Researchers have long known that people living with HIV, even those taking antiretroviral therapy, are more likely to experience cognitive impairments like memory loss than other people but hadn’t fully understood why.
Now, a new study published Friday in the medical journal Med finds that widely used flu medications have the potential to reduce cognitive decline as well as premature aging in this population, said Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, whose team was involved in the study.
“It is pointing to a new mechanism that has not been described in or outside of the HIV field,” said Abdel-Mohsen. “The fact that there was at least a proof of concept of drugs that is actually showing an effect is pretty promising.”
Using samples from people with HIV who have cognitive impairments and those who don’t, researchers found a pattern of a degradation of protective sugar molecules, known as glycans, that usually protect people from inflammation, Abdel-Mohsen said.
The inflammation is tied to cognitive impairments, he said. The researchers, using animal models, then started to look into why people were losing the glycans and what could be done to preserve the anti-inflammatory molecules. They found that already widely used medicine for the flu, such as Tamiflu, could be a key part of the solution because the medication inhibits an enzyme that degrades glycans.
“We could also reduce aging markers or aging-related changes happening by viral infection, and even more interestingly, we could prevent it or reduce about 60 to 70% of the cognitive impairments caused by the viral infection,” Abdel-Mohsen said. There is also potential the findings could have broader implications for other aging-related diseases, such as dementia.
But people shouldn’t start taking over-the-counter flu drugs, Abdel-Mohsen said, adding that further research is needed to dig into the risks of taking the medication, the optimal dosage or even if a new medication could one day be developed to address accelerated aging concerns.
Dr. Andrew Crone, an infectious physician at Howard Brown Health who was not involved in the study, cautioned that research involving animal models always needs further research because something that works well on animals doesn’t always translate well in people. Still, he said the study is promising in particular because reducing inflammation in people living with HIV is a topic many in the field have been trying to tackle.
“When we are looking at where the science is going to help people living with HIV, inflammation is not going away any time soon,” Dr. Crone said. “This idea of our bodies response to cell damage is very important. We have not figured it all out, so any sort of headway we can make, any basic science laboratory that’s looking at how we can reduce this problem, it’s still a very important topic.”
Figuring out how to age gracefully is important to Dean Triantafillo who will soon turn 70 years old. He has lived with HIV for nearly 38 years. At one point he was down to just 80 pounds, was going to the emergency room frequently and thought he was going to die.
But he’s been on medication for about 37 years and considers himself lucky to be alive after seeing so many friends with HIV die.
He has a friend experiencing signs of dementia but is too scared to talk to a doctor about it, Triantafillo said. So far, Triantafillo said the main health issue he’s keeping tabs on is high cholesterol and making sure he doesn’t develop prostate cancer.
“I go to work every day, I think positive,” Triantafillo said. “I’m excited about life, I’m very grateful to be here.”
Triantafillo wants to get back into exercising and would like to try ballroom dancing.
“Just these fun things,” he said.
The medical advancements made in the field of HIV have meant that people like Triantafillo are now living longer, entering their 60s and 70s. But they are still facing other chronic health problems, Abdel-Mohsen said.
“The next big question is, now these people have preserved lifespan, how can we also preserve their health spans so they live without comorbidities, [so] they live a more normal life,” said Abdel-Mohsen.