Brain function abnormalities and neuroinflammation in people living with HIV-associated anxiety disorders

Yunzhu Shan; Guangqiang Sun; Jiahao Ji; Zhen Li; Xue Chen; Xin Zhang; Yundong Ma; Yang Zhang; Tong Zhang; Yulin Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1336233

Brain function abnormalities and neuroinflammation in people living with HIV-associated anxiety disorders

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Mar 18:15:1336233. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1336233. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Yunzhu Shan^#¹, Guangqiang Sun^#^{2

3}, Jiahao Ji^#¹, Zhen Li^{1

4}, Xue Chen¹, Xin Zhang¹, Yundong Ma^{2

3}, Yang Zhang^{1

5}, Tong Zhang^{1

5}, Yulin Zhang^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & National Center for Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
³ Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Beijing Key Laboratory of HIV/AIDS Research, Beijing, China.
⁵ Beijing Institute of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing, China.
⁶ Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: People living with HIV (PLWH) exhibits an increased susceptibility to anxiety disorders, concomitant with heightened vulnerability to aberrant immune activation and inflammatory responses, and endocrine dysfunction. There exists a dearth of scholarly investigations pertaining to the neurological, immune, and endocrine dimensions of HIV-associated anxiety disorders.

Method: This study aimed to compare a group of 16 individuals diagnosed with HIV-associated anxiety disorders (HIV ANXs) according to the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.), with a HIV individual control group (HIV control) of 49 PLWH without mental disorders. Muti-modal magnetic resonance was employed to assess the brain function and structure of both groups. Seed-based functional connectivity (FC) was used to assess the regional intrinsic brain activity and the influence of regional disturbances on FC with other brain regions. Peripheral blood cytokines and chemokines concentrations were measured using liquid chip and ELISA.

Results: Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in the right inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) was increased. There is a significant decreased regional homogeneity in HIV ANXs in the right superior occipital gyrus (SOG). The right ITG and the right SOG were separately set as the seed brain region of interest (ROI 1 and ROI 2) to be analyzed the FC. FC decreased in HIV ANXs between ROI1 and the right middle occipital gyrus, the right SOG, FC between ROI2 and left ITG increased in HIV ANXs. No significant structural difference was found between two groups. Pro-inflammatory chemokines showed higher levels in the HIV ANXs. Pro-inflammatory cytokines, neurotrophic factors, and endocrine factors were significantly correlated with alterations in brain function.

Conclusion: This study suggests that patients with HIV-associated anxiety disorders may exhibit abnormalities in neurologic, immune, and endocrine functioning. Consequently, it is imperative to implement additional screening and intervention measures for anxiety disorders among PLWH.

Keywords: anxiety disorders; human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); inflammation; multimodal magnetic resonance; neuroimmune.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82072271 to TZ, 82241072 to TZ, 82072294 to ZL), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7222095 to YLZ, 7222091 to YZ), the High-level Public Health Technical Personnel Construction Project (2020-1-007 to TZ), and the Beijing Key Laboratory for HIV/AIDS Research (BZ0089 to TZ), the High-level Public Health Specialized Talents Project of Beijing Municipal Health commission(2022-02-20 to ZL), the Peak Talent Program of Beijing Hospital Authority (DFL20191701 to TZ), the Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research (2022-1-1151 to TZ), the Research and Translational Application of Clinical Characteristic Diagnostic and Treatment Techniques in Capital City (Z221100007422055 to TZ), the Beijing Hospitals Authority Innovation Studio of Young Staff Funding Support (2021037 to YZ).