Wall Street Journal - January 12, 2005
Mark Ingebretsen

Scientists may have discovered an important new clue about why AIDS took root among humans, according to the British Broadcasting Corp., and it could lead to new treatments.

What researchers in Britain discovered was a specific difference between a gene possessed by rhesus monkeys that is able to block HIV infection and the human version of the gene that can't stop HIV. Moreover, the researches noted that if humans possessed the same form of the gene as rhesus monkeys, AIDS would never have established itself in the human population, the BBC said.

In fact, according to Reuters, the team was able to isolate "one specific change in a protein that was important in blocking HIV. By substituting a human protein with a monkey-derived protein they found they could make the human cells resistant to HIV."

As to the treatment that might arise from the discovery, "In theory, it should be possible to take cells from an HIV-infected individual, make them resistant to HIV infection with the modified gene and reintroduce them into the patient. These cells could then block progression to AIDS," the lead researcher on the project, Jonathan Stoye, with Britain's National Institute of Medical Research, said in the BBC article.

Quoted in the Guardian, Dr. Stoye was "careful not to excite too much expectation" on how well a treatment resulting from the research might work. "The virus is incredibly smart, and probably smarter than we are." he said. "I'm not going to say that it's going to work, but it might, or at least might help. à Supposing it was the equivalent of one new drug, it would help."
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