Born lucky

LONDON, January 2: French researchers have discovered a new form of hereditary resistance to the AIDS virus, the British medical weekly The ...

LONDON, January 2: French researchers have discovered a new form of hereditary resistance to the AIDS virus, the British medical weekly The Lancet reported in its latest edition.

Scientists at the Luc Montagnier Centre at the Saint Joseph’s hospital in Paris found the new gene mutation in a man who had remained uninfected despite frequent unprotected sexual intercourse with several partners who were carriers of the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) which causes AIDS.

They found that the man, a white homosexual, possessed two genetic mutations, one, labeled Delta 32, which was already known to provide resistance to HIV, and another, now dubbed M303, The Lancet said. Both act on the CCR5 molecule, a receptor on which some strains of HIV rely to enter a cell and infect it. The researchers found M303 in the man’s sister, and subsequently in three out of 209 healthy blood donors who were subjected to tests.

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“This confirms that Europeans developed, over time, several types of genetic modifications or mutations to escape infection by HIV or other infectious agents using the same receptors to enter cells,” Montagnier commented.

But he warned that such protective mutations were not proof against all strains of the AIDS virus in the world.

Most cases of resistance to HIV are not hereditary, but acquired through natural immunisation, greater study of which could lead to new types of vaccines against AIDS,” Montagnier added.