Funding Opportunity Number: PAR-24-091
Deadlines: September 7, 2024, January 7, 2024
Purpose
This NOFO invites applications at the intersection of HIV and aging by proposing research that aims to meet the following objectives:
1) Improve the understanding of biological, clinical, and socio-behavioral aspects of aging through the lens of HIV infection and its treatment; and
2) Improve approaches for testing, preventing, and treating HIV infection, and managing HIV-related comorbidities, co-infections, and complications in different populations and cultural settings by applying current aging science approaches.
Scope
Proposed research must be consistent with the HIV/AIDS Research Priorities outlined by NIH s Office of AIDS Research (OAR) as described in NOT-OD-20-018. This NOFO encourages applications with the following characteristics:
- Clinical orientation: HIV in aging involves complex interactions among multiple physiologic systems and a variety of human-level factors such as functional status, quality of life, health behaviors, and psychosocial issues; therefore, studying individual factors in isolation may be counter-productive. This NOFO encourages animal models and in vitro studies where appropriate; however, inclusion of such approaches should be integrated with human studies or demonstrate direct relevance to clinical features of HIV/AIDS.
- Focus on aging or the aged: Applicants are strongly encouraged to enroll individuals across the range of older ages, especially individuals at the upper end of the age range (i.e., 70 years or older). Comparisons between younger and older HIV-infected populations or comparisons between older HIV-infected individuals and their age-matched non-HIV-infected counterparts are appropriate.
- Attention to geriatric outcomes: In addition to traditional important outcomes of HIV/AIDS research (e.g., viral load, survival), studies are encouraged to also include outcomes considered important in geriatric medicine and gerontology, such as physical and cognitive function, quality of life measures, and social support.
- Leveraging existing resources where possible: A variety of NIH-funded resources are available to study HIV in aging, such as longitudinal studies of HIV-infected individuals and/or their non-infected counterparts (observational or interventional), clinical networks, and research centers. Leveraging such resources through secondary analyses of available data, ancillary studies, or utilization of existing infrastructure are cost-effective approaches to testing hypotheses or generating relevant data for further studies. Please see OAR’s quick reference guide on HIV and Aging Efforts Across NIH for a detailed list of relevant resources and cohort studies.
- Selection of appropriate controls**:** Aging individuals living with HIV have varied and complex clinical pictures. Biological and psychological co-morbidities, treatment regimens, lifestyle and behavioral factors, socioeconomic factors, and social support may all impact disease development, coping, and progression. This complexity presents a significant challenge to identifying appropriate control populations in observational studies of aging individuals with HIV. Such studies should include adequate justification for selection of the proposed control group(s).
- Characterization of phenotypes: Several biological or behavioral phenotypes of HIV in aging that have been elucidated may have markedly different disease courses, biological underpinnings, and treatment responses. Such phenotypes may be described by characteristics like frailty/disability, accelerated aging, successful aging, or other descriptors. Investigators are encouraged to maximize the homogeneity of subgroups by defining specific phenotypes in analyses.
- Exploratory/Developmental nature: New directions that expand or shift existing paradigms are needed to advance the science of HIV and aging. Studies that move the science into new directions with little or no preliminary data are appropriate for this mechanism.
For more information, please see the opportunity webpage.