Black death and AIDS

CobraBoy (tbyars@earthlink.net)
Wed, 13 May 1998 22:25:42 -0700


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(Interesting...)

"Black Death May Have Bequeathed Ability to Survive in the Age of AIDS"

> Washington Post (05/08/98) P. A3; Brown, David
> A scientific team studying an unusual genetic mutation has
> concluded that 14th century survivors of the Black Death, appear
> to have bequeathed resistance to HIV to their descendants. The
> Black Death was a bacterial disease transmitted by rats and fleas
> that killed between one-quarter and one-third of the European
> population between 1347 and 1350. Genetic mutations emerge
> strictly by chance and are typically carried by no more than 1
> percent of a population at any given time. Researchers at the
> National Cancer Institute discovered the mutation called
> "CCR5-delta 32," which occurs in the gene for CCR5, a receptor on
> immune system macrophages. Individuals who inherit this mutant
> gene from both parents are effectively devoid of the receptor and
> immune to HIV infection. Individuals with one mutant and one
> normal version of the gene may be infected with HIV, but are more
> likely to have a longer course of the disease than individuals
> lacking a mutant gene. It is estimated that less than 10 percent
> of the white European population carries one or more of these
> mutant genes; the greatest concentration exists in Sweden, where
> 14 percent of the population carry the mutation. The mutation
> becomes less common moving south and east from northern Europe
> and is nonexistent among East Asians, Africans, and American
> Indians. Results of the study are featured in the American
> Journal of Human Genetics.

--

Go sell crazy somewhere else, we're full up here. ...Nicholson

<> tbyars@earthlink.net <> --============_-1316998405==_ma============ Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

(Interesting...)

"Black Death May Have Bequeathed Ability to Survive in the Age of AIDS"

<excerpt>Washington Post (05/08/98) P. A3; Brown, David

A scientific team studying an unusual genetic mutation has

concluded that 14th century survivors of the Black Death, appear

to have bequeathed resistance to HIV to their descendants. The

Black Death was a bacterial disease transmitted by rats and fleas

that killed between one-quarter and one-third of the European

population between 1347 and 1350. Genetic mutations emerge

strictly by chance and are typically carried by no more than 1

percent of a population at any given time. Researchers at the

National Cancer Institute discovered the mutation called

"CCR5-delta 32," which occurs in the gene for CCR5, a receptor on

immune system macrophages. Individuals who inherit this mutant

gene from both parents are effectively devoid of the receptor and

immune to HIV infection. Individuals with one mutant and one

normal version of the gene may be infected with HIV, but are more

likely to have a longer course of the disease than individuals

lacking a mutant gene. It is estimated that less than 10 percent

of the white European population carries one or more of these

mutant genes; the greatest concentration exists in Sweden, where

14 percent of the population carry the mutation. The mutation

becomes less common moving south and east from northern Europe

and is nonexistent among East Asians, Africans, and American

Indians. Results of the study are featured in the American

Journal of Human Genetics.

</excerpt>

--

Go sell crazy somewhere else,

we're full up here. ...Nicholson

<<> tbyars@earthlink.net <<>

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