# MRI data fusion to investigate effects of drug abuse on HIV neurological complications

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $387,535

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Despite widespread use of antiretroviral therapy, nearly half of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV
experience neurocognitive impairments (NCI) that negatively impact daily functioning. HIV-associated NCI is
estimated to be the most common form of midlife NCI worldwide. Drug abuse, a highly prevalent comorbidity in
HIV+ persons, increases the risk of HIV-associated NCI. Unimodal MRI studies have shown that HIV and drug
abuse are each linked with a distinct set of structural and functional alterations in the brain, but how they
interact is not well understood. Conventional unimodal analyses are limited in their ability to characterize
complex neuropsychiatric diseases because each modality provides an incomplete view of the brain. In
contrast, we propose to use innovative fusion approaches that exploit the richness of multimodal data to
discover covariations across multiple neuroimaging modalities and cognitive measures simultaneously. This
proposal capitalizes on existing data from 3 completed NIDA-funded projects on the neurobehavioral effects of
HIV and drug abuse. When combined, the dataset will consist of 217 unique cases (108 HIV+ and 109 HIV-)
with in-depth substance use histories, multimodal brain images (i.e., structural, diffusion, and resting-state
functional MRI), comprehensive neurocognitive batteries, and a wide range of other phenotypic data. The
central hypothesis is that HIV-specific co-alterations in gray matter volume and white matter integrity shape
neural functioning and in turn NCI, and that cocaine use worsens these alterations due to its long-term effects
on neural circuitry. Using complementary multimodal analyses (supervised fusion and connectomics), we aim
to: (1) identify neural biomarkers of HIV neurological disease and associated NCI; and (2) test cocaine as a
moderator of HIV-specific co-alterations in brain structure and function and associated NCI. In addition, the
project will develop new, advanced methods to improve MRI data quality for cross-study harmonization and to
optimize the prediction of NCI based on multimodal indices. This amalgamated dataset provides an
unprecedented opportunity to test new and clinically important hypotheses about the neural substrates of HIV-
associated NCI in the context of drug abuse. The proposal responds directly to the need for research to
“characterize brain morphology or function that is aberrant as a consequence of chronic drug use” and “[its
role] in the evolving dynamics of HIV/AIDS pathogenesis, treatment, prevention, and service delivery” [PAR-
16-234]. This research also addresses high priority topics for AIDS-designated funding, including investigation
of neurological complications [NOT-15-137]. Building upon a sound premise and robust preliminary data, this
innovative project has strong potential to identify appropriate neural biomarkers of neuroHIV that may facilitate
diagnosis and treatment monitoring in active drug users and serve as targets ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9848523
- **Project number:** 5R01DA045565-03
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** CHRISTINA S MEADE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $387,535
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-03-15 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9848523

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9848523, MRI data fusion to investigate effects of drug abuse on HIV neurological complications (5R01DA045565-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9848523. Licensed CC0.

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