Texas A&M University | Researchers find new way to protect the brain from HIV and opioid damage

People living with HIV continue to struggle with memory loss, difficulty concentrating and poor decision-making, even as antiretroviral treatments have dramatically improved life expectancy.

Official response and confirmed impact

For patients who also use opioids — which may be prescribed to manage the chronic pain that can accompany HIV — these cognitive problems can be even worse.

Until now, scientists haven’t understood exactly why.

Texas A&M Health researchers say they’ve uncovered a key factor in HIV- and opioid-use-related cognitive impairment — and it could point to a promising new way to protect the brain.

In a new study published in Cell Death & Disease, the research team revealed that HIV and opioids combine to disrupt the brain’s natural DNA repair system.

This damage leads to ongoing inflammation and cognitive impairment.

But the researchers believe an existing drug, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, might help reverse the effects. Are you living with HIV/AIDS?

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