Ethanol suppression of peripheral blood mononuclear cell trafficking across brain endothelial cells in immunodeficiency virus infection.

Earlier studies suggested that the combination of alcohol use and immunodeficiency virus infection resulted in more severe neurologic disease than either condition individually. These deleterious interactions could be due to increased immune cell and virus trafficking or may result from interactions between ethanol and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated toxicity within the brain. To determine the extent to which increased trafficking played a role, we examined the effect of ethanol on the migration of different peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMCs) subsets across a brain endothelial cell monolayer.