Grant: Project Grant

AIDS remains one of the world's most serious health challenges. Globally, 35 million people are living with HIV including 75,000 in Canada. Despite intense efforts to cure HIV, HIV reservoirs are a main barrier to eradication. A reservoir refers to a place (either a cell type or anatomical compartment) where HIV "hides" from the immune system. The lungs have many features which make them ideal reservoirs for HIV, and HIV has been detected within the lungs of individuals even after several years of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Having HIV within the lungs is associated with several imbalances in chemicals affecting interaction and communication between cells. Furthermore, as people with HIV are living longer due to the success of HAART, they are suffering from more chronic diseases associated with aging, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is the 3rd leading cause of death in the general population in North America. People living with HIV show signs of COPD more often than people without HIV (20-60% vs. 7%). Like in the lungs of people living with HIV, people with COPD have disturbances in lung immune cells. Furthermore, it is possible that having HIV within cells changes genetic material within the cells (ribonucleic acid or "RNA" and deoxyribonucleic acid or "DNA") and influences cell functions, making lungs more susceptible to develop COPD. We plan to study the interaction between immune cells and HIV reservoir size in the lungs of people living with HIV, both with and without COPD. We also plan to study the genetic characteristics of lung cells in relation to the amount of HIV they contain. These findings are important for understanding how HIV may contribute to chronic lung disease such as COPD. Ultimately, these findings are important for the development of strategies to reduce chronic diseases associated with HIV infection and improve quality of life.