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Why do some people infected with the virus that causes AIDS become overwhelmed by the virus while others are able to hold the pathogen in check?
Scientists writing in a recent issue of the journal Science say the answer seems to center on variations in the genetic makeup of people, a finding so deceptively simple that it has drawn the attention of high-ranking administrators at the National Institutes of Health.
NIH director Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni said the research "could lead to improved HIV therapies and provides new targets for vaccine developers."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the 19 institutes in the NIH, praised the work as revealing how genetic factors influence how a host responds to infection.
The research was conducted by the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology, which goes by the acronym CHAVI, at Duke University in North Carolina. The aim of the analysis was to identify genetic variations among people linked to differences in disease susceptibility. Similar studies that have scoured the human genome have demonstrated why some people are more susceptible to diabetes, cancer and heart disease. The new work by CHAVI is the first to use human genomic data to answer why some people are more susceptible to an infectious disease.
"People vary greatly in their vulnerability to HIV infection," Dr. Barton Haynes, who heads CHAVI, said in a statement. "In particular, there are striking and largely unexplained differences between individuals in the degree to which they are able to hold viral levels to a low set point in the period soon after infection.
"If scientists could pinpoint the gene variants that help some people control HIV infection - or avoid it altogether - they might be able to rationally design therapies or vaccines to mimic these naturally occurring genetic advantages," Haynes added.
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