PARIS (AFP) — Individuals with key variants in an important immune cell and a molecule that controls it show a slower progression to AIDS after they are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a study released on Sunday says.
The paper focuses on “natural killer” cells, which are unleashed by the immune system to crush viral intruders.
Natural killers are switched on or off by receptors, or docking sites, on their surface. The receptors are activated by a molecule presented to the cell by the immune system’s signallers.
Researchers led by Mary Carrington of the United States’ National Cancer Institute, Maryland, looked at variants in two genes — one that creates a receptor named KIR3DL1, and one that creates a signalling molecule called HLA-B.
In a study of 1,500 people …
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