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AIDS Abated: Genome scans illuminate immune control of HIV
sciencenews.org ^ | July 21, 2007 | Brian Vastag

Posted on 07/25/2007 6:35:34 PM PDT by neverdem

Some people who contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, maintain low amounts of the virus in their bodies for years. These long-term nonprogressors—so called because a decade or more can pass before they develop full-blown AIDS—have attracted great attention from researchers.

Now, using powerful, whole-genome scans, researchers have identified three genetic variations that partially explain why some HIV-infected people develop AIDS quickly while others keep it at bay.

"This is a good head start to unraveling the genetic basis of good control of viral load," says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., which funded the study. Study leader David Goldstein of Duke University in Durham, N.C., says that the ultimate goal is to develop drugs or vaccines that boost the immune system's ability to fight HIV.

Upon HIV infection, the amount of virus spikes, after which the immune system establishes a détente that keeps the virus count in the blood steady. However, this viral set point, as it's called, varies tremendously from person to person. Some people maintain an undetectable amount of virus, while others carry millions of copies in each drop of blood.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aids; hiv; hivaids; immunology; science

1 posted on 07/25/2007 6:35:38 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Some people also appear to be totally immune to it. There are many accounts of gay men who frequented the bath houses and had random unprotected sex night after night without ever becoming infected as well as some African prostitutes working in the middle of the epidemic who go for years having unprotected sex and also never contract it.


2 posted on 07/25/2007 8:22:56 PM PDT by elmer fudd (Fukoku kyohei)
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To: elmer fudd

Kind of like how some did not contact plagues, or how some people are flattened by MSRA while others carry it unkowingly?


3 posted on 07/25/2007 8:44:24 PM PDT by El Sordo
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To: elmer fudd
Gene fights off HIV

IIRC, there's a co-receptor to the CCR5 receptor, but I can't remember its name.

4 posted on 07/25/2007 9:07:50 PM PDT by neverdem (Call talk radio. We need a Constitutional Amendment for Congressional term limits. Let's Roll!)
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...what passes for humor in the gay community...

5 posted on 07/25/2007 10:31:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Monday, July 23, 2007 https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: elmer fudd
Some people also appear to be totally immune to it. There are many accounts of gay men who frequented the bath houses and had random unprotected sex night after night without ever becoming infected as well as some African prostitutes working in the middle of the epidemic who go for years having unprotected sex and also never contract it.

Like a Typhoid Mary. With this known the medical community should be screeming, but they are afraid of the MSM.

Those who have spread the virus knowingly, like this, should be executed to prevent further spread. Those who did not know should be quarantined.

6 posted on 07/26/2007 5:11:19 AM PDT by sr4402
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