Tiger Bites Monkey = Humans Get HIV?

[Inchlingblue]

If only that tiger had not wanted to eat that monkey several million years ago . . .

AIDS May Date Back to Ancient Tiger
Researchers find signs of feline DNA in virus

Posted December 6, 2009

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

SUNDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Early roots of the virus that causes AIDS might be found in a tiger that lived thousands or millions of years ago, new research suggests.

It appears the virus took on a bit of a tiger's genetic material, scientists say, and a remnant of that cat remains in the virus to this day. That tiger, in fact, may have bitten a monkey, setting off an evolution of the virus that ultimately led to its infection of humans.

The finding shouldn't lead to any immediate breakthroughs in AIDS treatment, experts say. But it does provide more insight into how the virus works.

"Unless you really understand how these viruses work, the exact step-by-step chemical process, then you can't really rationally design a new clever kind of therapy that may be effective against the virus," explained study co-author Robert Bambara, chairman of the University of Rochester's department of biochemistry and biophysics.

Bambara and colleagues made their discovery while trying to figure out how HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, hijacks cells and uses them to reproduce. They discovered a gene in the virus that may have come from an ancient tiger that got infected.

"It's a rare and unusual thing that the virus would actually pick up some of the machinery of the cell that it infected," said Bambara.

That bit of machinery, it seems, never went away.

The research suggests that HIV may have been a cat virus before it attacked monkeys and humans. Perhaps a tiger bit a monkey and transferred the virus that way, although there could have been another mode of transmission, Bambara said.

Continued . . .

LINK:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/12/06/aids-may-date-back-to-ancient-tiger.html

[sensual1973]

or maybe the mammoth or the dainasaurs ?

[xman]

LOL. Now they can spent another decade or more for studies on tigers instead of chimps. I guess this will never end. In 5 years they will say it comes from bugs. They everytime find a way to justify the lack of knowledge and the immense waste of time in the last years. Instead of finding the origins of this virus they should definitely find the way to destroy it.

[barbod]

Remember that knowing the mechanisms of action of something, needs a focus on the origin and history of the evolution of it.

[Inchlingblue]

Remember that knowing the mechanisms of action of something, needs a focus on the origin and history of the evolution of it.

True. Below is another article about this that states the discovery could lead to ways to stop HIV. The article also states that "“HIV molecular biology is the most studied in history," which does not surprise me at all, LOL.

Gene Hijacked By HIV Ancestor Suggests New Way to Block Viral Reproduction

(PhysOrg.com) -- An ancestor of the AIDS virus hijacked an entire gene, perhaps from some prehistoric cat it had infected, a gene that makes it much better able to infect humans, according to a study published online today in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. The discovery represents the first instance in which researchers have found an entire animal gene within the genome of the human immunodeficiency virus despite 30 years of intense analyses.

Furthermore, the hijacked gene helps the virus infect humans much more efficiently, with implications for the design of new anti-HIV drugs, researchers said. Further out, studying how viruses swap genes with, and jump between, animals may enable health authorities to anticipate and avert species jumps, like the ones made by bird flu and swine flu into humans.

Continued . . .

LINK:

http://www.physorg.com/news179433709.html

  

[sensual1973]

yes now we can fill the whole library of congress with such findings

[Ann]

It appears the virus took on a bit of a tiger's genetic material, scientists say, and a remnant of that cat remains in the virus to this day.

Way cool! Now when I say I've got a tiger in my tank, I can really mean it!