Irony: at least four million years old
According to a new paper in today's Science, developing immunity to a retrovirus that was common among primates four million years ago may have left humans more susceptible to HIV now.
Traces of a virus called PtERV1 (Pan troglodytes endogenous retrovirus-1) were found in chimpanzee and gorilla genomes, but did not seem to have affected humans despite living in the same areas.
Tests on modified cat cells appeared to confirm that the human form of a protein called TRIM5α (tripartite motif 5 alpha) increased resistance to PtERV1, whereas other primates' versions of TRIM5α are known to reduce susceptibility to types of HIV markedly.
Further tests found that different primates' forms of TRIM5α were effective in restricting either PtERV1 or HIV, but never both.
In the words of Science writer Jon Cohen, 'locking out one virus appears to have opened the door for another'.
Kaiser SM, Malik HS, Emerman M. (2007) Restriction of an extinct retrovirus by the human TRIM5 antiviral protein. Science 316(5832): 1756-8. (abstract here)
Traces of a virus called PtERV1 (Pan troglodytes endogenous retrovirus-1) were found in chimpanzee and gorilla genomes, but did not seem to have affected humans despite living in the same areas.
Tests on modified cat cells appeared to confirm that the human form of a protein called TRIM5α (tripartite motif 5 alpha) increased resistance to PtERV1, whereas other primates' versions of TRIM5α are known to reduce susceptibility to types of HIV markedly.
Further tests found that different primates' forms of TRIM5α were effective in restricting either PtERV1 or HIV, but never both.
In the words of Science writer Jon Cohen, 'locking out one virus appears to have opened the door for another'.
Kaiser SM, Malik HS, Emerman M. (2007) Restriction of an extinct retrovirus by the human TRIM5 antiviral protein. Science 316(5832): 1756-8. (abstract here)
posted by Kuvera at
11:42
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