Emory researchers have received a $5.7 million grant to explore the effects of cocaine and anti-retroviral therapy, used in conjunction, on the heart.
The grant was awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health, and the study was prompted by the possibility of harm caused by simultaneously using cocaine and receiving anti-HIV/AIDS treatment.
Research has revealed that the use of cocaine can cause adverse effects on the heart and — due to the nature of its use — subsequently exposes its users to the risks of HIV/AIDS, according to a Jan. 21 University press release.
Because medicines used to treat the virus are also known to have negative consequences on the heart, researchers from Emory, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University are studying the combined effects of cocaine and anti-retroviral medicines on the cardiovascular system.
Simultaneous use of both may give rise to cardiomyopathy, a life-threatening illness that has the ability to weaken heart muscles or change the heart’s muscle structure.
William Lewis, who is the head researcher and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in Emory’s School of Medicine, said in the press release that the research aims to discover at the genetic level what mechanisms may lead to heart failure in both AIDS and non-AIDS conditions.
The greater motivation is to try and understand how diseases and substances interact within human bodies and genes, according to Eva Lee, a senior health systems professor at Georgia Tech.
“We no longer can treat successfully a single disease in isolation, but we must understand the broad interaction of multiple disease types, identify the factors that govern it, and determine the best treatment strategies for optimal clinical outcome,” Lee said.
The study will be conducted with laboratory mice both with and without AIDS, and will look at how cocaine and anti-retroviral drugs interact in the mice samples, according to the press release.
“I think it’s important to do these types of studies because it brings us closer to clinically relevant problems using scientifically meaningful and authentic animal models,” Lewis said.
According to Lewis, this study is innovative because of its epigenetics component.
Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression.
Observing the genes that control the heart’s ability to contract and how they are expressed may show the extent of damage to the organ.
“The interesting spin we put on this is that we are looking at which and how genes are affected in the heart by those two conditions,” Lewis said.
Lewis said that ultimately he hopes the research will shed light on an important public health issue that will help young people in the future.
The research team also consists of Michael Kuhar, Candler Professor of Neuropharmacology and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar at Emory School of Medicine and Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and David Harrison, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University and former Emory faculty member.