Scientists have discovered a combination of genes that limits HIV infection
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Some people have a natural resistance to HIV infection. A special gene, previously identified only in Caucasians, is responsible for this. But now scientists have found it in people of African origin, where the disease is most often diagnosed. This is written by Science Alert with reference to a study by scientists from a Canadian university published in the journal Nature. Scientists analyzed data from Africans living with HIV-1, the most common type of virus. They found that these people had a set of 16 genetic variants that appeared to limit HIV replication. The variants are clustered around a gene on chromosome 1 called CHD1L. One particular genetic substitution tops the list of variants associated with low levels of virus during the most chronic period of infection. Photo: katerynakon/Depositphotos “By studying a large sample of people of African descent, we were able to identify a new genetic variant that exists only in this population and that is associated with a reduction in HIV viral load,” said Paul Paul, a researcher at the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory of HIV Genetics. McLaren. Scientists estimate that between 4% and 13% of people of African descent carry the CHD1L variant. They found that HIV replication is enhanced if CHD1L is turned off in macrophages, the so-called reservoirs of HIV-1. But T-cells, in which this virus normally reproduces, are not involved. Scientists remind that currently around 39 million people in the world are affected by HIV. In addition to genetic errors in the CCR5 gene, there are other genetic variants that confer some resistance to HIV. However, they did not always hold up when scientists tried to reproduce the results. Read also: AI detected 20% more breast cancer cases than experienced doctors – study
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