{"doi":"10.1093/cid/ciaa437","title":"Beneficial Effects of Cannabis on Blood–Brain Barrier Function in Human Immunodeficiency Virus","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection leads to blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction that does not resolve despite viral suppression on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. In preclinical models, cannabis restores BBB integrity. METHODS: We studied persons with HIV (PWH) and HIV-negative (HIV-) individuals who had used cannabis recently. We assessed 2 biomarkers of BBB permeability: the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to serum albumin ratio (CSAR) and CSF levels of soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), a receptor for uPA, a matrix-degrading proteolytic enzyme that disrupts the BBB. A composite index of the BBB markers was created using principal components analysis. Neural injury was assessed using neurofilament light (NFL) in CSF by immunoassay. RESULTS: Participants were 45 PWH and 30 HIV- individuals of similar age and ethnicity. Among PWH, higher CSF suPAR levels correlated with higher CSAR values (r = 0.47, P < .001). PWH had higher (more abnormal) BBB index values than HIV- individuals (mean ± SD, 0.361 ± 1.20 vs -0.501 ± 1.11; P = .0214). HIV serostatus interacted with cannabis use frequency, such that more frequent use of cannabis was associated with lower BBB index values in PWH but not in HIV- individuals. Worse BBB index values were associated with higher NFL in CSF (r = 0.380, P = .0169). CONCLUSIONS: Cannabis may have a beneficial impact on HIV-associated BBB injury. Since BBB disruption may permit increased entry of toxins such as microbial antigens and inflammatory mediators, with consequent CNS injury, these results support a potential therapeutic role of cannabis among PWH and may have important treatment implications for ART effectiveness and toxicity.","journal":"Clinical Infectious Diseases","year":2020,"id":99110,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":30,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9511,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":474336,"name":"Scott N. Peterson","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":312162,"name":"Mariana Cherner","orcid":"0000-0002-5479-7401","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":429205,"name":"Erin E. Morgan","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":489426,"name":"Rachel Schrier","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":352517,"name":"Bin Tang","orcid":"0000-0001-8808-8323","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235819,"name":"Martin Hoenigl","orcid":"0000-0002-1653-2824","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371983,"name":"Scott Letendre","orcid":"0000-0003-3490-4975","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":489427,"name":"Jenny Iudicello","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371984,"name":"Ronald J. Ellis","orcid":"0000-0003-4931-752X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":45,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:37:35.547042Z","pmid":"32296832","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}