Evolution Agaist HIV
It is proven that certain people are immune to the HIV virus. I think this is incredible and shows the importance of a large gene pool. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus which attacks a persons immune system allowing opportunistic infections to accumulate in a person. HIV isn't what kills the person but rather a collection of these opportunistic infections and tumors actually kill the person. When a person accumulates enough of these infections or in some cases their viral load is high enough this is known as the AIDS virus.
HIV infects a person through a mucous membrane or the bloodstream from any kind of bodily fluid already infected with HIV. Once in the body HIV attaches to binding sites on CD4 T cells. CD4 T cells play an important role in the immune system and when HIV takes hold in the body they either directly or indirectly destroy the CD4 T cells. HIV is a retrovirus which means it uses reverse transcriptase, a protein, to replicate within the body, probably in the CD4 t cells. The newly replicated HIV virus cells then go and attach to more CD4 t cells.
There is no known cure for HIV or AIDS, but some people are resistant to the HIV virus. These people have a mutation on the CD4 t cells that lack the binding site that HIV attaches to. Without the binding site these people can't become infected. However my title is a bit misleading because this step in human evolution wasn't exactly meant as a defense against the AIDS virus. This mutation dates back to medieval times and is found in people of eastern European decent. The bubonic plague which swept through Europe used the same binding sites as the HIV virus, so when certain people survived the plague it was because they had the same mutation that people that are resistant to HIV have today.
An old mutation against an old threat allows some people of eastern European decent to be resistant or completely immune to HIV.
-Tom Farese
posted by PWH @ 5:55 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
This article was very interesting. I have heard about some people having an immunity to HIV before, but I was not aware that it stemmed from the bubonic plague. I wonder if there are any other types of diseases that have caused immunities to other tpes of viruses? Your blog was very well written and formated.
-Meaghan Elliott
This article is very interesting. I was wondering what the HIV virus and the bubonic plague have to bind to at the binding sites in order to destroy the CD4 T cells? Nice work your article is well written and straight to the point.
C. Varela
Good post. It is too bad more people don't have this immunity. I wonder if something could be done with the mutation to create some vaccine that would affect the CDT 4 cells of people who are not immune. There must be something done to alter the binding sites that HIV affects. Hopefully some medical breakthrough comes about in the near future.
- Thomas FitzGerald
The topic your article covers is one of intrigue. I have never actually heard that such an immunity existed. I wonder whether there are any other ways (other than through lacking a HIV binding site)that people can be immune to HIV. I think it would be very interesting to look into that, although what you have here is written very clearly---introduction, description of how HIV hits, and main point.
Helen Thi
HIV being the most deadly virus right now. With a third of the African continent infected, the new study which shows the people who don't have the binding site in their body for HIV to function fully, doesn't mean that they cannot carry the virus. It is possible to carry the virus and able to pass it on. The difference is that when the virus is in their body, it remains inactive until it can find a suitable place, in this case other human receptors with the binding sites. The HIV virus can remain inactive for a very long time up to 15 years.
So just because the HIV virus cannot affect these people, doesn't mean they cannot have it, they can still have it in their bodie and spread it as carriers.
HIV being the most deadly virus right now. With a third of the African continent infected, the new study which shows the people who don't have the binding site in their body for HIV to function fully, doesn't mean that they cannot carry the virus. It is possible to carry the virus and able to pass it on. The difference is that when the virus is in their body, it remains inactive until it can find a suitable place, in this case other human receptors with the binding sites. The HIV virus can remain inactive for a very long time up to 15 years.
So just because the HIV virus cannot affect these people, doesn't mean they cannot have it, they can still have it in their bodie and spread it as carriers.
Posted by: Mustapher Lubega
Post a Comment
<< Home