Clonal Hematopoiesis and Major Adverse Cardiac Events in People With HIV: Insights From the REPRIEVE Trial

People with HIV (PWH) experience higher cardiovascular disease event rates not fully explained by traditional risk factors. Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), an emerging risk factor for cardiovascular disease in the general population, has been reported to be more prevalent in PWH.

Using high-coverage targeted CHIP sequencing in the REPRIEVE (Randomized Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV) cardiovascular disease prevention trial, we investigated whether CHIP increases the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) among PWH, as well as whether HIV-associated factors were associated with greater CHIP prevalence among PWH. We analyzed whole-exome and targeted sequencing from 4490 PWH without known cardiovascular disease; 1653 (36.8%) were female, and 2039 (45.4%) were Black. MACE was defined by including cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, hospitalization for unstable angina, stroke, transient ischemic attack, peripheral artery disease, revascularization, or death from an undetermined cause.

A total of 837 (18.6%) had CHIP driver mutations, with 385 (8.6%) at variant allele fraction ≥2% and 61 (1.4%) at variant allele fraction ≥10%. Although overall CHIP was not associated with MACE, the presence of large CHIP (variant allele fraction ≥10%) was associated with increased odds for the first occurrence of myocardial infarction or cardiac catheterization, or revascularization, despite low overall event rates. Adjustments for pitavastatin treatment did not attenuate this association. Furthermore, a larger CHIP clone size was associated with lower CD4 nadir and with increased risk of MACE.

In PWH in the REPRIEVE trial who were low-to-moderate risk for incident cardiovascular disease, CHIP was not associated with increased prospective risk of MACE. However, a large CHIP was associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction and revascularization.

URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT02344290.