Alterations of Brain Signal Oscillations in Older Individuals with HIV Infection and Parkinson’s Disease

More than 30 years after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, HIV patients are now aging due to the advances of antiretroviral therapy. With immunosenescence and the susceptibility of dopamine-rich basal ganglia regions to HIV-related injury, older HIV patients may show neurofunctional deficits similar to patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We examined the amplitudes of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) across different frequency bands of the BOLD signal in 30 older HIV-infected individuals, 33 older healthy controls, and 36 PD patients. Participants underwent resting-state fMRI, neuropsychological testing, and a clinical motor exam. HIV patients mainly showed abnormalities in cortical ALFF with reduced prefrontal amplitudes and enhanced sensorimotor and inferior temporal amplitudes. Frontal hypoactivation was overlapping for HIV and PD groups and different from controls. PD patients further exhibited reduced pallidum amplitudes compared to the other groups. In the HIV group, lower pallidum amplitudes were associated with lower CD4+ nadir and CD4+ T cell counts. Abnormalities in ALFF dynamics were largely associated with cognitive and motor functioning in HIV and PD groups. The disruption of neurofunctional frequency dynamics in subcortical-cortical circuits could contribute to the development of cognitive and motor dysfunction and serve as a biomarker for monitoring disease progression with immunosenescence.