Abstract
Background:The use of stimulants, such as methamphetamine, has been associated with greater immune activation in treated HIV infection. However, relatively little is known about whether concomitant cannabis use is associated with lower immune activation among HIV-positive stimulant users.Setting:HIV-positive, sexual minority men with biologically confirmed, recent methamphetamine use were enrolled in San Francisco, CA.Methods:In total, 78 methamphetamine-using sexual minority men with an undetectable HIV viral load (<40 copies/mL) completed self-report measures of cannabis use and substance use disorder severity. Plasma biomarkers of monocyte activation (ie, sCD14 and sCD163) and intestinal barrier integrity (iFABP) were measured. The associations of hazardous cannabis use with these measurements were examined after adjusting for substance use disorder severity, age, antiretroviral therapy regimen, CD4+ T-cell count, and interleukin-6.Results:Hazardous cannabis users had the highest mean sCD14 levels (2181 ng/mL) compared with nonhazardous users (1991 ng/mL) and nonusers (1859 ng/mL; P = 0.05). In adjusted analyses, greater cannabis use severity was associated with higher sCD14 compared with nonusers (unstandardized beta = 133.6 ng/mL, P = 0.03). Cannabis use severity was not significantly associated with sCD163 or iFABP.Conclusions:Hazardous cannabis use is independently associated with elevations in a clinically relevant marker of immune activation in methamphetamine users with treated HIV.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 361-364 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes |
| Volume | 81 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 1 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Received for publication January 3, 2019; accepted February 23, 2019. From the aSchool of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL; bSchool of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL; cSchool of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; and dDepartment of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL. Supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01-DA033854; Woods, Carrico, and Moskowitz, PIs). Additional funding was provided by a pilot award from the University of California, San Francisco Center for AIDS Research (P30-AI027763; Volberding, PI) and a state of Florida HIV reservoirs pilot award. Additional support for assays was provided by the Miami Center for AIDS Research (P30-AI073961; Pahwa, PI). The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Correspondence to: Adam W. Carrico, PhD, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, 1120 NW 14th Street, Office 1005, Miami, FL 33136 (e-mail: [email protected]). Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
Funding Information:
Supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01-DA033854; Woods, Carrico, and Moskowitz, PIs). Additional funding was provided by a pilot award from the University of California, San Francisco Center for AIDS Research (P30-AI027763; Volberding, PI) and a state of Florida HIV reservoirs pilot award. Additional support for assays was provided by the Miami Center for AIDS Research (P30-AI073961; Pahwa, PI).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
Keywords
- cannabis
- HIV
- immune activation
- marijuana
- methamphetamine
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
