Cocaine Users More Susceptible to HIV: Study

Cocaine drug users are at a higher risk of developing an HIV infection if they come into contact with the virus as their T cells are more susceptible to the virus, new research suggests.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that a specific type of immune cell becomes susceptible to the virus after cocaine use. The study is published in the October issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

"Our studies focused on a unique population of immune cells (cells that constitute our body's defenses against infection), quiescent CD4 T cells, which can be targeted by HIV but are resistant to the virus," lead researcher Dr. Dimitrios Vatakis, co-director of UCLA's CFAR Virology Core Laboratory said in a statement.  "We have shown that cocaine exposure sensitizes these cells and increases their susceptibility to infection."

The researchers performed an in vitro study on blood, which they collected from healthy people. The CD4 T (cluster of differentiation 4) cells were separated from the blood. These cells are resistant to AIDS-causing viruses. CD4 T is a glycoprotein, which covers the surface of immune cells. These cells were exposed to cocaine for three days and then to HIV.

"The surprising result was that the changes cocaine induced on these cells were very minimal, yet they were sufficient to fuel infection," Vatakis said in a press release. 

"We found that cocaine mediates its effects directly, inducing minimal changes in the physiology of these cells and utilizing the same pathways it uses to target the brain," Vatakis added.

They found that a 3-day exposure to cocaine enhanced the permissiveness of the T cells to HIV infection.