Genes 'influence Aids progression'
Monday, 14 May 2007 08:24
Researchers believe the discovery explains why progression of Aids varies
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Scientists believe that they have discovered gene combinations which may "strongly" influence the progression of Aids.
Mary Carrington of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues believe that their results may explain at least in part why the progression of Aids varies in infected individuals.
The gene combinations pinpointed as playing a role in Aids progression exist on two modulators of the immune system.
Researchers studied the role of 'killer cells' that are a natural part of the antiviral immune response and the receptors which control their activity.
They found that particular combinations of variants in genes encoding the receptors that inhibit natural killer cell activity (KIR3DL1) and HLA-B molecules which trigger them could give protection against Aids progression.
"Various distinct allelic combinations of the KIR3DL1 and HLA-B loci significantly and strongly influence both Aids progression and plasma HIV RNA abundance in a consistent manner," the researchers write in the journal Nature Genetics.
According to the joint United Nations programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), there are about 40 million people living with HIV and three million people died of Aids in 2006.