title: HIV-associated cellular senescence: A contributor to accelerated aging.
abstract: Due to the advent of antiretroviral therapy HIV is no longer a terminal disease and the HIV infected patients are becoming increasingly older. While this is a major success, with increasing age comes an increased risk for disease. The age-related comorbidities that HIV infected patients experience suggest that they suffer from accelerated aging. One possible contributor to this accelerated aging is cellular senescence, an age-associated response that can occur prematurely in response to stress, and that is emerging as a contributor to disease and aging. HIV patients experience several stressors such as the virus itself, antiretroviral drugs and to a lesser extent, substance abuse that can induce cellular senescence. This review summarizes the current knowledge of senescence induction in response to these stressors and their relation to the comorbidities in HIV patients. Cellular senescence may be a possible therapeutic target for these comorbidities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA. Electronic address: Claudio.torres@drexelmed.edu.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Torres
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D044966:Anti-Retroviral Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active / Q000009:adverse effects; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D044966:Anti-Retroviral Agents
keywords: HAART; HIV; HIV-comorbidities; Premature aging; Senescence; Substance abuse