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inspiredcreativity — HIV AIDS Immunity
Published: 2010-09-09 11:59:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 4863; Favourites: 7; Downloads: 21
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14% to 18% of Northern Eurasians are Immune to HIV/AIDS.14% to 18% of certain northern populations of Eurasian descent are immune to HIV/AIDS, Smallpox, West Nile Virus, and possibly Acute Leukemia, Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle Cell Anemia, Diabetes, and Hemophilia. Other northern Eurasian populations have a lower frequency of immunity, while other parts of the world have very low to no immunity.
This immunity is because of the presence of the CCR5 Gene (delta 32), a genetic mutation that is inherited from Eurasian ancestors. The highest concentration of this gene mutation is found in Sweden. Immune cells from people with this gene have been bombarded with 5,000 times the amount of HIV virus needed for infection, and the cells were completely immune.
Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-Ä32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system, but had been unable to account for the high levels of the gene in Scandinavia and relatively low levels in areas bordering the Mediterranean.
In the mid-1990s, it was discovered that possession of the CCR5-32 allele leads 'to nearly complete resistance to HIV-1 infection' and AIDS.1 This genetic mutation shows strong geographical traits: while supposedly absent among Africans, Amerindians and East Asians, it is found in up to 14%, in certain northern populations of Eurasia, and more recently this figure has been estimated to be as high as 18%.2
Moreover, within Eurasia the frequency of this gene shows a north-to-south cline, with its highest rates in north-eastern Europe.1–5 Subsequent research has largely sustained these geographical patterns, although geneticists now find that the allele was not wholly absent from non-Eurasian populations, but is also detected in people of African descent.2,4
In the mid-1990s, a correlation was drawn between the Black Death and the CCR5-32 Allele. But on further scrutiny, it does not hold up.
Take a look at this illustration qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/conte…
The upper image shows Population Frequencies of the CCR5-32 Allele (black >10%, dark grey 6–10%, pale grey <6%).
The lower image shows Black Death Mortalities Between 1346–1353 in Europe (black >50%, dark grey 25–50%, pale grey <25%).
On the basis of these findings, along with a specific knowledge of the character of the Black Death (whatever disease it was) and its geographical distribution, there is no connection between the black Death and the HIV-resistant allele. The assertion that smallpox was the disease that provoked Europe's genetic shift, and maintained its near-unique selective advantage in resisting HIV, also fails to stand up under scrutiny.
Geneticists, archaeologists and physical anthropologists are revising the conclusions drawn in the late 1990s; they are now finding ancient DNA with the mutant gene CCR5-32 in skeletal remains in northern Europe as early as 2900 years ago.7 Some have estimated its age at 5075 years, and have argued that 'the high frequency of the allele cannot be attributed solely to a strong selective event within the past millennium'.5 Moreover, samples from graves in Lübeck (northern Germany) show no difference in percentages of the allele in those who died before and after the Black Death of 1348.7,8
In conclusion, we still do not know why this CCR5-32 Allele gene mutation increased so rapidly in frequency, in Northern Eurasia. It had been hoped that the discovery of this gene mutation would lead to a cure or vaccine against the HIV virus, but to date, it has not happened.
SUPPORT FOR CONCLUSIONS
It has been shown that most of the plagues that hit Europe were no Bubonic Plague, but were rather various haemorrhagic fevers. When the Bubonic Plague strikes, it is slow moving, not easily spread, and has a mortality rate of about 78%. Whereas most of plagues of Eurasia were rapidly spread plagues, with a mortality rate was 100%. Lethal, viral haemorrhagic fevers were recorded in the Nile Valley from 1500 BC and were followed by the plagues of Mesopotamia (700-450BC), the plague of Athens (430BC), the plague of Justinian (AD541-700) and the plagues of the early Islamic empire (AD627-744). Yet these areas have very low to zero incidence of the gene mutation.
