Alcohol increases SIV 64-fold in monkeys: implications for HIV transmission
Both HIV and alcohol suppress the immune system, but little is known about the interaction between the two, and how drinking large amounts of alcohol affects HIV replication, particularly in primary infection.
Researchers at the University of Louisville Medical Center used simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of rhesus monkeys to examine the combined effects of chronic, binge alcohol consumption on the primary stage of SIV/HIV infection. The monkeys were given either alcohol or sucrose for four days per week for three months. The alcohol doses were roughly the human equivalent of 6 to 10 drinks over a five-hour period. After three months, seven alcohol-treated and seven sucrose-treated monkeys were infected with SIV.
The results, published today in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research show that approximately one week after SIV infection, there was a 64-fold increase of SIV in the blood of the alcohol-treated monkeys compared to the sucrose-treated monkeys. "This most likely means that either more cells are infected with virus at this early stage or that infected cells are producing more virus," said the study’s principal investigator Gregory J. Bagby. "If more cells are infected, it means that the alcohol increased infectivity of cells or increased the number of susceptible cells."
Alcohol consumption also enhanced lymphocyte turnover (as assessed by expression of the cell cycle protein marker Ki67) in SIV-infected monkeys during the early stage of infection, which may have contributed to the observed increase of virus in the blood.
Since alcohol abuse among people with HIV is significant, these findings could shed light on the connection between binge drinking and HIV infection.
The researchers will now study the longitudinal effects of alcohol on SIV disease progression.