LAUSR

Understanding the biological underpinnings of symptoms and identifying potential biomarkers is an important part of symptom research. Genomic and hormonal activities differ by biological sex and are important biomolecular components of the complex phenomena associatedwith chronic disease, symptoms, and aging (vom Steeg & Klein, 2016). Sex-based differences have been identified in the immune system including differences in levels of immune and inflammatory proteins (vomSteeg&Klein, 2016).Additionally, sex-based differences in people living with HIV (PLWH) include differences in symptomprofiles, severity ofHIV, clinical/ laboratory outcomes, antiretroviral therapy (ART) side effects, adherence, and complications (Castilho, Melekhin, & Sterling, 2014). Sleep alterations have been linked to immune function changes in both healthy and chronically ill populations (Besedovsky, Lange, & Born, 2012; Davis & Krueger, 2012; Wirth et al., 2015). Sleep disturbance is an important symptom in PLWH and has a wide range of effects including associations with adherence and depression (Phillips et al., 2005; Taibi, 2013). Studies have linked sleep disturbance to biomarkers in PLWH, including urine dopamine, CD4 T-cell count, interleukin (IL)-13, and single nucleotide variants in inflammatory marker genes (IL-1b, IL-1R2, IL-2, IL-6, IL-13,NF-kB1, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-A; Gay et al., 2015). Sexbased differences in the relationship between sleep disturbance and inflammation in PLWH have not been examined. Thus, the purpose of our pilot study was to examine sex-based differences in relationships between plasma levels of 10 key inflammation makers and selfreported sleep disturbance in PLWH.