Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Reuters NewMedia - August 22, 2002
Scientists from the Biomedical Primate Research Center in the Netherlands and the University of California, San Diego, in the United States found that chimpanzees have only half as many variations of certain anti-virus immune system genes as humans.
Chimps normally have about five times as much variation in their genes as people, so the fewer variations in the MHC I virus-fighting genes suggests chimps may have been attacked by a virus that killed all but those with the right genes.
"It was a surgical selection, some genes got streamlined, other types of genes weren't affected at all," New Scientist magazine quoted the University of California's Paul Gagneaux as saying.
If chimps were attacked by an HIV-like virus about two million years ago, that could explain why they are immune to AIDS today: only those with the right MHC I genes providing immunity to the virus survived.
Ronald Bontrop of the Dutch team has found some evidence that MHC I genes are involved in HIV resistance in chimps, the magazine said. Some people who become infected with HIV but never develop the symptoms of AIDS may have similar MHC I genes.
The tests, carried out so far only on captive chimps, would now have to be carried out in the wild.
Gagneaux said that understanding how MHC I molecules contribute to virus resistance in other species could help scientists develop a vaccine for AIDS in humans.
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