CHANGING just a single “letter” in one human gene makes cells resistant to HIV. The discovery might just lead to new ways to treat AIDS.
Rhesus monkeys are resistant to HIV infection, and last year a team in Boston showed that this resistance depends a gene called Trim5alpha. The exact mechanism is not understood, but Trim5alpha is thought to code for a protein that attacks several kinds of retroviruses, including HIV, after they enter a cell, preventing them replicating.
Humans have a different version of the Trim5alpha gene. It protects against several kinds of retroviruses, but not HIV.…
