Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
, Paul Shapshak 2,3,4,5, J. Bryan Page 2,6, Francesco Chiappelli 7, Clyde B. McCoy 1,5, Sarah E. Messiah 1,51 Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33136, USA
2 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33136, USA
3 Department of Neurology, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33136, USA
4 Department of Pathology, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33136, USA
5 Department of Comprehensive Drug Research Center, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33136, USA
6 Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33124, USA
7 Division of Oral Biology and Medicine, UCLA School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
Abstract
This study reports on the role of cocaine as effect modifier of the association of CD4+ cell counts and RNA viral load. HIV-1 seropositive (n = 80) and seronegative (n = 42) African American women (AAW) crack cocaine smokers were recruited. Increasing cocaine use, based on self-reports and laboratory values, significantly exacerbates the immunopathology of HIV-1 in a dose-response manner, confirmed by a non-linear drop in CD4+ cell number for a given viral load in HIV+ AAW. This report supports a view of deleterious effects due to cocaine use in humans.