French Doctors Find New Genetic Mutation That Helps Resist AIDS
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PARIS — French researchers have discovered a second hereditary genetic mutation that appears to help provide resistance to the AIDS virus, a medical journal reported Friday.
The findings were announced in the Jan. 3 edition of the respected British journal Lancet and made available to reporters Friday.
For more than a year, U.S. and European researchers have been pursuing indications that genetic mutations can naturally provide protection against the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
A team headed by Dr. Alberto Beretta of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paris and Dr. Luc Montagnier of the prestigious Pasteur Institute, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, took blood samples from 18 men at high risk who, over time, did not contract the virus, the Lancet article said.
They made two discoveries: a new genetic mutation and the possibility that this mutation, combined with a previously discovered mutation, provides resistance to HIV.
The AIDS virus enters human cells with the help of proteins called receptors.
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