Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS)/Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS)

Deborah Gustafson, MS, PhD and Tracey E. Wilson, PhD are Co-Principal Investigators of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) / Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

The Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) / Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) is a collaborative research effort that aims to understand and reduce the impact of chronic health conditions—including heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) disorders—that affect people living with HIV. For decades, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has supported the separate MACS and WIHS cohort studies. MACS was a study of gay and bisexual men, while WIHS was a study of women who had other risk factors for HIV. In 2019, the NHLBI became the primary steward of the new MWCCS. For this effort, the NHLBI is working in close collaboration with the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) as well as several co-funding institutes across the NIH.

The STAR Program’s Women’s Interagency Health Study (WIHS) had been following women living with HIV and a comparison group of at risk HIV negative women for 25 years. Data gathered here at Downstate have contributed to over 900 publications to date on a range of topics including the impact of HIV on women’s health, aging, cardiovascular health, genomics, hepatitis C, pulmonary conditions, renal issues and neurocognition.

The NIH refunded the Brooklyn study site as one of 14 centers to participate in the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS).  All of the former WIHS sites as well as the former Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) sites, which had been following men for over 35 years, will enroll participants into a common protocol.  Participants in the MACS and WIHS will be asked to participate in the MWCCS. Researchers will also recruit new participants with a special focus on hard-hit population groups, such as black and Hispanic men and women and residents of southern states.

The MWCCS is designed to investigate a spectrum of questions relating to the basic science, clinical science, and epidemiology of HIV infection in the US, with a focus on comorbidities among men and women living with HIV.  Major areas of investigation include: cardiovascular and pulmonary, neuropsychological, aging, cancer, psychosocial, and health disparities. Enrollment into MWCCS is scheduled to begin in 2021.

More information about the MWCCS can be found at http://mwccs.org  or by contacting Susan Holman, the Brooklyn Site Project Director, at susan.holman@downstate.edu or Susan Brockmann, the Brooklyn Site Study Coordinator, at susan.brockmann@downstate.edu