Association of serum total bilirubin and plasma 8-OHdG in HIV/AIDS patients

Oxidative stress is a major contributor in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance (IR) and DNA damage in HIV/AIDS patients. Bilirubin has been shown to have antioxidant effects. In this case-control study, 600 subjects were included. We determined serum total bilirubin and IR in all subjects. We measured 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine with 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. IR and oxidative DNA damage were significantly higher in HIV-positive patients with second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) and first-line ART than ART-naive patients. However, average serum total bilirubin was higher in ART-naive patients than the HIV-positive patients with second-line ART and first-line ART. In a logistic regression analysis, serum total bilirubin was negatively associated with the IR [odds ratio (OR): 0.0127, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.023-0.070, p = 0.0000] and DNA damage (OR: 0.525, 95% CI: 0.351-0.783, p = 0.0016). We found that prevalence of IR and DNA damage was less in ART-naive patients compared with ART first-line and ART second-line HIV-positive patients. Larger studies are warranted to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in the negative association of serum bilirubin and DNA damage in ART naive patients.