Genetic Trait Increases Risks for Aids in African Americans

Author: Allie Montgomery

A genetic trait once found to have possibly protected African Americans from malaria has now shown that it may increase their risk of contracting the HIV virus. The new research reports that African Americans are much more likely to have this genetic trait that will make them more susceptible to infection of the virus. Scientists estimate that this trait might account for up to 11 percent of the HIV cases in Africa. Africa is known to be the continent that is hit hardest by the AIDS epidemic.

The co-author of the study, Matthew J. Dolan, of the Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center and San Antonio Military Medical Center said that the findings overall shows how the past history of our evolution and disease still effects all of us today. "The benefit that the Africans got from a mutation that gave them some resistance to malaria has, statistically at least, rendered them some increased susceptibility to HIV," he stated.

Researchers have spent many years wondering and trying to understand why some people that are exposed to the AIDS virus do not get infected. It is estimated that between 70 and 90 percent of the children born to infected mothers actually do not develop the disease, and some men that are homosexual have avoided it despite their repeated exposure. In the new study that was conducted, the team of researchers studied more than 1,200 members of the United States military who are infected with the HIV virus. They wanted to find out more about how genetics affects the disease. The findings from the study were published in the July issue of Cell Host & Microbe.

The team of researchers found that one genetic trait, which is found in approximately 60 percent of African-Americans and 90 percent of Africans, makes the HIV infection 40 percent more likely to be contracted. This trait is virtually nonexistent in Caucasians. The trait that was also protecting people against one form of malaria is now uncommon as well.

The evidence shows that the genetic makeup of some Africans have evolved to give them the protection against the form of malaria, stated Dolan. He also said unfortunately that the trait ultimately "set the African continent for increased susceptibility" to the HIV virus. Dolan has estimated that the increased susceptibility could account for more than a million extra cases of the HIV virus. On the other hand, the people who have the trait seem to live an average of two years longer with the disease once they contract it.

The vice president of the research with the Foundation for AIDS Research, Rowena Johnston, said that the new findings provide even more evidence of the evolutionary struggle between this disease and humans. Unfortunately, it will not be easy to make this information useful. She also stated, "Since any one individual has tens of thousands of genes, each of which may influence susceptibility in one direction or another, it's difficult to predict the outcome for any individual with any one particular genotype."