An Augmented Aging Process in Brain White Matter in HIV

T. Kuhn; T. Kaufmann; N.T. Doan; L.T. Westlye; J. Jones; R.A. Nunez; S.Y. Bookheimer; E.J. Singer; C.H. Hinkin; A.D. Thames

While we attempted to control for these by comparing our UCLA HIV+ participants to UCLA HIV-participants who were highly matched on demographic variables and assessing the effect of race/ethnicity on the outcomes, it remains possible that such demographic or even genetic variables could contribute to our findings, though we believe this is less likely for several reasons including the SVR model fit statistics and similar findings from Cole et al. 9 Further, there are some limits to the generalizability of this study. These include the exclusion of participants with substance use disorders and Axis I diagnoses, the (although non-significant) fact that our sample included fewer HIV+ women, and the fact that the older HIV+ adults are long term survivors from the pre-HAART era and may not be representative of HIV+ adults reaching older age in the near future who were diagnosed in the post-HAART era. Importantly though, it is possible that comorbid substance abuse and/or psychiatric disorders may increase the risk of premature brain aging. Although the current CD4+ and viral load data used in this study were extracted from blood samples collected during the course of this study, nadir CD4+ and highest lifetime viral load were self-reported by participants.