AIDS: Italian study finds the “natural resistance” to the virus

It was the team of Dr. Guido Poli, head of the immunopathogenesis of AIDS Institute San Raffaele in Milan, to lay the foundations for a future turning point in the search for a solution to this terrible disease. The “natural resistance” exists and resides in the DNA.

Unfortunately this is a very rare feature, typical of some DNA only (was observed in only 1% of all people) and hence on certain subjects and not at all. Subjects in whom the disease progressed, curiously, remained stable for a long time. The Italian researchers then compared the DNA of these people (144) with that of 605 patients recently infected and it is seen that the first type of DNA present in a particular Mhc molecules (among other things, involved in the rejection of transplanted organs): the ability to produce a kind of “natural immunity”.

This finding is important to start a study on the resilience of certain individuals to the virus than others. From this we can develop new methods and come to extend this mode of defense who is also lacking in nature. Everything will depend, of course, by further research, which is difficult at the moment as did the funding and do not know if it will be renewed.