Galvani and Slatkin2,6 have asserted that smallpox was the disease that provoked Europe's genetic shift, and maintained its near-unique selective advantage in resisting HIV. But like others who have failed to review the global history of diseases, they neglect the fact that smallpox originated outside Europe, and that there is no evidence that Europe suffered more from it than other parts of the world in medieval, early modern or modern history. Quite the contrary, the New World from the sixteenth century on (when Galvani and Slatkin assume that smallpox was exerting its selective pressure on European populations) suffered far more. The earliest descriptions of smallpox (and the last reported naturally occurring cases) came from outside Europe: from India and Somalia, respectively.
There is another interesting correlation. Lactose tolerance is much commoner among European descendants than from those elsewhere in the world; yet within Europe there is a wide range of allele frequencies, showing a distinct north-south cline: Scandinavian descendants are at the top with 100% tolerance, while those from Sicily and Greece are at the bottom with as little as 29%. Moreover, the long-term estimates of the emergence of the CCR5-32 gene correspond roughly with those for lactose tolerance (LCT) in Europe. In genetic time, both developed through selective pressures remarkably quickly. Perhaps these parallels should be explored further with more detailed samples of CCR5-32 from Africa and other non-European zones, to distinguish between regions populated by ancient herdsmen with lactose tolerance and zones with low frequencies.
REFERENCES
1. Stephens J, Reich D, Goldstein D, et al. Dating the origin of the CCR5-32 AIDS- resistance allele by coalescence of haplotypes. Am J Hum Genet 1998; 62:1507–15.
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2. Novembre J, Galvani AP, Slatkin M. The Geographic Spread of the CCR532 HIV-Resistance Allele. PLoS Biol 2005; 3:1954–62.
3. Martinson J, Chapman N, Rees D, et al. Global distribution of the CCR5 gene 32-base pair deletion. Nat Genet 1997; 16:100–2.
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4. Schliekelman P, Garner C, Slatkin M. Natural selection and resistance to HIV. Nature 2001; 411:545–6.
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5. Sabeti PC, Walsh E, Schaffner S, et al. The Case for Selection at CCR5-32. PLoS Biol 2005; 3:1963–9.
6. Galvani A and Slatkin M. Evaluating plague and smallpox as historical selective pressures for the CCR5-32 HIV-resistance allele. PNAS 2003; 100:15276–9.
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7. Hummel S, Schmidt D, Herrmann B, Oppenmann M. Detection of the CCR5-32 HIV resistance gene in Bronze Age skeletons. Gene Immun 2005; 6:371–4.
8. Kremeyer B, Hummel S, Herrmann B. Frequency analysis of the CCR5 32 HIV resistance allele in a medieval plague mass grave. Anthropolog Anzeiger 2005; 63:13–22.
Matthew Barry
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Comments: 19
I certainly do remember. I've got one, and I wear it every World AIDS Day.
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Thank you for remembering. AIDS does not get much attention now. Starting in 1989, I devoted my life to caring for those with AIDS. 12 years later I could no longer do the work, due to advanced arthritis, but in those years I buried more men (and a woman) than I can stand to say. All over the world people are still dying from AIDS in large numbers, while the elusive vaccine is always just within reach, yet seemingly unattainable.
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Bless you. It's a crime, and a sin, it really is!
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Keep up the good work, keep the hope alive.
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the info here is just astonishing! i can't believe this is actually existing, not some sort of theory...thank you for this info!
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You are most welcome.
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It sure is. Scientists have been researching this immunity since the 1990's, but getting it to help make a vaccine has been elusive. The man I know who has this immunity found out because his first partner turned out to have AIDS, but he was not even HIV+. DNA testing found that he had the genetic markers for immunity. His next lover and current lover are HIV+ and they never used safe sex and have no plans to use safe-sex. I guess he does not need to worry about the bubonic plague either.
If you are of the correct ethnicity (especially Swedish), I suppose you could get tested, but it is very rare.
