Yale researchers to receive $8 million to conduct HIV/AIDS research

Yale researchers and their collaborators have received funding for a set of three grants to compare effects of alcohol and substance use on people with and without HIV infection. The grants, totaling $8 million over 5 years from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), support research by the Yale-led Consortium to improve Outcomes in HIV/AIDS, Alcohol, Aging, and multi-Substance use (COMpAAAS).

The grants are a collaboration between Yale and research partners in the United Kingdom and at Kaiser Permanente. The combined award will increase the number of women, younger people, and men studied, making results more generalizable to the broader population. The award states that the research will address “interactions between alcohol, tobacco and drug use, antiretrovirals, and co-medications” that impact patients.

Dr. Amy Justice, professor of general medicine and public health, directs the consortium and is the principal investigator (PI) for the third grant, which will support study of the consequences of alcohol and substance use on HIV among individuals in the Veterans Healthcare System (VA). The study extends the scope of the research across 12 systems in North American and Europe. Investigators will compare HIV-positive study subjects with comparable uninfected individuals. They will focus on risks from alcohol and tobacco use, as well as the role of alcohol and ART on drug interactions.

The other grants also focus on the risks of alcohol and tobacco use on mortality, hospitalization, and frailty; and evaluate the impact of drinking and smoking on prevention.

“This work will be the first to describe how alcohol and related substance use influences beneficial and harmful effects of HIV and non HIV medications and to compare these observations across North America and Europe among HIV infected and uninfected subjects,” said Justice.