Antiretroviral Therapy-related Alteration of Brain Functional Dynamics in People with HIV

To investigate the dynamic properties of resting-state functional connectivity associated with antiretroviral therapy (ART), functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 45 treated people with HIV (PWH), 56 untreated PWH, and 68 healthy controls were collected. Group independent component analysis and sliding window analysis were conducted to obtain window-functional connectivity matrices, and their dynamic properties were quantified. The results showed that the baseline state and the weakly activated state reflect HIV-related abnormal dynamics and ART-related recovery. The weakly activated state reflected the recovery of cerebellum-related connections and putamen-related functional compensation. The baseline state reflected the recovery of extensive connections except for the visual network. Visual-related connections reflected ART-related adverse reactions in both states. These findings suggest that the cerebellum and putamen may be sensitive biomarkers for ART-related recovery, and the visual network can serve as a target for adjuvant therapy.