RESEARCH ARTICLE
HIV–1 Antigens in Neurons of Cocaine-Abusing Patients
Milan Fiala*, 1, Elyse J Singer2, Deborah Commins2, Tamara Mirzapoiazova3, Alexander Verin4, Araceli Espinosa5, Kenneth Ugen6, Michael Bernas7, Marlys Witte7, Martin Weinand7, Albert S Lossinsky8, 9
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 24
Last Page: 31
Publisher Id: TOVJ-2-24
DOI: 10.2174/1874357900802010024
Article History:
Received Date: 3/3/2008Revision Received Date: 11/3/2008
Acceptance Date: 17/3/2008
Electronic publication date: 28/3/2008
Collection year: 2008
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Cocaine opens the blood-brain barrier by deregulating transcription of target genes. Here we show that cocaine at blood concentrations in drug abusers disrupts endothelial cell junctions in parallel with signaling by phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase, myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase and myosin light chain. Cocaine effects may be important in vivo since the neurons of drug abusing patients with HIV-1 associated dementia displayed gp120, p24 and Nef.