FOCUS ISSUE ON HIV AND THE CARDIOMETABOLIC SYNDROME

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), use of highly active antiretroviral drug therapies (HAART), undesirable lifestyle/behavioral choices, genetic background, and other factors all contribute to adverse metabolic and morphometric changes in appreciable numbers of adults and children living with HIV. At least in the developed world, HIV/AIDS has transitioned from certain death to a chronic, manageable condition with the potential for long-term salubrious survival, due to therapeutic advances made over the past 10yrs. But many challenges remain, as outlined by the articles in this volume of the Journal of the CardioMetabolic Syndrome. With longer-term survival, will HIV-infected people succumb to the causes of death that are most common among aging humans in the industrialized world, especially components of the cardiometabolic syndrome (heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes), but at an earlier age? Does HIV-infection and the accompanying chronic proinflammatory processes, impart increased risk for these most common causes of death? Are there HIV-specific risk factors for the cardiometabolic syndrome? Recent observational data indicate that deaths from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, non-HIV-related cancer, and drug abuse may be increasing among HIV-infected people (4-8). In addition, socioeconomic and demographic data from the CDC suggest that low-income, poorly educated, young minority men and women with poor access to health care constitute a disproportionate percentage of people newly infected with HIV (2, 3). Are these not the same groups in the general population that are at greater risk for developing diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer? Likewise, the HIV epidemic is most serious in resource-limited areas of the world. As these regions become more developed and industrialized, we anticipate a "collision of epidemics"; HIV and the cardiometabolic syndrome, and recent analyses support this notion (1). The issues are complex and will require multidisciplinary teams and approaches to resolve.