Mazian on 23/9/2006 at 20:36
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Some people seem to be more resistant than others. Why that is I have no idea, I don't know if anyone does.
I saw a PBS show (Frontline? I don't remember) where some researchers were trying to determine why certain people never became HIV positive. They posted flyers soliciting HIV negative persons who engaged in risky (from an HIV stand-point) behavior and studied their genetic makeup. Their biggest breakthrough was with a young man who (it was inferred) had a lot of unsafe sex and while a lot of his friends were coming up HIV-positive he was still testing negative.
It turns out they were able to trace his ancestry all the way back to medieval europe and that he had some unique genetic features that are common to people who are descendents of black plague survivors. They hypothesized that this black plague resistance that they still carried afforded them (or some of them, at any rate) resistance against HIV. These were preliminary results from
one such individual and they were cautious in their conclusions to the extreme, but I found it a little mind-blowing nonetheless.
fett on 24/9/2006 at 01:24
Quote:
Whatever. I ad-libbed pretty damn well and you know it.
BUT IT STILL BURNS WHEN I PEE.
Renegen on 24/9/2006 at 05:08
And what did the black plague resistance come from smart ass? Old ancestors drinking from the fountains of Atlantis?
Another mind-blowing rebutal : If their ancestors DIED of the plague, THEY did not exist.
Shug on 24/9/2006 at 06:32
You do realize that people survived the Black Plague, right? And that these people then developed a resistance making it (I believe) impossible to be infected by Bubonic Plague again?
And that these people may have had children of their own, one day - leading to somebody with an incredible resistance to other deadly diseases such as HIV
ercles on 24/9/2006 at 07:12
Begin yer pardon sir, but I was under the impression that unless your genetic dispossesion provides you with immunity to diseae, you don't pass that resistance on to your offspring. Whilst children may posses short term (a matter of weeks) resistance because they get some antibodies passed through the umbilical cord, they have to build their own resistance themselves, to gain a memory of the disease for themselves.
Convict on 24/9/2006 at 07:15
Yes it's related to mutations of a gene.
EDIT: CCR5-Delta32 allele
Scots Taffer on 24/9/2006 at 09:17
Quote Posted by Shug
You do realize that people survived the Black Plague, right? And that these people then developed a resistance making it (I believe) impossible to be infected by Bubonic Plague again?
And that these people may have had children of their own, one day - leading to somebody with an incredible resistance to other deadly diseases such as HIV
Sounds like the making of some Master Race, sir. I - for one - do not like the sound of it!
Convict on 24/9/2006 at 09:21
That's only a theory about HIV resistance due to the plague but the impression I get from a brief glance at PubMed articles is that there is some controversy surrounding that theory.
Quote Posted by Random PubMed article
Black Death and AIDS are global pandemics that have captured the popular imagination, both attracting extravagant hypotheses to account for their origins and geographical distributions. Medical scientists have recently attempted to connect these two great pandemics. Some argue that the Black Death of 1346-52 was responsible for a genetic shift that conferred a degree of resistance to HIV 1 infection, that this shift was almost unique to European descendents, and that it mirrors the intensity of Black Death mortality within Europe. Such a hypothesis is not supported by the historical evidence: the Black Death did not strike Europe alone but spread from the east, devastating regions such as China, North Africa, and the Middle East as much or even more than Europe. Further, in Europe its levels of mortality do not correspond with the geographic distribution of the proportion of descendents with this CCR5 gene. If anything, the gradient of Black Death mortality sloped in the opposite direction from that of present-day genotypes: the heaviest casualties were in the Mediterranean, the very regions whose descendents account for the lowest incidences of the HIV-1 resistant allele. We argue that closer collaboration between historians and scientists is needed to understand the selective pressures on genetic mutation, and the possible triggers for changes in genetic spatial frequencies over the past millennia. This requires care and respect for each other's methods of evaluating data.
Renegen on 24/9/2006 at 14:29
Quote Posted by Shug
You do realize that people survived the Black Plague, right? And that these people then developed a resistance making it (I believe) impossible to be infected by Bubonic Plague again?
And that these people may have had children of their own, one day - leading to somebody with an incredible resistance to other deadly diseases such as HIV
Yes but you see if the ancestors developed a resistance to the plague why not develop a resistance to HIV? That's why that conclusion made no sense.
Rug Burn Junky on 24/9/2006 at 14:42
Quote Posted by Renegen
Another mind-blowing rebutal : If their ancestors DIED of the plague, THEY did not exist.
Think about this one a bit more, then come back and tell us why it's fucking retarded.
