The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a major global public health issue. It has claimed more than 35 million lives so far. In 2016, 1 million people died from HIV-related causes globally [
1]. With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the life expectancy of HIV patients was extensively increased and HIV infection has become a chronic disease [
2,
3]. Presently, alleviation of the complications induced by long term HIV infection remains an unresolved problem. Among all HIV-related complications, cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of mortality in HIV positive patients [
4]. Cardiovascular involvement in HIV-infection was first described in 1983 by Autran et al. who noted myocardial Kaposi’s sarcoma at autopsy [
5]. Thereafter, additional research revealed the association between HIV infection and cardiovascular diseases. HIV infection increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is independent of antiretroviral therapies [
6,
7]. Though some antiretroviral drugs, such as zidovudine, have a deleterious effect on myocardium, HAART has dramatically decreased the incidence of cardiomyopathy and mortality of HIV infected patients [
8,
9]. Therefore, over the past few decades, scientific research has increasingly focused on unraveling the mechanism and role of HIV-infection in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases