Key Dates

Related Announcements

• September 16, 2023 - Notice of Technical Assistance Webinar and FAQs for NOT-HL-23-113 (NOSI). See Notice NOT-HL-23-111.
• NOT-HL-23-096 - Notice of Early Expiration and Reissuance of NOT-HL-22-010 "Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research on barriers to care and risk of HIV-associated comorbidities among vulnerable population groups"
• June 8, 2023 - Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research on barriers to care and risk of HIV-associated comorbidities among vulnerable population groups. See Notice NOT-HL-23-89
• May 10, 2022 - Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R01 Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PAR-22-105.
• October 9, 2020 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PA-20-272.
• December 31, 2019 - UPDATE: NIH HIV/AIDS Research Priorities and Guidelines for Determining HIV/AIDS Funding. See Notice NOT-OD-20-018.
• August 28, 2018 - NHLBI Interest in Administrative Supplements to Enhance HIV-related Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Research. See Notice NOT-HL-18-648 - RESCINDED.
• July 11, 2018 - Notice of Information for HIV research priorities at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. See Notice NOT-HL-18-642 - RESCINDED.

Issued by

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice is to inform the scientific community of HIV-focused research priorities that are of interest to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

NHLBI supports research on HIV-associated heart, lung, blood and sleep (HLBS) comorbidities, coinfections, and complications, including ancillary studies using established cohorts and repository data and specimens, in all people regardless of age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, geographic location, or socioeconomic circumstance, especially people who are both aging and are HIV-infected. NHLBI also supports a range of cross-cutting implementation research as well as basic and health disparities research, and training.

Priority topics of research include but are not limited to:

• Overlapping etiology and pathogenesis for HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections and complications that affect multiple systems and diverse health outcomes with a focus on heart, lung, blood or sleep, such as:
  • Mechanisms of HIV infection related atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
  • Interplay of infection, immunity, and inflammation in the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD) in people with HIV (PWH).
  • Genetics and genomics of thrombotic and ischemic disorders in PWH.
  • Pathobiology of HIV-related HLBS comorbidities.
  • Viral reservoirs/persistence and other factors that drive chronic immune activation and dysfunction in treated HIV infection and the shared immune pathways.
  • HIV-induced changes in the microbiome in PWH.
  • Contributions of the microbiome/virome towards inflammation/chronic immune activation and dysfunction.
  • Mechanisms that drive accentuated aging.
• Research models, methods and techniques, translational and clinical research on HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections and complications in heart, lung, blood or sleep:
  • Pre-clinical and animal models for HIV-associated HLBS comorbidities.
  • New methods or technologies for research on HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections and complications in heart, lung, blood or sleep.
  • Secondary- and meta-analysis of existing patient level clinical trials and real world data to study HLBS-related outcomes in PWH, and to investigate how diagnostics and therapies need to be tailored for PWH subgroups by race, gender, and age.
  • Collaborative databases and use of such data for hypothesis-generating analyses to better design new clinical trials and to investigate factors that account for differences in population health of PWH.
  • Effects of various etiologic and prognostic factors, demographics (gender, race, and age), genetics and genomics on HLBS morbidity and mortality in PWH.
  • Novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to prevent, treat, or cure HLBS comorbidities in PWH.
  • Adaptive clinical trial for testing emerging therapeutic agents to prevent or treat HLBS comorbidities in PWH.
• Syndemics framework-based, collaborative/multidisciplinary research on HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections and complications in heart, lung, blood or sleep, including:
  • How social, cultural, economic, political, behavioral and other factors create the conditions that lead to the clustering of HLBS conditions among people with HIV, and how these factors differ within and between people with HIV (e.g., urban, rural, international, low socioeconomic status).
  • Development of rigorous, quantitative syndemics methodologies to identify, understand, and interpret syndemic pathways, moderators and mediators of the clustering of HIV-associated HLBS conditions among PWH, and determining which interventions are most effective in decreasing such clustering.
  • Use of existing data to develop statistical methods and models to determine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of integrative care that takes into account structural and other non-biological factors in improving HLBS health outcomes.
• Interventions targeting HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections and complications in heart, lung, blood and sleep.
• HIV reservoirs and persistence in cells and tissues pertaining to blood, lung or heart and interventions targeting such reservoirs.
• Implementation science research exploring contributing factors to the successful implementation and scale-up of evidence-based interventions in clinical and community health settings for the prevention, control, or treatment of HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections and complications with a focus on heart, lung, blood or sleep in people living with HIV.
• Health disparities, such as in sexual and gender minorities, in treatment and outcomes for HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections and complications with a focus on heart, lung, blood or sleep.
• Specific HLBS comorbidities, such as:
  • Hypertension in HIV: Impact of intensive blood pressure control on cardiovascular and other outcomes in HIV.
  • Inflammation and immune activation: Safety and effectiveness of interventions to control inflammation and immune activation in people with HIV infection.
  • Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in HIV infection.
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Molecular events involved in the initiation, development, and resolution of exacerbations in people with HIV; identification of specific targets (cellular or molecular) for more effective preventive and therapeutic interventions.
  • Vascular complications such as platelet dysfunction, endothelial activation and hypercoagulation, venous thromboembolism and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in people with HIV infection.
  • Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): New evidence-base to inform practitioners whether OSA treatment in addition to HAART improves the quality of life of people with HIV and reduce the risk of serious comorbidities such as hypertension and diabetes.
  • Other HIV-related sleep disorders (e.g., insomnia).

NHLBI also supports research leading to an HIV cure, such as the use of gene-modified hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to cure HIV; mechanisms of HIV persistence and latency; or the impact of HIV infection on the hematologic system.

Research on prevention of HIV transmission through blood transfusion, including emerging issues that could impact blood safety, such as the potential inability to detect HIV infection by current blood donation screening for donors on antiretroviral therapy or pre-exposure prophylaxis (ART/PrEP), and implementation research to prevent HIV transmission through blood transfusion in low-resource settings, remains an important part of NHLBI's mission.

Application submission

• HIV-focused applications could be submitted to NIH Parent notices of funding opportunities and other NIH notices of funding opportunities, such as PAR-22-105 (Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health), which NHLBI participates in and which include AIDS Application Due Date(s). Such applications will be reviewed by NIH Center for Scientific Review HIV Study Sections or by review panels established by the leading NIH institute or center.
• Many NHLBI-issued notices of funding opportunities include AIDS Application Due date(s) and can accept HIV-focused applications. See the NHLBI Clinical Trial Development Continuum.
• NHLBI also participates in PA-20-272 Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional), or subsequently reissued equivalents. Interested NHLBI grantees are advised to contact their program officer before submitting an application. Interested grantees are also encouraged to review the NHLBI webpage on Administrative Supplements to Grants and Cooperative Agreements.
  

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Shimian Zou, PhD
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Telephone: 301-435-0065
Email: shimian.zou@nih.gov