There is also GENETIC RESISTANCE TO HIV. One of my ex husbands was given HIV by the man he left me for, who died a few years later. My ex tested positive, then negative a few years later, then positive again later. My ex had another lover die of AIDS, and in all of theses years, since around 1990, his T-cell counts have been very good, and in those days, once you were diagnosed, death came within 1 to 5 years. The early drugs were more likely to kill you or cause severe nerve damage, than keep you alive, and he did not take them. It was not until years later that the first cocktails proved effective. He currently is on a drug regimen, and his cell counts are high and viral loads not detectable. He is one very long-term survivor, thank goodness.
The implication is that some people might be genetically particularly vulnerable to HIV infection.
Unfortunately, The AIDS virus' protein shell keep adapting and changing, making current drugs ineffectual. Please remember that there are HIV strains out there completely resistant to everyone available now, which kill fast. American sailors and military are one of the vectors into the country, particularly from the Philippines.
When I was in the Academy as an upperclassman and Corp Commander, I tried to tell the guys that there were some ports you just avoid "doing it," like in Acajutla, El Salvado, a seaport for San Salvador. It is nothing but a dirt road with Whore Houses on both sides of the road. The district governor told me they were shipping in whores to meet demand. While I was stuck having dinner with the US Ambassador and President of El Salvador, the boys were very bad indeed. As we left port, the line outside of SICK BAT wound down and around two corridors. I think there were around 50 cases of Gonorrhea and Syphilis. They had not even used condoms, or were sloppy about it.
Enough of sea stores.
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Hmmm this might be why the bubonic plague was particularly bad in southern Europe, but only bad in very densely populated areas of northern Europe (e.g. London, Stockholm, etc).
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That is a thought. The Plague found fertile ground due to what was known as the LITTLE ICE AGE. Western Europe experienced a general cooling of the climate between the years 1150 and 1460 and a very cold climate between 1560 and 1850 that brought dire consequences to its peoples. The colder weather impacted agriculture, health, economics, social strife, emigration, and even art and literature. Increased glaciation and storms also had a devastating affect on those that lived near glaciers and the sea (Scandinavia).
Cool, wet summers led to outbreaks of an illness called St. Anthony's Fire. Whole villages would suffer convulsions, hallucinations, gangrenous rotting of the extremities, and even death. Grain, if stored in cool, damp conditions, may develop a fungus known as ergot blight and also may ferment just enough to produce a drug similar to LSD. (In fact, some historians claim that the Salem, Massachusetts witch hysteria was the result of ergot blight.) The Little Ice Age is reason why Beer spread like crazy in Europe, as Wine decreased, because Hops could grow in this new climate far better than grapes were faring.
Malnutrition led to a weakened immunity to a variety of illnesses. In England, malnutrition aggravated an influenza epidemic of 1557-8 in which whole families died. In fact, during most of the 1550's deaths outnumbered births (Lamb, 1995.) The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) was hastened by malnutrition all over Europe.
In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII blamed the Little Ice Age on witches, leading to centuries of innocent women and men being burned at the stake, for nothing. He had inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacobus Sprenger systemize the persecution of witches. He said they could raise hailstorms, lightning, violent storms, wretched cold… He did it because people were giving less money to the church and fewer people were going to church. Scapegoats are a tried and true method to solidify power, SHIFT BLAME, and unite people against a common enemy.
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Yes in Catholic areas they tended to blame the plague and cold weather on witches, while in Protestant areas they blamed it more on Jews (there were of course mixes of persecutions but the pogroms were worst in Protestant areas).
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It had not occurred to me that Jews would be blamed for this, but it makes sense since Jews were a common scapegoat. Thanks for pointing that out.
However, Protestants were also very active in Witch trials and executing witches. The Protestant Reformation first started in 1517 with Martin Luther. The political separation of the Church of England from Rome, under Henry VIII, was completed in 1536 and the Scottish Reformation in 1560. The Little Ice age started in 1150, with the coldest climate between 1560 and 1850.
