The research in Dr. Levy's laboratory focuses upon the pathophysiology of nervous system disorders whose treatment falls within the realm of stereoactic and functional neurosurgery. These include chronic pain and HIV infection of the nervous system. The basic pathophysiology of these disorders is poorly understood; current research projects in these areas include:

The neuropharmacology of chronic neuropathic pain in the rat. With the advent of the rat partial sciatic nerve injury model, chronic deafferentation paincan be studied. We are currently investigating the effect of both acute and chronic intrathecal opiods on the various sensory aspects of chronic deafferentation pain, including hypersthesia, hyperathia, and allodynia. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that acute morphine administration blocks these pain related phenomena; chronic intrathecal drug studies are under way.

The isolation and characterization of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) from the brains of neurologically symptomatic AIDS patients to determine whether neurotropic strains of this virus differ from those infecting the immune system. Using the polymerase chain reaction technique and with access to a laser DNA sequencer, viral sequencing studies are also under way to characterize these neurotropic strains of HIV-1 from neurologically symptomatic patients and show that these differences are most profound in the V3 loop of the envelope region.