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A rare genetic mutation that causes some type of muscular dystrophy may be the new secret weapon in the fight against HIV infection.
The mutation concerns the Transportin-3 gene (TNPO3) which plays a role in the transport of the virus inside the cells (hence its name). The gene was identified in a Spanish family several years ago, whose members lived with a particular type of muscular dystrophy at the waist.
Health researchers in Madrid took samples of their blood and infected it with HIV. They then made a shocking but very welcome discovery: the lymphocytes in the blood (shock troops of the immune system) were naturally resistant to HIV.
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"There are very poorly understood mechanisms of resistance to infection", Jose Alcami, a virologist at the Carlos III Health Institute and co-author of an article on the subject, said. He added that the latest discovery helped researchers better understand the virus's transport system, but warned that there was still much to be done before finding a definitive cure.
The latest breakthrough comes a decade after Timothy Brown, the famous "Berlin Patient", became the first HIV healed person after a bone marrow transplant from a donor carrying a genetic mutation in the CCR5 gene.
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