{"id":140521,"date":"2024-09-23T18:35:49","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T18:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/hiv-and-illicit-drugs-are-a-bad-mix-this-scientist-found-an-unexpected-reason-why\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T18:35:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T18:35:49","slug":"hiv-and-illicit-drugs-are-a-bad-mix-this-scientist-found-an-unexpected-reason-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/hiv-and-illicit-drugs-are-a-bad-mix-this-scientist-found-an-unexpected-reason-why\/","title":{"rendered":"HIV and illicit drugs are a bad mix. This scientist found an unexpected reason why"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_dionna-williams_inline.jpg?resize=680%2C331&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"HIV and illicit drugs are a bad mix. This scientist found an unexpected reason why\" title=\"HIV and illicit drugs are a bad mix. This scientist found an unexpected reason why\" \/><\/div> \r\n<br><div style=\"clear:both\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.subscribe-cta {\n  color: black;\n  margin-top: 0px;\n  background-color: #EDD695;\n  background-size: cover;\n  padding: 20px;\n  border: 1px solid black;\n  border-top: 5px solid black;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n.centered {\n  text-align:center;\n  margin:auto;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:group {\"className\":\"subscribe-cta\"} -->\n<div id=\"subscribeConversion\" class=\"wp-block-group subscribe-cta\"><!-- wp:heading {\"textAlign\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"2em\"}}} -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:2em\">Extreme Climate Survey<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"1.1em\"}}} -->\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\"><strong><em>Science News <\/em>is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:spacer {\"height\":\"20px\"} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:spacer -->\n\n<!-- wp:buttons {\"className\":\"centered\",\"layout\":{\"type\":\"flex\",\"justifyContent\":\"center\"}} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:buttons --><\/div>\n<!-- \/wp:group -->\n\n\n<p>The argument didn\u2019t make sense to Williams, who met patients with HIV during a summer program while working on their Ph.D. at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. \u201cEvery person with HIV that has a substance use disorder, they can\u2019t just all not be taking their meds. They can\u2019t all just not be going to the doctor. That\u2019s not possible.\u201d Even people who regularly take their antiretroviral medications have bad outcomes if they also use cocaine, for instance. Perhaps there are biological reasons why HIV, its treatments and illicit drugs are such a bad mix, realized Williams, who uses both she and they pronouns. Their career has been dedicated to exploring those connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this year, for example, Williams and colleagues reported in <em>Fluids and Barriers of the CNS, <\/em>that in human cells in the lab, cocaine increased one anti-HIV medication\u2019s ability to get past the brain\u2019s protective barrier while decreasing the ability for another. The team found that <a href=\"https:\/\/fluidsbarrierscns.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12987-023-00507-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cocaine can also increase amounts of enzymes<\/a> that are needed to convert the medications to their active forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3143671\">Cocaine can influence how much of an antiviral drug can reach the brain of a person infected with HIV. Williams and colleagues found that cocaine can cause cells to make less of many proteins responsible for moving medications and other substances in or out of cells. Here, production of one of these transporter proteins called organic anion transporter 1 (shown in green) is reduced in cells treated with cocaine (right) compared with cells without the drug.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3143671\">R. Col\u00f3n Ortiz\/<i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">Fluids and Barriers of the CNS<\/i> 2024 (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY 4.0<\/a>)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Such findings suggest the problem isn\u2019t always that people who use illicit drugs aren\u2019t taking their prescriptions, but that they may need higher or lower doses or a different treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams\u2019 research embraces those who have been marginalized and excluded partly because Williams understands what it is like to be an outsider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI own multiple marginalized identities. In fact, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever met anyone in science that\u2019s like me,\u201d Williams says. \u201cI\u2019m a nonbinary Black woman. I am also queer. I am Autistic. I am [a] first-generation [college student]. I\u2019m from a disadvantaged background.\u201d Williams is also a single parent, martial artist and dancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Holding all those identities has helped Williams understand people of all types and to be a better scientist and mentor, they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShe is just an amazing young scholar,\u201d says Habibeh Khoshbouei, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, noting that Williams\u2019 research fields \u2014 pharmacology, neuroscience and immunology \u2014 are diverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps most impressive is that Williams uses human cells and samples from people, Khoshbouei says. Most researchers, including herself, use lab animals such as rats or mice to study the brain and immune system. Lab animals have carefully controlled diets and living conditions. They are genetically similar. All that makes it easier to interpret results of experiments. Working with people and their cells requires dealing with all the ways humans differ, and often requires hundreds of participants. But it\u2019s the human differences that Williams wants to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe scale of complexity and dedication and open-mindedness to work with actual human samples, it\u2019s beyond measure. It is not comparable,\u201d to working with animals, Khoshbouei says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>By working directly with human cells, Williams also skips the need to translate findings from animals. That means the findings may be more likely to hold up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A recent study \u2014 on how drugs affect the body more generally \u2014 helps illustrate why results in humans don\u2019t always match findings from animal studies. Williams and colleagues probed the bodies of rats, mice and rhesus macaques for activity of 14 genes that make proteins that detect cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana. Rodents and monkeys are often used as stand-ins for humans in medical studies, including studies looking at the possible health benefits of medical marijuana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For animal studies to be useful, the results should be comparable across species. But when the team looked at the rodents and monkeys to see where the chemical-sensing proteins \u2014 called endocannabinoid receptors \u2014 are located in the animals, <a href=\"https:\/\/physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.14814\/phy2.15947\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the patterns didn\u2019t match<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mice made detectable levels of one of the main endocannabinoid receptors in their colons, kidneys, spleen and visceral fat, the team reported February 26 in <em>Physiological Reports.<\/em> Rats produced it mainly in their kidneys and colons, while macaques made it in their spleens and visceral fat. There was even variation between individuals within a species. \u201cNothing is the same,\u201d Williams says. \u201cIf we don\u2019t understand this, we\u2019re not going to be able to make good therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, some people may make far more or less of drug-sensing proteins in certain organs, Williams says. Many scientists would dismiss the variation as noise. \u201cThat\u2019s not noise,\u201d Williams says. \u201cIt\u2019s really important information about people\u2019s biology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams is \u201cfearless,\u201d says Gonzalo Torres, a neuropharmacologist at Loyola University Chicago\u2019s Stritch School of Medicine. \u201cShe\u2019s not afraid to go into research areas [in which] she\u2019s not necessarily an expert.\u201d Torres directs mentorship programs including the MINDS program for diverse junior faculty in neurosciences, in which Williams participated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams stands out for being smart, strategic, creative, persistent and tenacious, Torres says. \u201cShe\u2019s hungry, she wants to know, she wants to pursue.\u201d And Williams works hard to develop the skills and knowledge needed to answer their research questions. \u201cEvery time she\u2019s going deeper, and by going deeper, she grows, and her research team grows. She\u2019s becoming a superstar,\u201d Torres says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams credits their autism with helping \u201cto connect topics in a very interdisciplinary way.\u201d Autism allows them to see beyond societal standards and structures, they say. \u201cWe think differently. We see the world differently.\u2026 When people say \u2018This can\u2019t be done,\u2019 [I say], \u2018Well, why not?\u2019 Or \u2018No one\u2019s looking at that,\u2019 \u2018Why aren\u2019t they?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/dionna-williams-hiv-substance-abuse\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extreme Climate Survey Science News is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? The argument didn\u2019t make sense to Williams, who met patients with HIV during a summer program while working on their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_dionna-williams_inline.jpg?resize=680%2C331&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[1559,7104,7145,14193,11394,4318,1157,4354],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140523,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140521\/revisions\/140523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}