Cocaine Use Can You More Susceptible To HIV (Beyond The Obvious)

Risky sexual behavior and substance abuse have always orbited HIV but it isn't just shared needles; drugs like cocaine make people engage in lots of other risky behaviors. The epidemiology of how HIV spreads is well know but relatively little research has been done into how drugs impact the body's defenses against the virus. A new paper examines how cocaine affects a unique population of immune cells called quiescent CD4 T cells, which are resistant to the virus that causes AIDS. They found that cocaine makes the cells susceptible to infection with HIV, causing both significant infection and new production of the virus.  read more

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