Crack cocaine: effect modifier of RNA viral load and CD4 count in HIV infected African American women

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.

Article

Robert Duncan^1,5,*, Paul Shapshak^2,3,4,5, J. Bryan Page^2,6, Francesco Chiappelli⁷, Clyde B. McCoy^1,5, Sarah E. Messiah^1,5

Show Less

¹ 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

Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2007, 12(4), 1488–1495; https://doi.org/10.2741/2162

Published: 1 January 2007

Download PDF

Cite

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.

Previous article in this issue

Next article in this issue

Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) Print ISSN 2768-6701 Electronic ISSN 2768-6698