Acute supplementation with beetroot juice improves endothelial function in HIV-infected individuals

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is associated with lower nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and vascular dysfunction. Nitrate-rich beetroot juice (BJ) has been shown to acutely increase NO availability and vascular function in healthy and individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Thus, we tested the effects of BJ ingestion on flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements in healthy and HIV-infected patients. Thirteen HIV-infected individuals (age, 36 ± 10 years) and 18 healthy (age, 27 ± 8 years) participated in the study. Individuals were submitted to vascular tests such as FMD and pulse PWV at pre (T0) and at 120 min (T120) after BJ and placebo (PLA) ingestion. The %FMD at T0 of the control group was significantly higher than the %FMD at T0 of the HIV individuals in both interventions. BJ improved the %FMD at T120 when compared with T0 in the HIV and control groups. There was no change in %FMD after PLA ingestion in the control and HIV groups. There were no differences between groups (control vs HIV), time points (T0 vs T120), and interventions (BJ vs PLA) for PWV. Our findings showed that nitrate-rich BJ ingestion acutely improved vascular function in healthy and HIV-infected patients. Clinical Trials Registry no. NCT03485248. Novelty: HIV is associated with lower NO bioavailability and vascular dysfunction. Acute supplementation with nitrate-rich BJ has been shown to acutely increases NO bioavailability. We showed for the first time that BJ acutely improves endothelial function in HIV-infected patients.