Cocaine Found to Spur Growth of AIDS Virus : Health: Researchers are concerned that use of the drug could increase the chance of the disease developing in those infected with HIV.

Cocaine has been found to speed the growth of the AIDS virus in laboratory tests, prompting concern that it could increase infected people’s chances of developing the deadly disease, microbiology researchers reported today.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School took cells known as peripheral blood mononuclear cells--the primary target for HIV, the AIDS virus--and exposed them to doses of cocaine in laboratory testing. HIV was found to grow as much as three times faster in the cocaine-laced tests than in control studies.

If what happened in the test tube happens in HIV-infected cocaine users, it could increase their risk of developing AIDS, said Dr. Ronald Schut, lead researcher in the Minnesota study.

“In persons who are infected, if they continue to abuse this drug it may have a significant impact on the development of clinical AIDS,” Schut said.

Test-tube tests, however, don’t always mimic what happens in the human body. The question now for researchers is whether drug use somehow modifies the immune system to enhance HIV growth in humans.

Further studies are under way.