Inflammatory profile associated with insulin resistance in non-overweight versus overweight people living with HIV in Pune, Western India

Background: People living with HIV have greater diabetes (T2DM) than the general population despite lower prevalence of overweight/obesity. Both insulin resistance (IR), a T2DM precursor, and HIV are independently associated with chronic inflammation. Inflammation may be a pathophysiological link explaining IR in people living with HIV who are not overweight but is not well understood.Aims: To study the association between inflammation and IR in non-overweight and overweight people living with HIV.Methods: In a cohort of adult people living with HIV with undetectable viral load in Pune, India, we measured fasting insulin, glucose, and 9 inflammatory markers. IR was defined as HOMA-IR >= 2, and nonoverweight as BMI <= 23 kg/m2. We used modified Poisson regression to evaluate the association between inflammatory markers and IR in overweight and non-overweight.Results: Of 288 participants, 66% (n = 189) were non-overweight. Among non-overweight, prevalence of IR was 34% (n = 65). Each doubling of MCP-1 and leptin was associated with IR on univariate analysis (prevalence ratio (PR) 1.29, 95%CI 1.07-1.53, p < 0.01; PR 1.13 95%CI 1.01-1.26, p = 0.03). Leptin remained associated with IR after adjustment for age, MCP-1, gender, cholesterol, and waist circumference (adjusted PR 1.20 95%CI 1.06-1.36, p < 0.01). Among overweight, prevalence of IR was 69% and no markers were associated with IR.Conclusions: One in 3 non-overweight people living with HIV in India with controlled viremia have IR. Leptin was associated with IR among non-overweight people living with HIV and may provide insight into the pathophysiology of metabolic disease in this population. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Diabetes India. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).