Disruption of gut homeostasis by opioids accelerates HIV disease progression

Jingjing Meng, Gregory M. Sindberg, Sabita Roy

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cumulative studies during the past 30 years have established the correlation between opioid abuse and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Further studies also demonstrate that opioid addiction is associated with faster progression to AIDS in patients. Recently, it was revealed that disruption of gut homeostasis and subsequent microbial translocation play important roles in pathological activation of the immune system during HIV infection and contributes to accelerated disease progression. Similarly, opioids have been shown to modulate gut immunity and induce gut bacterial translocation. This review will explore the mechanisms by which opioids accelerate HIV disease progression by disrupting gut homeostasis. Better understanding of these mechanisms will facilitate the search for new therapeutic interventions to treat HIV infection especially in opioid abusing population.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number643
JournalFrontiers in Microbiology
Volume6
Issue numberJUN
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Meng, Sindberg and Roy.

Keywords

  • Disease progression
  • Gastrointestinal immunology
  • Gut homeostasis
  • HIV infection
  • Opioids

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