Dr. Sylvia Fitting, an associate professor of Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience, is the recipient of a 2022 R01 grant (R01DA055523-01A1) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
In the context of HIV infection, cannabis use is an important topic and is the most commonly used drug among HIV-infected individuals. Negative and positive effects of cannabis use in the context of HIV have been reported on various biological processes but the exact role and limits of chronic cannabis use on HIV cognition under immune perturbations remain unclear. This proposal focuses on clinical and preclinical approaches to explore the effects and mechanisms of cannabis-associated oral microbiome on neurocognitive performance in HIV disease.
Dr. Fitting and her Co-PI, Dr. Wei Jiang, from the Medical University of South Carolina, were awarded $3,544,545 over five years (including indirect cost) for their project, “Investigating the effect of oral microbiome on cognition in HIV-infected chronic cannabis users.”