Alcohol can make people forget both their inhibitions and their condoms, boosting the likelihood of HIV transmission through unprotected sex.
However, new research suggests booze could have one other effect: It may make the body more vulnerable to infection by the Aids virus.
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Researchers found that a sister virus of Aids had much more success in colonizing the bodies of monkeys that regularly got drunk than it did in those that were sober.
And that may be because alcohol appears to increase the number of cells that are vulnerable to infection, the researchers say.
An ethical issue
It's difficult to examine the effect of alcohol consumption on Aids transmission in people because they drink varying amounts, says study co-author Gregory Bagby, a professor of physiology and medicine at Louisiana State University.
In addition, the limitations of ethical human medical research make it difficult, if not impossible, to study AIDS transmission as it happens.
Researchers do know, however, that Aids patients in the United States are twice as likely to abuse alcohol as the general population.
Drunk as a…monkey?
Bagby and his colleagues turned to rhesus monkeys, which can get drunk like humans and also are susceptible to an Aids-like disease known as simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
The researchers enrolled 22 monkeys in their study, all of whom were infected with SIV. Some were designated to go on drunken binges four times a week for three months. Monkeys don't go to cocktail parties or bars, however, so the scientists had to inject the alcohol directly into their stomachs.
The drunken monkeys weren't technically the equivalent of severe alcoholics because they didn't have a steady blood alcohol level.
"They don't suffer from withdrawal symptoms, and there's no liver dysfunction," notes study co-author Dr Steve Nelson, a professor of medicine at Louisiana State.
Instead, the monkeys were akin to human binge drinkers who party frequently, Nelson explains.
Infection 64 times more likely in "drinkers"
Within a week of infection, the level of virus was 64 times higher in the monkeys exposed to alcohol than in the other monkeys, who received a placebo sugar solution.
The study authors caution that the results, which appear in the March issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, don't necessarily mean that alcohol consumption dampened the immune systems of the monkeys.
"It's too early for the immune system to play a role in getting rid of the virus," Bagby says. "It takes a couple of weeks before that happens."
Instead, it appears that alcohol consumption boosts the number of "target cells" that are vulnerable to HIV infection, Nelson says.
As the body becomes more of a target-rich environment, the virus has more places to attack. The Aids virus doesn't automatically transmit itself to everyone who's exposed to it, and the number of infected cells may be important in determining whether the body fends off the disease.
Booze doesn't help matters
The study results will add to existing research about how alcohol harms the body's response to disease, says Kendall Bryant, director of AIDS research with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
"We've known for a long time that alcohol suppresses immunological function, but we didn't know whether this could be seen specifically in HIV and Aids," he adds.
Bryant says scientists have much more to learn about how alcohol affects Aids patients and those who are at risk of becoming infected.
One thing is clear, he adds: booze doesn't help matters. "In general, it really screws up Aids treatment," he says.
And the new research suggests the harmful effects may start much earlier than previously thought. - (HealthScout)
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