EVEN the malevolent AIDS virus has its
Achilles heel. Australian scientific circles are abuzz with the discovery of a
rare strain of the virus among a small
group of people in Australia who
not developed the killer disease de.
having carried the virus for around
years. The finding represents a major
breakthrough for developing vacccines
and drugs on the basis of this newly
discovered fact.
"This is the first time it has been
shown unequivocally that modification
of the genomic structure of the
virus can dramatically alter the disease
process, perhaps weaken it completely,- says John Mills, who head the
Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical
Research in Fairfield, Victoria, where
these findings were uncovered.
The genes of the Australian virus
are less of a killer because of certain
defects. It has three small segments of
genetic material that are missing from
its NEF gene (for 'negative factor'
because it seems to retard the repplication of the virus) and two that are
absent from a particular genetic segment. How-ever, researchers caution
that much more work lies ahead of
them before they can arrive at definite
tive conclusions.
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