Slowing Aging Across the Lifespan for Persons Living with HIV Scientific Working Group

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section Viremia-suppressing antiretroviral therapy (ART) has drastically improved the life span of people living with HIV (PLWH), but the health span, or the number of comorbidity-free years, has failed to keep pace. The early onset and greater severity of non-AIDS defining comorbidities is likely driven, at least in part, by accelerated biological aging. The Slowing AgIng Across the Lifespan for Persons with HIV Scientific Working Group (SAIL HIV SWG) will focus on understanding the mechanisms associated with accelerated biological aging, focusing on the hallmarks of aging. Many of these hallmarks of aging have been shown to be perturbed in PLWH, including chronic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and epigenetic alterations, while others have yet to be studied in the context of HIV. The SAIL HIV SWG will focus on understanding how these hallmarks of aging are perturbed in PLWH to inform discovery and development of interventions countering augmented / accelerated biological aging and, thereby, all non-AIDS comorbidities. To accomplish this ambitious goal, the SAIL HIV SWG will bring together the dynamic Chicago area community of long-term HIV survivors living with HIV, researchers actively engaged in the field of HIV, early stage investigators, and aging researchers not yet focused on HIV. The SWG will support the formation of multidisciplinary collaborative teams focusing on slowing biological aging in PLWH and support all stages of idea inception and grant submission. Adding this new SWG to TC CFAR strengths in community partnering and HIV-related implementation science will enable our long-term goal to increase research that will prolong health span for PLWH through these aims: (1) to partner PLWH, HIV researchers and aging experts new to HIV to define SWG research priorities and learn about relevant research resources across Chicago, (2) to build collaborating teams and enhance their access to research resources enabling SAIL HIV SWG-prioritized research on prolonging health span of PLWH, and (3) to develop and support NIH HIV research proposals by SAIL HIV SWG collaborative teams on prioritized research topics. SAIL HIV SWG will be the catalyst for investigator-initiated proposals that are large-scale, multidisciplinary, and complex research programs. These proposals will aim to elucidate cellular, molecular, and integrated physiological mechanisms of aging, including protective pathways, that will inform future interventions to improve the health and well-being of PLWH.