Louisiana State University (LSU) researchers have been awarded a $2.76 million grant that will enable them to study how HIV and antiretroviral therapy may change communities of bacteria in the mouth, and what effects those changes may have on oral infections in HIV disease.
Paul Fidel, PhD, of the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Dentistry, is the lead principal investigator for the study, which was funded for five years by the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
He and his fellow researchers will seek to learn how HIV and antiretroviral therapy affect oral bacterial communities. These influences may be important to the occurrence of several oral manifestations of HIV disease, including oral candidiasis, oral warts, and oral cancer, as well as periodontal disease and caries.
The study will include people with and without HIV, HIV-positive people on antiretroviral therapy, and people with oral thrush and oral cancer related to human papillomavirus (HPV).
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of oral thrush among AIDS patients is estimated to be between 9% and 31%, and studies have documented clinical evidence of oral candidiasis in nearly 20% of cancer patients. It is estimated that more than 2,370 new cases of HPV-associated oral cancers are diagnosed in women and nearly 9,356 are diagnosed in men each year in the U.S.
Fidel will lead a research team including researchers from Ohio State University with collaboration from Georgia Regents University.
