| الوصف: |
Drug abuse has been shown to cause epigenetic changes in brain tissue that have been shown to play roles in addictive behaviors, while also increasing the transmigration of immune cells through the blood-brain barrier (BBB). In conjunction with HIV-1 infection, it can cause epigenetic changes at the viral promoter that can result in altered gene expression, and exacerbate disease progression overall. Given the importance of chromatin remodeling in controlling the retroviral promoter (long terminal repeat, LTR), and the high susceptibility of the drug abusing population to HIV infection, it would be beneficial to understand the way in which the host genome is modified and regulated by drugs of abuse. The effect that cocaine has on histone methylation, specifically Histone 3 Lysine 9 di/tri-methylation, Histone 3 Lysine 27 di-methylation, and Histone 3 Lysine 79 di-methylation, on the long terminal repeat (LTR) is explored. An increase in histone modifications that would suppress gene expression was observed. Furthermore, cocaine use is known to cause increase immune cell invasion in the central nervous system, contributing to the neuroAIDS. A flow chamber was constructed for use in a laminar flow assay in with the intention of investigating the effects of cocaine on T-cell adhesion to the BBB. |