HIV-Related Atherosclerosis: State- of-the-Art-Review

Abstract

The infection caused by the Human Immu-nodeficiency Virus (HIV) has spread rapidly across the globe, assuming the characteristics of an epidemic in some regions. Thanks to the introduction of antire-troviral therapy into routine clinical practice, there was a considerable breakthrough in the treatment of HIV, that is now HIV is potentially well-controlled even in low-income countries. To date, HIV infection has moved from the group of life-threatening condi-tions to the group of chronic and well controlled ones and the quality of life and life expectancy of HIV+ peo-ple, with an undetectable viral load is closer to that of an HIV- people. However, unsolved issues still persist. For example: people living with HIV are more prone to the age-related diseases, especially atherosclerosis. For this reason, a better understanding of the mecha-nisms of HIV-associated destabilization of vascular homeostasis seems to be an urgent duty, that may lead to the development of new protocols, bringing the pos-sibilities of pathogenetic therapies to a new level. The purpose of the article was to evaluate the pathological aspects of HIV-induced atherosclerosis. (Curr Probl Cardiol 2023;48:101783.)