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Defense against Ancient Virus Opened Door to HIV

sciam.com — Early humans successfully fended off a virus that infected chimpanzees by evolving a protein capable of neutralizing it, according to a new study. But what goes around comes around, evolutionarily speaking: Four million years later, the same protein seems to have left us more vulnerable than other primates to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

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  • Detritus, on 10/11/2007, -4/+53Yea, it's all that stuff that guy said... or it is God punishing you for believing there could even be 4,000,000 years for evolution to take place.



    Nah just kidding, Go Jesus!
    • Septimus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4god made HIV to punish the gays obviously. 6,000 years ago of course while taking a break from molding fake fossils.
    • nikkesen, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3He made HIV first then realised he had no one to use it on so he made gays. ;)
  • fuzzYogHurt, on 10/11/2007, -4/+59Sounds like a windows patch!
  • 10001110101, on 10/11/2007, -16/+6How AIDS was first transferred to humans:

    http://plif.andkon.com/archive/wc106.gif
  • Doomy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7This should be a fair warning - If you are looking at that donkey, think twice!
  • Trat, on 10/11/2007, -6/+8I tought HIV was engineered to downsize 3rd world countries population...
    • xGeneric, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11Nope, it was engineered by God to punish homosexuality. Pft, don't you watch Fox news?

      /sarcasm
  • zephc, on 10/11/2007, -3/+28Ancient Virus? Only SG-1 can save us!
    • WickedDrag0oN, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3They only have one episode left, they don't have the time!
      • zephc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3There are always the mini-series and/or feature-length film options for them to still save us. It's sure not going to be SG-7... they're a bunch of slackers.
        • Darkness123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Actually there are 2 Stargate Movies on the way
          • PhantomZmoove, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I love SG-1 as much as the next guy, but doesn't that sound funny? A movie, about a TV show that is about a movie? lol
    • Xabora, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Heh, but they will have 2 TV Movies!

      Baal goes back in Time!
  • orangester, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3I wrote a research paper last year claiming that HIV/AIDS was a government conspiracy, my first A she gave me all year. Strangely enough I found that there's no proof of where it originated and how it multiplied exponentially. Sadly there's no cure for HIV other than an entire genocide of those that have the disease, man and animal alike. Even if a cure were to be found tomorrow those that already contracted the disease would die anyway because the disease itself multiplies too rapidly.
    • Vet4Peace, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1*
    • Vet4Peace, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1HIV is an ANCIENT disease and any conspiracy theory about it being deliberate is just insane and ignorant.
      **used to work in a biochemistry and genetics lab.
    • krellor, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4HIV is believed to have originally appeared in humans some 40 years ago in a man in cameroon Africa. He is believed to have gotten the virus from chimps because he worked as a hunter of them, and had long term exposure to their blood and other bodily fluids, as well as occasional bites. It is belived to have spread from him. I can't see how you wouldn't have run across this if you really wrote a paper on the subject. Either that or you suck at research.
  • MikeonTV, on 10/11/2007, -6/+12Who can even worry about this with the Digg comment system drama
    • horseplops, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3New Digg Comment System Opened Door to HIV
  • digmule, on 10/11/2007, -8/+5Hogwash... evolution is a myth and God created HIV to punish the homosexuals!

    Sadly, that WILL be the reaction of many to this story. Sigh.
  • amnorvend, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Very, very interesting. I wonder if this has any medical use to stop HIV?
    • geminitojanus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Maybe not stopping HIV, but it probably could have use in preventing people from contracting it. The obvious thing to try would be engineering a recombinant form of TRIM5α that protects against HIV and administering it. If the body can handle it and the protein will work in free-floating form and doesn't need to be a part of the cell wall or whatnot, then it's possible we could stop or slow down HIV transmission with it.

      Either than, or you can get into the creepy world of eugenics and start splicing the gene for TRIM5α-anti-HIV into the human genome (but then we have to worry about that PtERVirus)...
  • SteelChicken, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2So we all we need to do know is stoink chimps and breed AIDS proof kids.
  • HarryBauzonia, on 10/11/2007, -14/+4If you keep needles out of your arms and don't use the hole you defecate out of for sex, you're not very vulnerable at all.
    In fact you're pretty safe.
    • pjkli, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2What does getting it up the butt have to do with AIDS? AIDS comes from bodily fluids being swapped you ***** moron. Your thinking of hepatitis.
      • deverill, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0The tissue in and around that area is quite thin and often tears when having anal sex. An open cut + semen = exposure to bodily fluid exchange. Get your facts before calling someone a moron.
    • OUChevelleSS, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5...wow, that was ignorant.
  • Scrappy1850, on 10/11/2007, -2/+24HIV-2 is like HIV-1, but with user driven content
  • nesibus, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4So how long till we evolve and are no longer affected by HIV.....cause I mean come on....viruses evolve pretty dang quick and become resistant to antibiotics, it doesn't take millions of years for them to adapt.......so why can't we do the same to them.

    On another note...why don't viruses ever weaken like we do...
    • zephc, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4"viruses evolve pretty dang quick and become resistant to antibiotics"
      Antibiotics don't work on viruses - they work on bacterial infections.
      • nesibus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I guess I should duh myself...but besides me looking like a retard, I guess the same goes for bacteria, its able to become resistant to the antibiotics.
    • sputt87, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Haha plus, viruses have several hundred thousand generations for every one of ours.
  • TwoKings, on 10/11/2007, -5/+5Cure for AIDS? Hell......we can't even cure the common cold.
    • mortigon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6That's because theres no such thing as the common cold... it's a constantly evolving virus, every time you get a cold it's an "updated" version of the cold virus that knows how to beat your system
    • pands, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The "common cold" is not one thing, it is hundreds of different infections with similar cold symptoms so its very hard to find a cure that would work for every single different infection.
      HIV is one virus.
  • c0ldfusi0n, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5And here i was thinking HIV was bioengineered by some government to control African population!
  • CheckPlease, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Rant Casey's rabies epidemic is far worse, I hear.
  • OUChevelleSS, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2How were the infected monkeys able to pass on genes to code for proteins to resist this? Most would have been infected in vitro and died before sexual maturity.
  • erikfotherland0, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Excluding third world locales such as Africa and Asia, AIDS is really more of a lifestyle choice than a disease in the 1st world.
    • grumpyrain, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Damn right. Those pesky kids breast feeding and having blood transfusions and all.
  • Vazelos, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2HIV researcher Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham calls the study a "fabulous piece of molecular sleuthing"

    Well, my immediate thoughts were more like: ''Can we now start driving up the lurv lane without condoms?''
  • Mortikhi, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1I thought HIV came about because some sick beastiality nutjob screwed an African Green Monkey.

    http://www.avert.org/origins.htm
  • originaldna, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5048938747966059912&q=origin+of+aids&total=46&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
  • astanhope, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I heard that you can catch Lyme Disease by licking a deer.
  • CMOSLogic, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2AIDS ROCKS. Clearing the gene pool of the pathological pleasure seekers is what it's all about.

    And i like that in a 'Vengeance from God on your smartass' retrovirus.

  • mojibyrd, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1HIV virus was man made to try and reduce the world's population by the sadistic government controlled population reduction kooks.....next you'll tell me were related to the ***** apes or global warming caused it.
  • tssfan1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Who at first glance of this story thought of DOTA?
  • shariqueniazi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Aids kills, inorder to keep good health you need to follow strict diet plan.
    http://www.foodone.blogspot.com
  • caponumen, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'm sure the rise of aids during the Regan administration is just a big coincidence.....
  • mathewsjw, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This is all a Ron Paul Conspiracy.
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