{"id":39495,"date":"2025-08-21T10:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/?p=39495"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:19:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:19:38","slug":"comorbidities-in-hiv-big-data-study-reveals-molecular-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/comorbidities-in-hiv-big-data-study-reveals-molecular-links\/","title":{"rendered":"Comorbidities in HIV: Big data study reveals molecular links"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why do people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) often suffer from cardiovascular, liver, and other comorbidities? Researchers at the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM) led by Prof. Yang Li\u00a0 investigated this question as part of the 2000HIV study, a multi-omics cohort coordinated by several research centers in the Netherlands. They identified various molecules and mechanisms that could be linked to the development of these comorbidities. The scientists are making the extensive results of their study freely available. They hope that they will be used for new research approaches and lead to a better understanding of the underlying causes and to helpful therapies. The researchers have now published their study results in the journal Nature Medicine.<\/a> The CiiM is a joint institution of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and Hannover Medical School (MHH).<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople with HIV often suffer from non-AIDS-related comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, liver disease, or cancer. They are more prone to chronic inflammation in the body, which causes them to age faster and have a lower life expectancy than other people,\u201d says Prof. Yang Li, head of the department Computational Biology for Individualised Medicine and Director of CiiM. \u201cWith our big data study, we wanted to find out which molecular players are behind these disease-causing processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study was based on extensive multi-omics data sets from over 1,300 people with HIV, which were collected as part of a large-scale cohort study (2000HIV Study) conducted in the Netherlands. \u201cThis multi-omics data treasure trove, comprising a wide variety of data such as gene data, protein data, and metabolic data, provided us with unique insights into different levels of molecular biology,\u201d says Javier Botey-Bataller, a scientist in the CiiM department Computational Biology for Individualised Medicine and one of the two lead authors of the study. His CiiM colleague Nienke van Unen, co-first author, adds: \u201cWe analyzed another important molecular data level\u2014the strength of the immune response. This reflects the fitness of the immune system in the face of challenges from pathogens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers correlated the multi-omics data with the study participants’ existing comorbidities \u2013 including cardiovascular disease, narrowing of the carotid artery due to plaques, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) \u2013 and searched for abnormalities, for example in genes or molecular signaling pathways. \u201cWe were actually able to uncover a whole range of previously hidden molecular patterns and players associated with the respective comorbidities,\u201d says Javier Botey-Bataller. In addition, the researchers identified molecules that have the potential to predict the strength of the immune response. \u201cAn excessive immune response can lead to inflammation, which is the main cause of comorbidities in people with HIV. Therefore, the intensity of the immune response is a very important parameter,\u201d explains Botey-Bataller. \u201cOur study has enabled us to draw up a kind of molecular map that can be used to guide further research projects, for example to investigate the significance of certain genes or proteins in this context.\u201d The data and analysis results of the study are available online and can be used for further research projects.<\/p>\n

Prof. Li: \u201cOur study is the first in the field of research into comorbidities in HIV to use a multi-omics approach. Individual molecular biological levels already reveal a great deal. However, it was only by comparing the different molecular biological levels that we were able to uncover completely new players and connections that can be used as starting points for the development of novel therapies in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the course of their investigations, the researchers made another interesting discovery: They found that a specific variant of the NLRP12 gene, which is involved in regulating cellular inflammatory processes, causes particularly high inflammation levels. \u201cThis was the case in study participants who were infected with HIV, but also in a comparison cohort where participants did not have HIV,\u201d explains Nienke van Unen. \u201cPeople with this gene variant therefore seem to be generally more susceptible to high inflammation levels and associated diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Press release of the HZI, Author: Nicole Silbermann<\/em><\/p>\n

Original publication:
\nJ. Botey-Bataller, N. van Unen et al.: Genetic and molecular landscape of comorbidities in people living with HIV. Nature Medicine, 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

The photo<\/strong> shows an electron micrograph of HIV-1 (retroviruses).
\n\u00a9 Robert Koch Institute<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers analyze multi-omics data treasure trove and identify various molecules and mechanisms that could be linked to development of these comorbidities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":39498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39495"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39505,"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39495\/revisions\/39505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resist-cluster.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}