Researchers identify second gene mutation linked to HIV resistance

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WASHINGTON, Aug 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A rare genetic mutation that causes a
form of muscular dystrophy affecting the limbs also protects against HIV
infection, Spanish scientists reported Thursday.

The breakthrough comes a decade after American Timothy Brown, known as the
“Berlin Patient,” became the first person cured of HIV after a bone marrow
transplant from a donor with a mutation of the CCR5 gene.

The newly-discovered mutation concerns the Transportin 3 gene (TNPO3) and
is far more rare.

It was identified several years ago among members of a family in Spain who
were suffering from type 1F limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.

Doctors studying the family learned that HIV researchers were interested in
the same gene because it plays a role in transporting the virus inside cells.

They then got in touch with geneticists in Madrid, who took blood samples
from those family members and infected the blood with HIV — revealing a
welcome surprise.

The lymphocytes — white blood cells that are an important part of the
immune system — of people with the rare muscular illness were naturally
resistant to HIV, it emerged.

“This helps us to understand much better the transport of the virus in the
cell,” Jose Alcami, a virologist at the Carlos III Health Institute and co-
author of a paper published in US journal PLOS Pathogens on the subject, told
AFP.

HIV is among the most studied viruses, he said, adding however that much
remained to be learned, such as why five percent of patients who are infected
do not develop AIDS.

“There are mechanisms of resistance to infection that are very poorly
understood,” he said.