Exposure to alcohol makes mouth cells more susceptible to HIV infection during oral sex, research has shown. Earlier studies focused on how alcohol consumption increased the chance of someone having unprotected sex and therefore risking HIV infection. But the team from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) looked at how alcohol affected cells. The research is published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Cells from the lining of the mouth, the epithelium, were obtained from people who were HIV negative. The cells were then exposed to various concentrations of alcohol, similar to those found in beers, and then to a strain of HIV which had been modified with green fluorescent protein so that researchers could see if it infected cells. It was found that epithelial cells which had been exposed to 4% of ethanol for 10 minutes showed between a three to six-fold greater susceptibility to infection from the HIV strain.
