Recreational Drug Use and T Lymphocyte Subpopulations in HIV-Uninfected and HIV-Infected Men

Noting that the effects of recreational drugs on CD4 and CD8 T cells in humans are not well understood, the authors conducted a longitudinal analysis of men who have sex with men (MSM) to define associations between self-reported use of marijuana, cocaine, poppers and amphetamines, and CD4 and CD8 T cell parameters in HIV-infected and -uninfected MSM.

Participants were MSM enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. For the HIV-infected MSM, the researchers used clinical and laboratory data collected semiannually before 1996 to avoid potential effects of antiretroviral treatment. A regression model that allowed random intercepts and slopes as well as autoregressive covariance structure for within subject errors was used. Length of follow-up, demographics, tobacco smoking, alcohol use, risky sexual behaviors, history of STD infections and antiviral therapy were among the potential cofounders adjusted for.

In either HIV-uninfected or -infected men, no clinically meaningful associations between the use of marijuana, cocaine, poppers or amphetamines and CD4 and CD8 T cell counts, percentages or rates or change were found. The regression coefficients were of minimum magnitude in spite of some reaching statistical significance. No threshold effect was shown for frequent (at least weekly) or continuous substance use in the previous year.

"These results indicate that use of these substances does not adversely affect the numbers and percentages of circulating CD4 and CD8 T cells in either HIV-uninfected or -infected MSM," the researchers concluded.

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