{"id":52294,"date":"2025-08-07T12:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T12:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=52294"},"modified":"2025-08-11T21:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:04:13","slug":"induced-stress-affect-hiv-dynamics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/52294","title":{"rendered":"IAS 2025: Induced stress can increase HIV dynamics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Young

Rory Shepherd at IAS 2025<\/p><\/div>\n

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base<\/strong><\/p>\n

An oral presentation at IAS 2025 reported that acute psychological stress can affect the viral dynamics of HIV in people on effective ART, increasing viral turnover. [1]<\/strong><\/p>\n

The implications of this are unlikely to have any clinical significance for people on stable treatment but might be a consideration for research into the viral reservoirs.<\/p>\n

During the study, psychological stress was induced in 25 men (median age 47, diagnosed for 9 years, 92% gay, 60% white) and this was correlated with changes in viral production and markers of physical stress. Results were presented by Rory Shepherd from the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>\n

The study used the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) during which study participants have to give a 5-minute presentation about their personal strengths and weaknesses in front of a stern, unresponsive white-coated judge and then take a maths test, in which giving incorrect answers leads to a \u201cWrong, start again\u201d response. This test significantly increased some physical measures of stress, such as salivary cortisol and cardiac measures of flight-or-fight responses.<\/p>\n

The impacts on virological markers included significant increases in median unspliced HIV RNA at 65 minutes post-test, although there were no differences in total HIV DNA. Changes in several stress markers also correlated with changes in HIV RNA.<\/p>\n

Changes in HIV transcription were not explained but the distribution of CD4 T-cell subsets showed no significant correlation with activation markers, although a significant negative correlation was found between CD69+ and CD8.<\/p>\n

The study noted the importance of further research into the impact of stress on the viral reservoir and that this should definitely be in a more diverse population.<\/p>\n

This is a fascinating aspect of the impact of social factors on HIV dynamics – and several earlier studies (including one I am sure I reported more than 25 years ago) showed that psychological stress linked to living in social isolation increased plasma and CSF levels of SIV in macaques. [2]<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stern J et al. The impact of acute stress on the HIV reservoir: a prospective interventional trial and analysis in vitro of stress compounds and latency reversal. IAS 2025, 13-17 July 2025. Oral abstract OAA0105.
    \nhttps:\/\/conference.ias2025.org\/media-1139-targeting-the-hiv-reservoir-emerging-discoveries-and-novel-interventions<\/a> (webcast \u2013 login required)<\/li>\n
  2. Guerrero-Martin SM et al. Psychosocial Stress Alters the Immune Response and Results in Higher Viral Load During Acute SIV Infection in a Pigtailed Macaque Model of HIV. J Infect Dis. 2021 Dec 15;224(12):2113-2121. doi: 10.1093\/infdis\/jiab252.
    \n    https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC8672752<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Simon Collins, HIV i-Base An oral presentation at IAS 2025 reported that acute psychological stress can affect the viral dynamics of HIV in people on effective ART, increasing viral turnover. [1] The implications of this are unlikely to have any …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20,15],"tags":[344],"class_list":["post-52294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-reports","category-cure-research","category-basic-science-and-immunology","tag-ias-13th-kigali"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52294"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52327,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52294\/revisions\/52327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}