Yale To Launch Center Promoting Healthy Aging With HIV

People with HIV experience higher rates of inflammation as they age than people without HIV. Yet researchers do not fully understand inflammaging — the chronic, low-grade inflammation and immune dysfunction associated with aging ­— especially in the context of alcohol use and socioeconomic disadvantage. To further investigate this complex phenomenon, Yale will launch the Aging Well With HIV Through Alcohol Research and Risk Reduction and Education (AWAR³E) Center with a five-year grant awarded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Led by Amy Justice, MD, PhD, Peter N. Herbert Professor of Internal Medicine (General Medicine) at Yale School of Medicine, Julie Womack, MSN, PhD, associate professor of nursing at Yale School of Nursing, and Vin Lo Re, MD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, the multicohort, interdisciplinary center will translate research findings into strategies to reduce alcohol-related risks of inflammaging among those with HIV to promote healthy longevity.

The AWAR³E Center will bring together a team of investigators across epidemiology, geriatrics, pharmacoepidemiology, immunology, and data science, among four complementary, established HIV cohorts: the Veterans Aging Cohort Study, Women’s Interagency HIV Study, Observational Pharmaco-Epidemiology Research and Analysis, and Mount Sinai HIV.

“By uniting multiple cohorts and disciplines, AWAR³E will deliver the most comprehensive picture to date of inflammaging in people with HIV and how alcohol use shapes risk and resilience,” says Justice, who is also a professor of public health (health policy) at the Yale School of Public Health. “Our goal is to identify the right biomarkers, the outcomes that matter most to patients, and the real-world treatments that can make aging with HIV healthier for everyone.”

AWAR³E projects include evaluating biomarkers of inflammaging with and without unhealthy alcohol use, examining the connection between inflammaging and common geriatric issues to improve prevention and care, and assessing the safety and effectiveness of therapeutic approaches. In addition to coordinating scientific activities across cohorts and disseminating results to ensure research findings impact patient care, the center will train the next generation of investigators and community representatives in alcohol–HIV research.

The center will benefit patients and communities nationwide, especially those with unhealthy alcohol use or economic barriers, who are currently least likely to receive treatment, according to the researchers. Insights generated by AWAR³E will lay the foundation for future alcohol-focused interventions tailored to the needs of people with HIV, to reduce inflammaging, prevent geriatric conditions, and improve quality of life.

“AWAR³E will deliver integrated science that quickly informs practice,” Womack says. “The NIH award positions Yale and our partners at the forefront of understanding and mitigating inflammaging so that people with HIV can thrive as they age.”

The Aging Well with HIV through Alcohol Research and Risk Reduction and Education (AWAR³E) Center is an NIAAA-funded P60 Alcohol Research Center at the Yale School of Medicine. AWAR³E unites four established HIV cohorts and an interdisciplinary team to characterize inflammaging, link biology to patient-centered outcomes, evaluate real-world treatments, and train the next generation of alcohol–HIV researchers and community leaders.