Impact of antiretroviral treatment containing tenofovir difumarate on the telomere length of aviremic HIV-infected patients

[Objective]: To evaluate the in vivo relevance of the inhibitory effect of tenofovir on telomerase activity observed in vitro.[Design]: Cross-sectional study of HIV-infected patients with suppressed virological replication (HIV RNA <50 copies/mL for more than 1 year).[Methods]: Telomere length in whole blood was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. We performed a multivariate analysis to elucidate variables associated with telomere length and also evaluated the association between telomere length and use of tenofovir difumarate (TDF) adjusted by significant confounders.[Results]: 200 patients included, 72% men, median age 49 (IQR 45–54.5), 103 with exposure to a TDF containing antiretroviral treatment (ART) regimen (69.9% for more than 5 years) and 97 never exposed to a TDF containing ART regimen. In the multivariate analysis, significant predictors of shorter telomere length were older age (P = 0.008), parental age at birth (P = 0.038), white race (P = 0.048), and longer time of known HIV infection (10–20 and ≥20 years compared with