Myelin Content and Cognitive Trajectories in Young Adults Living with Virally Suppressed HIV

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Project Summary/Abstract With the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART), the prevalence of severe manifestations of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders has improved over the past few decades. However, in the context of viral suppression, new pressing questions have emerged regarding the etiology of the persistent cognitive sequalae in PLWH on ART. Up to 40% of individuals living with virally suppressed HIV experience cognitive impairment and the mechanisms underlying neurologic injury in these individuals remain poorly understood. A hallmark finding of HIV associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND), white matter injury, has primarily been evaluated indirectly through non-specific markers of myelination on neuroimaging in PLWH or pathologic markers in animal studies. Our team has developed an MRI sequence, myelin water imaging, to directly measure myelin content, a component of white matter, in vivo. We will apply this novel sequence to longitudinally evaluate if reduced myelination rates occur in young adults living with virally suppressed HIV (YLWH) compared to demographic and antiretroviral therapy risk factor matched, HIV-uninfected controls. Additionally, we will evaluate the independent correlation between changes in myelin content and cognitive trajectories, accounting for social determinants of health, to determine if loss of myelin may contribute to the development of cognitive disorders in YLWH. The premise of this application is based on our preliminary data, which demonstrate decreased global and regional myelin content in young adults living with virally suppressed HIV compared to age and sex matched HIV-uninfected controls and that myelin loss mediates the relationship between immune activation and lower domain specific cognitive scores in young adults living with virally suppressed HIV. We will combine our novel imaging methodology assessing myelin content with established imaging techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging, longitudinally acquired cognitive data and standardized measures of social determinants of health to determine predictors of the latent cognitive phenotypes within our cohort of virally suppressed YLWH using an unbiased statistical modeling approach, group-based trajectory analyses. The information provided by our proposed study will not only improve our understanding of changes in myelin content in YLWH in relation to cognitive outcomes, but also provide the basis for evaluating myelin water imaging as a biomarker to identify PLWH of all ages at risk for cognitive impairment. This work may provide the preliminary data needed to support early intervention trials of myelin preservation or remyelination therapies to improve cognition in a broader population of PLWH.