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."

Comments

Defect?

[AtariAmarok]

I'm not sure I'd call such a mutation a "defect".

Future evolution

[Lonesome Squash]

The number of people who die from AIDS is a very strong selection pressure. Unless the epidemic is halted medically, we can expect that it won't be many generations before these mutations are nearly universal. If they have lingered this long in the population, they can't be strongly deleterious.

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.

They will never be universal

[PhysicsGenius]

First of all, there are 6 billion people on the planet but "only" a few million a year dying from aids. 1 billion is 1000 million, so we are looking at multiple centuries at least before all humans caught it, at present rates. That's a lot of generations.

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.

Re:Let me guess...

[andreMA]

I'm not sure the parent is a troll. They're speculating that some group which happens to have this gene will cite this as "proof" that they are "God's chosen". After all, it couldn't have resulted from evolution, in their view.

The insanity is not the poster, but the hypothetical group he cites. Given that we have fundie nutcases (as opposed to non-fundie ones; there are nutcases enough to go around) claiming that the tsunami was punishment from God, I don't think it's farfetched.

Black plague

[booch]

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.