AFRICA – An international team of researchers, has published a research paper in Nature, that denotes the identification of an Africa-specific variant near the CHD1L gene associated with lower HIV-1 viral load in populations of African descent.
The new research has found a genetic variant that may explain why some people of African ancestry have naturally lower viral loads of HIV, reducing their risk of transmitting the virus and slowing the progress of their own illness.
Therefore, the study demonstrates the first new genetic variant related to HIV infection discovered in nearly 30 years of research.
Researchers hope that this could help direct the development of new treatments and approaches for those living with HIV.
The researchers analyzed the DNA of almost 4,000 people of African ancestry living with HIV-1 and they identified a variant within a region on chromosome 1 containing the gene CHD1L which is associated with reduced viral load in carriers of the variant.
Hypothetically, at least 4% and 13 % of people of African origin could be carriers of the specific genetic variant.
HIV-1 remains a significant global health crisis, and identifying new targets for therapies is crucial.
The study focuses on individuals of African descent due to the disproportionate burden of HIV-1 in Africa and the high genetic diversity in the region.
The research team comprised scientists from the Canadian National Microbiology’s Public Health Agency, the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and London’s Imperial College.
Co-Senior author Professor Manjinder Sandhu, Chair in Population Health and Data Science in the School of Public Health, the Imperial College London said, “With more than a million new HIV infections a year, it’s clear that we still have a long way to go in the fight against HIV – we are yet to have a vaccine to prevent infection, have yet to find a cure and still see drug resistance emerging in some individuals.”
Prof. Sandhu added that the next step was to fully understand exactly how this genetic variant controls HIV replication.
The professor noted that most of what was known about the relationship between our DNA and HIV comes from studies among European populations.
Yet, HIV disproportionately affects people on the African continent, more than 25 million people who are HIV-positive live on the continent, so it’s important to better understand the role of genetics in HIV infection in African populations.
Paul McLaren from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory and joint first author on the paper, said, “African populations are still drastically underrepresented in human DNA studies, despite experiencing the highest burden of HIV infection. By studying a large sample of people of African ancestry, we’ve been able to identify a new genetic variant that only exists in this population and which is linked to lower HIV viral loads.”
Understanding how our genetic makeup affects virus replication and progression, especially HIV
Viral load is the amount of a virus in a patient’s system and the higher the levels are known to correlate with faster disease progression and increased risk of transmission.
However, viral load varies widely among infected individuals, influenced by a number of factors including an individual’s genetic makeup.
The research study attributes that CHD1L played a role in repairing damaged DNA, though it is not clear why the variant should be important in reducing viral load.
However, as HIV attacks immune cells, researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Medicine, led by Dr. Harriet Groom and Professor Andrew Lever, used stem cells to generate variants of cells that HIV can infect in which CHD1L had either been switched off or its activity turned down.
Thrillingly, HIV turned out to replicate better in a type of immune cell known as a macrophage when CHD1L was switched off.
In another cell type, the T cell, there was no effect, perhaps surprising since most HIV replication occurs in the latter cell type.
Dr. Groom said, “This gene seems to be important to controlling viral load in people of African ancestry. Although we don’t yet know how it’s doing this, every time we discover something new about HIV control, we learn something new about the virus and something new about the cell. The link between HIV replication in macrophages and viral load is particularly interesting and unexpected.”
Groom added that although it wasn’t yet known how it’s doing this, every time virologists discover something new about HIV control, they learn something new about the virus and something new about the cell.
HIV prevalence among people of African descent is still the highest globally
HIV remains a major global public health issue, having claimed 40.4 million lives so far with ongoing transmission in all countries globally according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Moreover, some countries are reporting increasing trends in new infections, with an estimated 39 million people living with HIV at the end of 2022, two-thirds of whom are in the WHO African Region.
Although combination therapies that dramatically reduce HIV viral loads have had a major impact on transmission, 1.5 million people still became newly infected and 650,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2021.
UNAIDS adds that HIV remains a pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa that feeds on injustice and reinforces inequalities that exist on the continent.
Despite this, HIV responses on the continent also have the tools, evidence, and means to end this pandemic, and if those assets are equitably available and used effectively, countries can rapidly close the remaining gaps.
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