Between 1450 and 1750 The British Isles and North America held approximately 5000 witch trials and murdered between 1500 and 2000 people (about 75% to 80% women). In England, Scotland and Ireland, between 1542 and 1735 a series of Witchcraft Acts enshrined into law the punishment (often with death, sometimes with incarceration) of individuals practicing, or claiming to practice witchcraft and magic.
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Hmm I knew there were witch trials in North America but I didn't know the numbers were that high
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The deaths of human depravity, especially in the name of Gods, is without limit. Of course the Gods are simply used for justification and manipulation of others. We still see the basics of Human Nature playing out around the world and even within the United States. I have observed Human Nature all over this planet and have seen the best and the worst of Human Nature at work. Here is my look at Human Nature:
Basic Genetic Human nature, left on its own, and found in many different varying degrees, is based foremost in:
These can be part of Human Nature too, but are also learned:
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Your sea stories are more interesting than my fathers!! you should post a few ^-^
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Someday maybe I will try to write more down. I will tell you that my trip to San Salvador for dinner with the Ambassador was a major lesson for me. We passed poverty like I have never seen it before, not in Mexico or anywhere else, along with sewage in the streets, a dead person (based on the maggots and rot) people missing arms and legs begging, etc.
We get to the American Ambassador's Residence (US State Department Owned and operated), not the actual embassy. It is surrounded by what looked like 6 Meter high concrete walls with barbed wire on tip and spikes. Inside the gates, we saw something that looked like it was out of ancient Rome, marble everywhere, marble columns, a huge swimming pool surrounded by statuary and a colonnade, and beautiful gardens that went beyond where we could see.
We entered a formal Portico, and inside the door was a massive sweeping circular grand-stairway, made out of marble, going high above to the second story. There was gold gilt everywhere, tapestries, paintings, statuary, elegant furnishings, and me in my dress-whites with the stiff vertical collar (a killer in hot weather). There were only about a dozen of us there, but we sat at a table designed for at three-dozen diners.
I was HORRIFIED. I felt disgusted by the show of over-the-top OPULENCE in the midst of such horrendous poverty. We were the "Ugly Americans." "Ugly American" is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens, mainly abroad, but also at home.
The yearly cost of upkeep of that one residence, could probably feed 50,000 of the starving people there. Food was dirt cheap. You could buy 5 pounds of sugar for 17 cents.
It really started to put the world in perspective for me. Remember in those days there was no internet. Other than occasional spots on the news, you saw the world by going there and experiencing the people. Most people were friendlier than Americans. In New Zealand, families volunteered to take us into their homes for a few days, so I had a lovely time with a family of three being show their country and meeting the people. The only exceptions were in Peru, where they were friendly, but we had to be escorted around with soldiers with machine guns, and in Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador, one of my classmates was killed crossing the street. The vehicles have the right-of-way there. If you have 50 people crossing the street and a bus comes along, the people scatter. My friend did not scatter fast enough.
As i walking the streets, I saw a young boy get hit by a car, which stopped, the driver got out, dragged the body to the sidewalk, got in the car and drove along. He looked to be about 12 years old. I checked for a pulse, but he was dead. They had no sense of value for human life there.
I worked in Brest, France, and in Korea for short times, in shipyards. Best in on the Normandy Coast of France, and they consider themselves different from other French people, and have their own traditions. For example, you greet by kissing each cheek, twice. Four of us went to dine with a Foreman and his family of a wife and 6 daughters. Calculate how many checks are kisses to say hello and goodbye. I think it was a half hour saying hello. That was 12 of us all together. As we talked, the girls kept peeking around the corner and giggling, so I would give them a smile. After we left, I found 4 notes, in French, in my coat pocket. I asked my translator to translate them, telling him they were from school-aged girls at dinner the previous night. He got all red in the face and refused to tell me what they said, then gave me a very disapproving looking, and I am like, "WHAT?" I still have no idea what they said.
