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Associations of cigarette smoking with viral immune and cognitive function in human immunodeficiency virus-seropositive women

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Abstract

Cigarette smoking alters the immune system and may improve cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders. Smoking prevalence is high in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)—infected patients; however, its effect on HIV-associated cognitive impairment remains unknown in the era of antiretroviral treatment. The authors examined associations of smoking with viral immune profile and cognitive function in a cohort of HIV-seropositive women. This observational cross-sectional study included 56 women (36 HIV-seropositive and 20 HIV-seronegative) surveyed with a tobacco questionnaire: the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependency. Viral immune status was obtained 6 to 12 months before questioned. Neurocognitive testing (NP) assessed verbal memory, frontal/executive function, psychomotor speed, and motor speed. A reference group of HIV-seronegative women was used to calculate standardized z-scores. Cognitive impairment was classified using a modified American Academy of Neurology criteria, adding an asymptomatic group based on NP tests. Statistics included parametric and nonparametric tests. HIV-seropositive women were more likely to report a history of smoking (P = 0.028). Among them, current smoking correlated with higher plasma viral load (P = 0.048), and history of smoking correlated with lower CD4 cell count (P = 0.027). The authors observed no associations between cognitive impairment and either current or past history of smoking and no differences in neurocognitive domain scores between HIV-seropositive and -seronegative women or between those with and without a history of smoking. However, restricting analysis to HIV-seropositives showed a significant better performance on the frontal/executive domain in those with history of smoking. In summary, history of smoking correlated with better frontal/executive cognitive domain performance in HIV-seropositive women and with worse viral immune profile.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NeuroAIDS Program, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

    Valerie Wojna, Lizbeth Robles, Raul Mayo, Tania de la Torre, Elizabeth Maldonado, Loyda M. Meléndez & Jose Lasalde-Dominicci

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Neurology Section, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

    Valerie Wojna

  3. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Richard L. Skolasky

  4. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

    Raul Mayo

  5. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Ola Selnes & Avindra Nath

  6. Department of Microbiology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

    Loyda M. Meléndez

  7. Department of Biology and Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

    Jose Lasalde-Dominicci

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  1. Valerie Wojna
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  2. Lizbeth Robles
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  9. Loyda M. Meléndez
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Correspondence to Valerie Wojna.

Additional information

This work was supported by S11NS046278, U54NS43011, and P20RR11126. P20RR11126 is a grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Wojna, V., Robles, L., Skolasky, R.L. et al. Associations of cigarette smoking with viral immune and cognitive function in human immunodeficiency virus-seropositive women. Journal of NeuroVirology 13, 561–568 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1080/13550280701620747

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