The impact of the duration of HIV infection on telomere length

Non-chronological biological ageing caused by accelerated cellular senescence in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-patients became an important issue. Biomarker that predicts the health status of HIV-infected patients and bridges the gap between chronological and biological age is the length of telomeres, protective structures at the ends of chromosomes. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells represent the current physiological state of the organism very well and their telomere length generally reflects the state of telomere maintenance in other tissues of the same individual. Factors in the cellular environment, i.e. the presence of HIV may contribute to telomere shortening. The aim of this study was to determine whether the duration of HIV infection affects telomere length. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 176 HIV-infected Caucasian male patients who had been receiving cART for at least 6 months. All patients were ≥18 years old and virally suppressed. At the time of the study, none of the patients had any other chronic or acute infection. Telomere length (RTL) was determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction from mononuclear cells, relative to a unique reference sequence. The mean age of patients (42.70 ± 13.18 years) had no effect on RTL (p = 0.904). The mean RTL for the entire group of patients was 2.50 ± 1.87. The Kendall correlation test showed no influence of the duration of HIV-infection (92.42 ± 72.22 months) on the length of the patients' telomeres (p = 0.220). In summary, the duration of HIV infection does not impact telomere length.