Summary

People living with HIV face a greater risk of developing lung diseases at a much younger age, even if they have never smoked. FIU researchers have now uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps explain how HIV causes emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a study published in Communications Biology , the team found that an HIV protein , known as Tat, essentially disrupts the lungs' internal molecular "clock"—the timekeeping system that regulates daily lung function and, importantly, plays a key role in immune response.

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