Biomarkers of microbial translocation and generalized inflammation are associated with frailty among people with HIV

Frailty occurs at higher rates and younger ages among people with HIV (PWH) compared with the general population and is often attributed to chronic inflammation and subsequent immune exhaustion. We assessed how inflammatory biomarkers are associated with frailty among PWH.

The Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR) Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS) cohort is comprised of adult PWH in care at 10 sites, and harmonizes demographic, clinical, and patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data. A panel of 13 inflammatory biomarkers was collected from a subset of virally suppressed PWH once per person between 2010 and 2018. Frailty was measured with a validated PRO phenotype, scored 0-4, from biomarker collection date through July 2022. With adjusted linear mixed models, we estimated longitudinal associations between standard deviation-scaled log 2 -transformed biomarkers and frailty score.

Among 273 PWH, most were men (91%), average age at baseline was 45, 42% were non-Hispanic White whereas 35% were non-Hispanic Black, and average follow-up time was 5.5 years. Several biomarkers were associated with higher frailty, including those linked to microbial translocation (sCD14, LBP, KT ratio) and systemic inflammation (CRP, IL-6, suPAR, sTNFR1, sTNFR2). Higher IL-6 was associated with a 0.25-point higher frailty score [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.12-0.39]. Higher sTNFR1 [0.35 (0.13-0.56)], sCD14 [0.21 (0.11-0.31)], and suPAR [0.24 (0.11-0.36)] levels were also associated with higher frailty scores over follow-up.

Higher levels of biomarkers linked to microbial translocation and systemic inflammation are associated with higher average frailty scores over time in a cohort of virally suppressed PWH, highlighting these pathways as potential interventional targets for mitigating frailty in PWH.