Drugs of Abuse as Possible Co-Factors in AIDS Progression

Abstract

A Panel Discussion on the question whether drugs of abuse act as possible co-factors in AIDS progression was presented at the Symposium on AIDS, Drugs of Abuse and Neuroimmune Axis. Panelists were well-known biomedical scientists in the area of drugs of abuse research. The first panelist was Dr. Harry Haverkos, Director of the AIDS Office at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Clyde McCoy, Director of the Comprehensive Drug Research Center at the University of Miami School of Medicine and Dr. Paul Shapshak, Director of the Retrovirus Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine also were penalists. Dr. Shapshak is well known as a biomedical scientist studying the AIDS virus and the CNS. Dr. McCoy is a widely known epidemiologist. The third panelist was Dr. David Vlahoy from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a widely renown epidemiologist. Dr. Robert Donahoe, Director of the Psychoimmunol­ogy Laboratory at the Georgia Mental Health Institute and the Department of Psychiatry at Emory University was also a panelist. His expertise deals with virology and monkey models of AIDS. Dr. Phillip Peterson, Professor and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota Medical School, was also a panelist. His expertise deals with infectious diseases, including AIDS, and studies of how HIV affects the immune response as well as the CNS. Dr. Martin Adler, Professor of Pharmacology at Temple University School of Medicine was also a panelist and discussed the relationship between pharmacologi­cal principles and epidemiology in resolving the conflict between the dirth of epidemiologi­cal evidence that drugs of abuse are involved in AIDS progression and the disparity between numerous laboratory and experimental studies showing that drugs of abuse, in animal models, are major factors in suppressing the immune response and enhancing or augmenting HIV replication in vitro.