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That's wonderful (the part on poverty, and the ugly americans was very sad though)!!! you have some great tales!
you must be a really interesting person for all the cool things you have seen and heard about!!!
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Whenever I try to tell my stories, Greg kicks me under the table. He never was interested in anything about me, or my past life, which I thought very odd. It could be that my cultural background is too alien for him, but for me, I drink-up other cultures, finding them fascinating. My shrink, years ago, thought he was resentful that I was so successful in my past life.
What he did not understand is that I paid a terrible price for it all. I am autistic, which meant I had to work really hard for my grades. I had been labeled as "Mentally Retarded" (their term) by the State of Maryland, and an IQ test in High School (California) showed me to be "mentally challenged" on the bottom end of the National Bell Curve of Intelligence. My parents and I were advised not to bother with me going to college, to put me in a trade school. I studied hard in school and had few friends and no social life. I graduated in the top 10% of my High School, despite them saying I was an idiot.
In the Academy, life was regimented and pretty much all I did was study. The guys there became my family, since my real one had been a nightmare. I was appointed Corp Captain, top Cadet, and I graduated number 1, with an Accredited Degree in Engineering and a License to sail on ships. I had just finished a 4 year Degree program in 3 years.
I went straight to sea, living in fear of my life, because homosexuals get tossed over the side to drown, whenever discovered. Life at sea is very hard. My life was defined by work, with 12 to 14 hour days standard, sleeping in only two 3.25 hour slots, working in 120 to 130°F, dripping humidity (steam ships), foul conditions at sea, flying back and forth to join ships, leaving loved ones behind. I lived like a monk and saved my money and invested it.
I had gone to the Academy because of how much money I could make. My dream was to work 10 years, retire on my savings, and devote my life to helping others. It took 13.5 years, mostly because my partner at the time was burning through vast quantities of money in alcohol, drugs, drag, and boyfriends on the side. I retired for life at age 34. I then went straight into Volunteer work, with a Soup Kitchen and in-home care for those dying of AIDS, then eventually into secondary and primary care of those dying with AIDS, and then into a program at the University of Washington to become a volunteer Peer Counselor, which is what I do now.
My point is that my current partner got to enjoy his youth and young adulthood. To me that is priceless. So he did not get to stop working, but once I left going to sea, I kept working hard, only it was volunteer work. I just don't make any money, lol, but I still work.
The moral of the story, first and foremost, is to never let anyone tell you what you cannot do. I had 18 years of being told I was stupid, a spas, retarded, moron, idiot, pathetic, looser, etc, but I proved them all wrong. Even disabilities cannot keep you back if you are determined enough. Dancing was supposed to be impossible for someone like me (SID), but I just kept trying and other gay men and Lesbians were patient and helped me, and I did it. It took years to do, but I learned to lead and follow (I like to flexible) in over a dozen dances, like West Coast Swing, C&W Two-step, Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Rhumba, Bolero, Mambo, Samba, Cha-cha… I even got to teach dance.
You will find many opportunities to be very scary, some terrifying, some daunting, and you will doubt yourself. It takes a lot of courage to live fully and to love fully. My mistake was that I had no balance. I was driven and lost out on living life. When i finally stopped going to sea, the arthritis I developed as a child was already overtaking me. Another 8 years and it was crippling me.
The second moral of the story is to balance your life. Work hard for your goals, but also give yourself enough time each week to enjoy life and friends. I kept putting-off living until after the next test, next summer vacation, after I graduate, after I get my first job…
Try to get the most you can out of life RIGHT NOW, because you never know what tomorrow will bring. It is very easy to focus much of your life on what you do not have. If this happens, turn it around. Make your life about what you do have.
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write them all down, good stories are hard to find!!!...please
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