Tobacco smoke suppresses the lung's ability to fight infection. Smoking is three times more prevalent in the HIV+ compared to HIV- patients. Viral load was found to be significantly increased in HIV+ smokers compared to HIV+ non-smokers, suggesting that smoking enhances HIV-1 viral replication in macrophages, which contributes to disease progression. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with increased mortality in HIV+ persons, but there is limited research on how this is impacting the health of these highest risk patients and if aggressive repletion with vitamin D can improve overall health.The study team hypothesizes that vitamin D administration will increase pathogen clearance and improve innate immune function.
The proposed pre and post interventional study is designed to characterize alveolar macrophage function and lung immunity according to tobacco use and HIV status, and determine the impact of high dose oral vitamin D3 on AM phagocytic function and innate immunity.
