HIV virus millions of years old.

HIV may prove an ancient virus

Peter Beaumont
Lemur provides “missing link”
A mouse-like primate threatened with extinction has provided the “missing link” in the evolutionary history of the HIV virus, promising to transform the scientific understanding of the family of viruses to which HIV belongs.

Research into the Madagascan grey mouse lemur published by a team from Stanford University School of Medicine, California, suggests the family of primate lentiviruses of which HIV is a member may be scores of millions of years old. more

“In-built defence system against HIV in human body”

The Hindu, October 13, 2008

New Delhi: Scientists have decoded an in-built defence system of human body against the HIV, giving a new approach to drug development.

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have unravelled the long-sought atomic structure of an enzyme APOBEC-3G which is capable of stopping HIV at the very first stage of its attack on the body.

“We now understand how this enzyme can interact with DNA,” one of the researchers and a professor at USC Xiaojiang Chen said.

“This understanding provides a platform for designing anti-HIV drugs.”  more