CHANGING just a single "letter" in one human gene makes cells resistant to HIV. The discovery might just lead to new ways to treat AIDS.
Rhesus monkeys are resistant to HIV infection, and last year a team in Boston showed that this resistance depends a gene called Trim5alpha. The exact mechanism is not understood, but Trim5alpha is thought to code for a protein that attacks several kinds of retroviruses, including HIV, after they enter a cell, preventing them replicating.
Humans have a different version of the Trim5alpha gene. It protects against several kinds of retroviruses, but not HIV. To find out why, a team led by Jonathan Stoye of the National Institute for Medical Research in London replaced parts of the human gene with the equivalent section of the rhesus gene.
The recombined genes were added to cells, and their protective power was assessed by exposing the cells to various ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.