AIDS, Drugs of Abuse, and the Neuroimmune Axis

This volume represents the Proceedings of the Symposium on AIDS, Drugs of Abuse and the Neuroimmune Axis. This meeting was held in San Diego, California, November 11-13, 1995. As in the previous symposia in this series, productive studies were reviewed concerning the relationship between the nervous and the immune systems in regards to the relationship between drugs of abuse and infections, especially infections by the immunode ficiency virus that causes AIDS. In recent years, various investigators have begun to describe the role of illicit drugs and their endogenous counterparts on the brain-immune axis. It is widely recognized that the neuroendocrine system is intimately involved in the effects and manifestations of the interactions of drugs of abuse and the immune system. The meeting on which the chapters in this book are based brought together many biological scientists from an array of various scientific disciplines whose work is focused on the effects of drugs of abuse on the neuroendocrine-immune axis and its relationships to immunodeficiency caused by the AIDS virus. As in the past, the symposium was unique in focusing on the . brain-immune axis from the viewpoint of drugs of abuse rather than from the viewpoint of immunity or the brain itself.

Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium held in San Diego, California, November 9-11, 1995

1. AIDS, Drugs of Abuse and the Neuroimmune Axis: Introduction and Perspectives.- 2. The Effect of Novel Opioids on Natural Killer Activity and Tumor Surveillance in Vivo.- 3. Kappa Opioid Receptors on Immune Cells as Studied by Fluorescent Ligands.- 4. Presence of Opiate Alkaloid-Selective µ3 Receptors in Cultured Astrocytes and in Brain and Retina.- 5. Opiates, Glia, and Neurotoxicity.- 6. Morphine Affects the Brain-Immune Axis by Modulating an Interleukin-1 Beta Dependent Pathway.- 7. Opioid Dependency and the Progression of Simian AIDS: Mortality and Behavioral Observations.- 8. Endogenous Opioids and HIV Infection.- 9. Methionine Enkephalin Used in Combination with Azidothymidine in Murine Retrovirus Infection.- 10. On the Evolution of Opioid Mechanisms and Immune Defenses.- 11. Purification and Characterization of a Secreted T-Cell ?-Endorphin Endopeptidase.- 12. Effects of Centrally Administered Opioid Agonists on Macrophage Nitric Oxide Production and Splenic Lymphocyte Proliferation.- 13. Prenatal Morphine Exposure Interacts with Adult Stress to Affect Type and Number of Blood Leucocytes.- 14. Endogenous Cannabinoid Ligands.- 15. Cannabinoids and Immunity to Legionella pneumophila Infection.- 16. Cannabinoids and Interleukin-6 Enhance the Response to NMDA in Developing CNS Neurons.- 17. Cannabinoid Receptor Expression in Immune Cells.- 18. Cannabinoids and Immunity to Viruses.- 19. Alteration of Macrophage Functions by Cocaine.- 20. Divergent Effects of Cocaine on Cytokine Production by Lymphocytes and Monocyte/Macrophages: HIV-1 Enhancement by Cocaine within the Blood-Brain Barrier.- 21. Effects on Mouse Thymocyte Biology: A Mini-Overview with Some New Evidence.- 22. Immunopathogenesis of HIV Infection: Role of Alcohol and HIV Peptides.- 23. HIV-1Neuropathogenesis and Abused Drugs: Current Views, Problems, and Solutions.- 24. Inhaled Isobutyl Nitrite Produced Lung Inflammation with Increased Macrophage TNF-? and Nitric Oxide Production.- 25. Cytokine Action in the Nervous System at Pathophysiological versus Pharmacological Concentrations.- 26. Behavioral and Neurophysiological Effects of CNS Expression of Cytokines in Transgenic Mice.- 27. IL1 Beta Impairs Relational but not Procedural Rodent Learning in a Water Maze Task.- 28. TNF?: A Neuromodulator in the Central Nervous System.- 29. Drugs of Abuse as Possible Co-Factors in AIDS Progression: Summary of Panel Discussion.