New R21 Awarded to DC CFAR Investigators, Italo Mocchetti, PhD, and Valeria Avodoshina, MD, PhD


June 28, 2017

New R21 picture

DC CFAR Investigators, Italo Mocchetti, PhD, and Valeria Avdoshina, MD, PhD, have recently been awarded an R21 from the National Institutes of Health entitled, "Opioid Withdrawal and Microglia: Synergistic Effect with HIV-Mediated Neurodegeneration?".

This project seeks to addressed the neurotoxic effects of opioid withdrawal in conjunction with HIV and their mechanisms. The researchers intend to test the hypothesis that morphine withdrawal "cold turkey" increases neuronal degeneration in an animal model of HIV. Data from this proposal will help in a better understanding of the mechanisms used by HIV and drugs of abuse to cause the brain pathology, and in the design of new compounds that inhibit brain damage caused by the dependence to morphine.The long-term goal of this proposal is to establish whether the neurotoxic effects of HIV could be managed in opioid abusers by reducing the cycles of opioid withdrawal.

Click here to read the full abstract.