Youth With HIV Clinical Trial
Official title:
Consequences of Marijuana Use on Inflammatory Pathways in HIV-Infected Youth
Proposed study focuses on Youth With HIV (YWH) recruited from the University of North Carolina using a cross sectional assessment of blood samples, clinical, demographic, behavioral, [including substance use and frequency], and neurocognitive data will be evaluated from YWH treated before CD4 T cell decline.
The long-term goal for the proposed research is to apply a systems biology approach to discover evidence that provides the basis for understanding the complex and at times conflicting roles for marijuana in chronic inflammation in HIV-infected youth. To achieve the goal, a systems biology approach with two aims is designed: Aim 1. To identify inflammatory immune pathways perturbed by recreational marijuana with or without concomitant use of tobacco products by applying a deep sequencing approach to define global transcriptome of peripheral blood cells from HIV-infected virally suppressed youth. Aim 2. To develop biomarker profiles associated with pro- or anti-inflammatory pathways perturbed by marijuana and to discover biomarker profiles linked to neurocognitive impairment that are impacted by marijuana and tobacco use by YWH ;