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The primary psychoactive component of marijuana, 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (9-THC), is used to mitigate AIDS-associated wasting. Cannabinoid receptors are expressed on cells of the immune system suggesting that chronic 9-THC administration may impact on human immunodeficiency virus progression. Ongoing studies indicate that 9-THC -treated, simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected rhesus macaques have increased survival and lower plasma viral loads. We hypothesized that chronic 9-THC treatment decreases viral replication by anti-inflammatory effects at lymphoid tissues. Plasma and lymph nodes obtained at necropsy of SIVmac251-infected macaques, treated twice daily i.m. with 9-THC (0.32 mg/kg) or vehicle (500µl) were used to quantitate viral load and cytokine levels. Chronic 9-THC treatment resulted in lower plasma viral load (5.28 vs 6.11 log copies of gagRNA/ml plasma), lymph node proviral DNA (1.57 vs 1.99 log copies/10,000 cells) and viral gagRNA (1.14 vs 2.08 log copies/total RNA), irrespective of disease stage. Lymph node content of IL-1b, IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 positively correlated with levels of plasma viral load across all animals (p<0.05). No effect of 9-THC was found on cytokine expression. These results suggest that chronic 9-THC treatment enhances control of viral replication but does not appear to be mediated by decreased inflammation.
Source: fasebj.org
Source: fasebj.org
