Investigating Biological Aging Measures, Neurocognitive Performance, and Depressive Symptoms: Moderating Effects of HIV and Childhood Maltreatment

In a cohort of 238 women (122 with HIV), biological aging markers—including telomere length, brain-predicted age difference, and epigenetic age acceleration—show no association with neurocognitive performance or depressive symptoms.

• Why it matters: Neurocognitive impairment and depression are common in people with HIV, and childhood maltreatment may add risk, but it is unclear whether biological aging measures track these outcomes.
• What they did: Using linear regression in 238 women, the study tested links between multiple aging metrics (absolute telomere length, mitochondrial DNA copy number, MRI-based brain-predicted age difference, and Horvath/Hannum/PhenoAge and intrinsic/extrinsic epigenetic AA) and global deficit scores and Centre for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale scores, including interaction tests for HIV status and CM severity.
• The result: Aging markers were not associated with either outcome, and any nominal HIV-linked findings with mitochondrial DNA copy number and extrinsic epigenetic AA (p = 0.012 and p = 0.047) did not remain after multiple-testing correction; HIV or CM did not moderate these relationships.

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