Slashdot Mirror
Genetic HIV Resistance Deciphered
hexed_2050 writes "Researchers have pin-pointed the reason why some people have a greater immunity, or in some cases, total immunity to the HIV virus. They credit a genetic defect that can be traced back to Europeans in the middle ages."
I'm not sure I'd call such a mutation a "defect".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
this proves that HIV is a sub-plot of the NWO lords to reduce the worlds population!!! //////tinfoil..
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Funny, I remember the BBC running a documentary a couple of years ago where they covered the exact same reasons.
You scratch a living out of the mud and shit and you're going to end up immune to something..
Kinda like people who work at hospitals, they usually never get sick enough to miss a day of work due to catching a little bit of everything while working.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Eventually we will probably be like the chimpanzees, who have a pronounced lack of diversity in the genes for certain immune receptors as well as immunity to AIDS. Scientists view this as evidence that an AIDS-like plague swept through the Chimpanzee population in the not-too-distant past.
The idea that AIDS will one day burn itself out of the population may not be much comfort to those who have it, nor to those who must grow up in a world where they must face that risk -- especially for those growing up in coutries with 40% infection rates. But I find it comforting, anyway.
Behold the riant ape! Beware, his crooked thumbs!
These genetics mutations are quite rare (1%) and the delta32 Mutation only protects strains of HIV that use CCR5 proteins to help them break into the cells, so yes a very few people are immune to most strains of HIV. And this is why doctors will prbably never allow people get tested for delta32 mutation.
Second of all, study epidemiology. When a critical percentage of the population is immune to a disease, it stops spreading. This is because if most of the people you come in contact with are immune, you can't pass it on very well. When AIDS immunity reaches this percentage, the selection pressure will be very low.
Let me guess - the people with the "defect" are all christian nutt..er.. fundamentalists?
Wonder how long it will be before one of the nutters latches on to this story.
Wonder how long after that before research is done into the feasibility of using a retro virus to rewrite the DNA of HIV+ people to include the "immune" gene, thus curing them.
Oh no wait - it's god that makes people infected because they are gay isn't it? Silly old science - how could it possibly be right. Lets burn all the books while we are at it.
I was thinking in posting this story because the team of researchers were formed by 3 argentinians (I live there) and "study co-author Dr. Sunil K. Ahuja". This isn't mentioned anywhere in the article. In fact, an announcement was made in a local Hospital ("Garrahan") here and presented by different media as a discovery made by this groups of argentinians collaborating with Ahuja. I would really like this post updated with this important info. Links to the local story (in spanish): Clarin newspaper The names of the three argentinian investigators: "Andrea Mangano, Luisa Sen y Rosa Bologna".
This is the opposite of the recessive extinction problem, where the percentages work against you (that's why deleterious recessives thrive so well when they are rare).
Behold the riant ape! Beware, his crooked thumbs!
I have no blood, your insensitive clod...
Anyway, only old people have AIDS
how long until
HIV = Human Immunodeficiency Virus
PIN = Personal Identification Number
There's no need to repeat the last word of the the acronym!
OK, how can you mention "genetic defect" and "Europeans in the middle ages" without mentioning the bubonic plague and Black Death? It's even in the article. Really, the first question I had when I read the Slashdot blurb was whether they're somehow related. Scientists first thought they might be related, but now think that it was probably something more like smallpox. Anyway, RTFA if this interests you.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
It seems kind of odd that this comes out as if it's recent news. Here is the link to a PBS transcript which details the findings of the gene which is mentioned in Wired.
There's no place like ~/
It is a defect because it makes the immune cell less effective!
That protein allows immune cells to lock onto each other and help to destroy disease.
Since these cells lack this mechanism, they don't lock onto other immune cells as well and aren't as good at killing things. This affects EVERYTHING the cell does.
So while the person is protected against AIDS, they are more suceptible to every single other illness and injury out there.
It's a trade off...and therefore a defect.
Ah. like the rare genetic defect carried by Eric Lenscherr. His genes gave him remarkable powers over magnatism. The tradeoff? An overwhelming desire to control the world, which did not make him welcome at parties.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Because they can!
Sometime back I read an item which argued that there is some evidence that the Black Death was not caused by bubonic plague at all but rather by an aids like virus. After I RTFA (in the /. item) it didn't seem to point out this possibility. Have a read of the ABC (Australian) Science article and note the bit about a village in England in the time of the Death, it was sealed off and food was passed in from outside, after some years(?) it was given the all clear. To this day the population has a high count of genes implicated in immunity to AIDS. The obvious implication being that rather than a bacterium the Black Death was a human to human virus. Which of course is probably still out there since the Black Death came back time and time again over the decades.
Bitter and proud of it.
How long until this is patented and the people with the gene are prosecuted ?
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
Why would the USAF need AIDS specialists????
This is just wired talking about stuff thats been published in journels for ages. Anyway from what i've read these people are still capable of being hiv+ even with both copies of the gene.
"Oussama Bin Laden!
the world needs you more than ever. Get your marbles together, and with a bit of imagination, you can cut the whole oil supply to the United States of America, and either bring those stupid yankees down on their knees, or make them adopt a much less ruinous way of life that is more respectful of the planet.
Go, Oussama! Go sink those oil tankers plying the sea!
Go sever that thin lifeline that keeps those stupid yankees alive!
The planet will be eternally grateful once you bring those fuckers down. "
Is this supposed to be some sort of a joke?
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."