Iron supplements may boost brain development in children with HIV

A University of Minnesota Medical School research team has found that giving iron supplements to children living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in sub-Saharan Africa could be an important first step in optimizing brain development. 

The research, published in the journal Lancet HIV, demonstrates that iron, while often withheld from children with HIV due to fear of increasing infection risk, is in fact beneficial. This finding paves the way for future research examining iron's role in neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with HIV. 

With the success and widespread availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART), children with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are living longer, and optimizing their brain development is a new public health imperative."

Sarah Cusick, PhD, associate professor at the U of M Medical School and member of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain

Between May 2018 and November 2019, researchers enrolled 200 children with HIV and anemia who had received ART for at least six months. The study participants were randomly chosen to receive either iron supplements or a placebo for three months. Children who received iron had higher hemoglobin concentrations and better markers of iron nutrition than those who received the placebo. There also was no evidence of increased risk of infection. 

According to Dr. Cusick, further research is needed to assess brain development and infection risk over a longer period of time.

Funding for the research was provided by Minnesota Masonic Charities, the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute and the National Institutes of Health [K08AI141761].