk of comorbidities in people living with HIV.
In Canada, more than 43,000 people are living with a virus well controlled by antiretroviral therapy. However, aging in good health and enjoying a good quality of life is still a challenge for many of them.
The sustained activation of the body's immune system for people living with HIV leads to chronic inflammation that for some people can cause associated complications such as cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis or neurocognitive decline.
These health problems, categorized under the term early-onset comorbidities, are linked to the viral reservoirs in which HIV persists.
"These comorbidities arise approximately 15 years earlier in people living with HIV, and this gap has not gotten any narrower over the last decade. Today, there is no specific treatment for HIV to slow down this premature aging," says Dr. Madeleine Durand, assistant professor at Université de Montréal and researcher at CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM).
Counteracting toxic effects
In a study published by The Journal of Infectious Diseases, whose primary author, Mehdi Benlarbi, is doing his doctorate in Andrés Finzi's lab, scientists demonstrate that there is a link between inflammation in people living with HIV and the level of protein gp120 in the blood. This molecule makes up a part of the entry "key" that the virus uses to infect human cells.
"Even when the viral load is undetectable, we were able to detect this molecule in the blood of one in three infected people. We're showing that it acts as a toxin and is associated to chronic inflammation leading to comorbidities," explains Andrés Finzi, professor at Université de Montréal and chair holder of the Canada Research Chair in Retroviral Entry.
To achieve these results, the researcher's team measured the level of gp120 in the plasma of 386 people from the CHACS cohort led by Dr. Durand. These individuals are over 40-year-old, have been living with HIV in average for 16 years, receive antiretroviral therapy and have an undetectable viral load.
"We've managed to counteract the harmful effects of gp120 in vitro by using Fostemsavir, a drug only used by people who are resistant to traditional anti-HIV treatments and whose viral load is detectable," says Andrés Finzi.
Full text:
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1009376
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